A guide on how we have built communities of practice on the Communities of Practice for Public Service website.
With hints and tips to getting started and maintaining your community
Communities of practice have become an accepted part of organizational development. One should pay attention to domain, membership, norms and rules, structure and process, flow of energy, results, resources, and values.
This CoP Start-Up Kit provides a variety of resources useful to people who are interested in sponsoring or starting up a Community of Practice (CoP).
Produced by The Distance Consulting Company. http://www.nickols.us/
Original at http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/copstartupkit.pdf
Beyond functional silos with communities of practiceDennis Stevens
Explore the concept of communities of practice and how they are a vital component for agile organizations. From providing tactical support in issue resolution, to being stewards of knowledge across vast enterprises, and even helping create support for the larger organizational change, communities of practice are a vital component in improving organizational agility.
Facilitating Communities of Practice in the Network EraNancy Wright White
This is the set of slides used for the morning workshop on facilitating communities, along with two other sets of slides that might be useful later to participants, but which we did not conver/talk about. So be forewarned!
This was the slides I researched for sometime to help my organization to build a Community of Practice to support Innovation culture. I will be very pleased if you can share your experience relate on how to build a successful CoP.
Communities of practice have become an accepted part of organizational development. One should pay attention to domain, membership, norms and rules, structure and process, flow of energy, results, resources, and values.
This CoP Start-Up Kit provides a variety of resources useful to people who are interested in sponsoring or starting up a Community of Practice (CoP).
Produced by The Distance Consulting Company. http://www.nickols.us/
Original at http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/copstartupkit.pdf
Beyond functional silos with communities of practiceDennis Stevens
Explore the concept of communities of practice and how they are a vital component for agile organizations. From providing tactical support in issue resolution, to being stewards of knowledge across vast enterprises, and even helping create support for the larger organizational change, communities of practice are a vital component in improving organizational agility.
Facilitating Communities of Practice in the Network EraNancy Wright White
This is the set of slides used for the morning workshop on facilitating communities, along with two other sets of slides that might be useful later to participants, but which we did not conver/talk about. So be forewarned!
This was the slides I researched for sometime to help my organization to build a Community of Practice to support Innovation culture. I will be very pleased if you can share your experience relate on how to build a successful CoP.
In the USA, many schools are building their reform efforts on a foundation of professional learning communities that engage participants in honest examination and refinement of their daily practice.
This session will discuss the characteristics of effective teacher and principal learning communities. We will examine a variety of models of gathering data and insights that can inform changes in individual and school practices, transforming the teaching profession and accelerating student achievement.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/previousconferences/2007/seminars/buildingteachingpracticethatiscollaborativepublicandpowerfulthroughprofessionallearningcommunities.asp
This presentation was made at the 2011 VC's Learning and Teaching Forum with collegue Javed Yusuf at the AUSAID Lecture Theatre, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands on 23rd September on the topic Taking Communities of Practice to Moodle.
Cultivating knowledge through Communities of PracticeCollabor8now Ltd
The presentation looks at the phenomenon of Communities of Practice and how they can develop into effective knowledge sharing environments. Topics include:
What is a ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP)?
Moving from conversations to collaboration
Community culture and behaviours
What makes a successful community?
Measuring success and the elusive ROI
Lessons learnt from deployment of CoPs in local government.
Creating strong & passionate agile communities of practiceAllison Pollard
Everyone hits a challenge at some point in adopting agile and belonging to a larger community can help you overcome those challenges. Whether you call it a tribe, a user group, or a community of practice, having a group of people to share ideas with and learn from is a valuable tool to further your personal development and maintain your sanity. Learn about what communities of practice are, how to start them, and why they’re an important part of growing agile.
Discovering The Value Of Social Networks and Communities of PracticeCollabor8now Ltd
There has been much written about measuring the value of online communities such as Social Networks or Communities of Practice. However, most pundits tend to think of measuring value from a purely financial perspective, i.e. the Return on Investment (ROI). Clearly this is an important factor, but it’s not the only factor that should be considered
This presentation gives an introduction to Rio Tinto\'s journey with its Community of Practice initiative, with lessons learned both from the initiative itself and other companies. It features a YouTube CoP success story - contact mark.bennett@learningcollaboration for further details.
Creating Learning Environments with Communities of PracticeOlivier Serrat
Communities of practice have become an accepted part of organizational development. One should pay attention to domain, membership, norms and rules, structure and process, flow of energy, results, resources, and values.
In the USA, many schools are building their reform efforts on a foundation of professional learning communities that engage participants in honest examination and refinement of their daily practice.
This session will discuss the characteristics of effective teacher and principal learning communities. We will examine a variety of models of gathering data and insights that can inform changes in individual and school practices, transforming the teaching profession and accelerating student achievement.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/previousconferences/2007/seminars/buildingteachingpracticethatiscollaborativepublicandpowerfulthroughprofessionallearningcommunities.asp
This presentation was made at the 2011 VC's Learning and Teaching Forum with collegue Javed Yusuf at the AUSAID Lecture Theatre, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands on 23rd September on the topic Taking Communities of Practice to Moodle.
Cultivating knowledge through Communities of PracticeCollabor8now Ltd
The presentation looks at the phenomenon of Communities of Practice and how they can develop into effective knowledge sharing environments. Topics include:
What is a ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP)?
Moving from conversations to collaboration
Community culture and behaviours
What makes a successful community?
Measuring success and the elusive ROI
Lessons learnt from deployment of CoPs in local government.
Creating strong & passionate agile communities of practiceAllison Pollard
Everyone hits a challenge at some point in adopting agile and belonging to a larger community can help you overcome those challenges. Whether you call it a tribe, a user group, or a community of practice, having a group of people to share ideas with and learn from is a valuable tool to further your personal development and maintain your sanity. Learn about what communities of practice are, how to start them, and why they’re an important part of growing agile.
Discovering The Value Of Social Networks and Communities of PracticeCollabor8now Ltd
There has been much written about measuring the value of online communities such as Social Networks or Communities of Practice. However, most pundits tend to think of measuring value from a purely financial perspective, i.e. the Return on Investment (ROI). Clearly this is an important factor, but it’s not the only factor that should be considered
This presentation gives an introduction to Rio Tinto\'s journey with its Community of Practice initiative, with lessons learned both from the initiative itself and other companies. It features a YouTube CoP success story - contact mark.bennett@learningcollaboration for further details.
Creating Learning Environments with Communities of PracticeOlivier Serrat
Communities of practice have become an accepted part of organizational development. One should pay attention to domain, membership, norms and rules, structure and process, flow of energy, results, resources, and values.
What are communities of practice? How can they help drive productivity and improve organizational performance? What are the key success factors?
In this guide I will examine what CoPs are and how they have come about, as well as their role in learning and development today, and in driving organizational success. Furthermore, drawing on my experience at Cegos I will provide guidance on some of the key factors for setting up successful and sustainable CoPs in Asia.
7 critical success_factors_of_co_ps #acenetc2011Marissa Stone
With a combined 8 years of experience on the developing end of six multidisciplinary CoPs we share our experience, trials and errors. In this interactive workshop that covered the success strategies we’ve used to (1) Develop an infrastructure that supports syndication and mobile interaction; (2) Assess the expertise in membership; (3) Identify/close gaps in knowledge/skills (MediaWiki/Drupal); (4) Organize CoP members into workable teams; (5) Share, update, and foster connectivity; (6) Create a “call to action” that supports and motivates members; and (7) Engage the membership. So bring your questions, concerns and real world experience and together with these strategies, becoming a principal source of information in the development of knowledge and innovation in your area of expertise is only a Community of Practice away.
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals
Presentation at the “Open Science: connecting the actors” event on the 21st of November 2022:
Share best practices, foster community, and encourage knowledge-sharing on Open Science.
At the heart of the Open Access Belgium community is the ambition to open up the way we organize and conduct scientific research.
The Open Science teams of the Belgian universities have developed and tested a wide range of training methods, training materials, networking activities
and data solutions to facilitate and foster Open Science. Achievements, tools and lessons learned by different institutions will be shared in this networking event.
Programme can be found here: https://openaccess.be/2022/10/04/open-science-connecting-the-actors/
More information on the community of practice: https://www.openaire.eu/cop-training
With tens of thousands of employees, the Crédit Agricole Group places human beings and innovation at the core of its concerns.
The MIKE Club (for Management, Innovation, Knowledge Management, and E-learning), launched in 2011, connects all Group employees involved in innovative techniques in order to study new technologies that might have a real impact on our profession.
While maintaining a critical stance, we searched for the most relevant emerging applications to provide all employees with tools for grasping, understanding and adapting to the ongoing digital revolution.
This was originally an internal approach, but Crédit Agricole decided to share its view of innovation and collaborative processes in training, as well as its analysis and thoughts, with as many people as possible. That is why we decided to launch a series of white papers, called “HR Expertise”, that will shed light on a number of topics including collaborative work and serious games
This publication focuses on communities of practice and how they are used in a corporate context. True, this collaborative working method has key advantages and is an effective force for motivation, but we must never lose sight of the fundamental educational principles that make it so relevant both to the company and to the employees taking part.
We hope you will find this document useful.
It wouldn’t be KMb without KB - Insights into the role of knowledge brokers in supporting child and youth mental health and addictions communities of interest in Ontario
by: MaryAnn Notarianni and Angela Yip
9-10 June 2014
Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum
Saskatoon, SK
Communities of Practice: Conversations To CollaborationCollabor8now Ltd
What makes a successful Community of Practice?
This presentation looks at the key ingredients, with particular emphasis on the role of the community facilitator for building trust and cooperation, enabling conversations to become active collaboration and co-production.
Similar to How to build CoPs in local government (20)
It’s that time again. For that one Monday in January we all say thank you to the facilitators of our communities during Community Manager Appreciation Day #cmad
Please take a moment to say thank you to those who put all the hard work in behind the scene to keep the communities that you participate in going. It’s not often they get thanks. And just one thank you makes such a big difference.
How The Knowledge Hub (Online community platform) helps local government professionals to connect and learn from each other.
Real stories from the members
Are you getting ready for Community Manager Appreciation Day? How will you thank your community manager? Here are a few suggestions of things to do on the day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Manager_Appreciation_Day
Time is a big issue for many facilitators. They are unable to put the effort in to get members to interact and wonder why members do not come back.
And member’s wonder why they even joined. It’s a bit of catch 22.
But what about if you could facilitate a community on one hour a day?
Inspired By Richard Millington at Feverbee
Research report from the Henley KM Forums research project 2010 Social Networking and Knowledge Sharing looking at the question Does using social networking sites affect knowledge sharing and creation at work?
Challenges and sucesses of Communities of PracticeMichael Norton
Presentation used at the Knowledge and Innovation Network Qtr Workshop and the Ark Knowledge and Information Managemernt for the Public Sector talking about the challenges and success of Communities of Practice for Public Service
http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do
Guidance slideshow based on the the Henley KM Forums research project 2010 Social Networking and Knowledge Sharing looking at the question So what should organisations do about social networking sites.
Used as the part of the Facilitation Now Online Conference Feb 2010 suggestingthe anologue of the party host and its similarities to facilitation Online Communities Of Practice
At Techbox Square, in Singapore, we're not just creative web designers and developers, we're the driving force behind your brand identity. Contact us today.
In the Adani-Hindenburg case, what is SEBI investigating.pptxAdani case
Adani SEBI investigation revealed that the latter had sought information from five foreign jurisdictions concerning the holdings of the firm’s foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in relation to the alleged violations of the MPS Regulations. Nevertheless, the economic interest of the twelve FPIs based in tax haven jurisdictions still needs to be determined. The Adani Group firms classed these FPIs as public shareholders. According to Hindenburg, FPIs were used to get around regulatory standards.
At Techbox Square, in Singapore, we're not just creative web designers and developers, we're the driving force behind your brand identity. Contact us today.
LA HUG - Video Testimonials with Chynna Morgan - June 2024Lital Barkan
Have you ever heard that user-generated content or video testimonials can take your brand to the next level? We will explore how you can effectively use video testimonials to leverage and boost your sales, content strategy, and increase your CRM data.🤯
We will dig deeper into:
1. How to capture video testimonials that convert from your audience 🎥
2. How to leverage your testimonials to boost your sales 💲
3. How you can capture more CRM data to understand your audience better through video testimonials. 📊
Top mailing list providers in the USA.pptxJeremyPeirce1
Discover the top mailing list providers in the USA, offering targeted lists, segmentation, and analytics to optimize your marketing campaigns and drive engagement.
Anny Serafina Love - Letter of Recommendation by Kellen Harkins, MS.AnnySerafinaLove
This letter, written by Kellen Harkins, Course Director at Full Sail University, commends Anny Love's exemplary performance in the Video Sharing Platforms class. It highlights her dedication, willingness to challenge herself, and exceptional skills in production, editing, and marketing across various video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
Recruiting in the Digital Age: A Social Media MasterclassLuanWise
In this masterclass, presented at the Global HR Summit on 5th June 2024, Luan Wise explored the essential features of social media platforms that support talent acquisition, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok.
Building Your Employer Brand with Social MediaLuanWise
Presented at The Global HR Summit, 6th June 2024
In this keynote, Luan Wise will provide invaluable insights to elevate your employer brand on social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. You'll learn how compelling content can authentically showcase your company culture, values, and employee experiences to support your talent acquisition and retention objectives. Additionally, you'll understand the power of employee advocacy to amplify reach and engagement – helping to position your organization as an employer of choice in today's competitive talent landscape.
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How to build CoPs in local government
1.
How to Build CoPs in Local Government
Background
The Knowledge Management Strategy programme which established the principles
for encouraging people-to-people connections and collaborative working in the local
government sector was commissioned in October 2005, launched in 2006 and has
now been running for just over 3 years. One of the most significant and successful
aspects of the programme has been the Community of Practice (CoP) platform and
its supporting services, which has been recognised as an exemplar for professional
leadership in achieving positive transformation for the sector.
As Local Government is being challenged to take a more innovative and efficient
approach to learning and sharing, “Communities of Practice” are emerging and
gaining momentum.
Through peer-to-peer collaborative activities, members of Communities of Practice
are coming together willingly across local government to share information, build
knowledge, develop expertise, and solve problems.
This brief guide is based on the Improvement and Development Agency experiences
over the last three years of cultivating communities and supporting teams in local
government in building and developing Communities of Practice in Local
Government.
The intention of this guide is to provide a summary and practical advice on building
Communities of Practice, and how to go about cultivating them effectively.
1
2.
What are Communities of Practice?
A community of practice is a network of individuals with common problems or
interests who get together to:
• explore ways of working
• identify common solutions
• share good practice and ideas.
Communities of practice pool resources related to a specific area of knowledge.
Informal communities exist in some form in every organisation. The challenge is to
support them so they can create and share organisational knowledge.
Communities of practice are organic and self-organising, and should ideally emerge
naturally. They usually evolve from the recognition of a specific need or problem.
A CoP provides an environment (virtual and or face-to-face) that connects people
and encourages the development and sharing of new ideas and strategies.
This environment supports faster problem solving, cuts down on duplication of effort,
and provides potentially unlimited access to expertise.
Technology now allows people to network, share and develop practice entirely
online. Virtual communities overcome the challenges of geographical boundaries.
They encourage the flow of knowledge across local government and enable
sustainable self-improvement.
All CoPs will be unique with individual structure depending on their context. There is
no single ‘recipe’ for creating a CoP but some similar characteristics may emerge
within each community. Equally, a community will evolve over time.
There are four basic characteristics within communities:
• Helping - providing a forum for members to help each other solve day to day
problems
• Best practice - developing and disseminating best practices, guidelines and
procedures
• Knowledge stewarding - organising, managing and stewarding a body of
knowledge from which members can draw
• Innovation - create breakthrough ideas, knowledge and practices
2
3.
Ingredients of a CoP
There are 5 key ingredients for most CoPs (although these do not constitute a full
recipe).
• Purpose: a CoP needs a clear purpose which is relevant and meaningful to
its members. It should specify exactly what the community is for and what will
be gained from being part of it.
• Facilitation: every CoP should begin with a team of three facilitators as a
minimum, they will work together to ensure that the purpose of the community
and the needs of the members are being met through a variety of online
activities and discussions. They welcome new members and keep the
community vibrant and focused.
• Activities: within each CoP there are a variety of activities, tools and
techniques employed to aid and enhance conversations and the transfer of
knowledge.
• Active membership: each community will have active members with a lively
interest in sharing knowledge with each other.
• Promotion: ensure high levels of management buy in and promote the CoPs
ability to help solve daily work challenges
3
4.
What makes CoPs different from other groups?
The table below looks at the differences between communities of practice compared
to project teams and informal networks.
Community of Project Teams Informal networks
Practice
Purpose Learning Accomplish specific Communication flows
Sharing task
Creating Knowledge
Boundary Particular area of Assigned project Extent of
knowledge, i.e. charter relationships
Knowledge domain
Connections Common application Commitment to goal Interpersonal
of a skill acquaintances
Membership Semi – permanent Constant for a fixed Links made based on
Voluntary basis period needs of the
individual
Time scale As long as it adds Fixed ends when Long – term, no pre-
value to the business project deliverables engineered end
and its members have been
accomplished
CoP lifecycle
Communities of Practice have a lifecycle. For CoPs in the public sector, the lifecycle
is likely to display the following phases:
Potential - people face similar situations without the benefit of a shared practice
Coalescing - members come together and recognise their potential
Active - members engage in developing a practice
Dispersed - members no longer engage intensely, but the community is still alive as
a force and a centre of knowledge
Memorable the community is no longer central but people still remember it as a
significant part of their identities
4
5.
Benefits of a CoP strategy
The following are examples of cost reduction and value gained by councils as a
result of the Communities of Practice Website (CoPs). The benefits are from a recent
research exercise interviewing members of CoPs about their experiences.
The 8 are:
1. Value through saving time
2. Keeping up to date with current thinking
3. Innovations
4. Sharing Good Practice / avoiding duplication of work
5. Developing Ideas
6. Carbon footprint reduction / environmental savings
7. Induction to new roles / staff development
8. Relationship Building
You can read more about the benefits @ http://www.idea.gov.uk/cop
Roles
The vibrancy of a community comes from the people who comprise it. The
commitment and enthusiasm begins with those who play various rolls in supporting
the CoP. And the rest of the community will follow their lead.
Sponsor - will nurture and provide top-level recognition for the community while
insuring its exposure, support, and strategic importance in the organisation.
Facilitators - will create and host a community; it's their responsibility to ensure that
everything runs smoothly and that members' experiences are worthwhile. Any one
community should have a team of several facilitators.
Members - who joins and participates in communities to share what they know and
learn from others. Members can take on a mix of roles, such as:
• Experts - permanent or temporary members of a CoP who share their
expertise and knowledge.
• Contributors - actively participants in the CoP by asking or replying to
questions in a forum, by posting documents, by writing a blog or in other
ways.
• Readers - may be less involved but nevertheless are valuable members.
They will typically view discussions and documents but won't contribute.
Remember that one person can play more than one role, and one role can be shared
by more than one person.
5
6.
Overview of the CoP…
Each role in the community will participate in a different way, the diagram below
shows a quick overview of how they will participate. Note: the smallest group at the
centre of the ellipse is the most active section.
6
7.
Creating the right environment for Communities of Practice
Despite their informal and often spontaneous nature, communities of practice have
been nurtured and encouraged by many organisations.
Etienne Wenger said “Organisations and communities have always coexisted, but in
the past, they have lived parallel lives, as it were. Today, they need to learn to
recognise each other and function together in ways that let each do better what each
does best.”
Organisations that recognise the key role of communities of practice have seen
transferring of good practice, efficient problem solving, professional skills developed,
strategies influenced, and retaining of talented employees.
So how do you go about creating the right environment for commmunities of
practice?
• Recognition of time and effort needed by members and facilitators
• Willingness to listen to the members needs not just your needs
• Clear tasks and expectations of the community
• Sponsors providing support, encouragement and credibility for the
community,
• The technology is easy to use, support is available and it is accessible
• Physical meeting to create the trust
• Skilled facilitation
• Alignment the community in assisting with impact measurement
Cultivation, not Management
CoPs are cultivated, not managed. They require active engagement without control.
Here are a few tips for cultivating and community:
• Stay focused on the primary purpose of the community
• Enable members to formulate their own questions and to access each other
for answers
• Invite members to express their interests and learning needs
• Build relationships of trust and knowledge-sharing across the community
• Provide infrastructure and resources that enable learning and collaboration
• Keep members energised through stimulating, quality discussion and real
dialogue around issues for them
• Keep feeding the CoP useful material, share information and relevant events
• Remind members by email and newsletters of upcoming meetings to help
them prioritise the CoPs activities
• Assess the success of the CoP by level of participation, diversity of
participation, member development, member satisfaction, and stories of
problems and challenges solved through the work of the CoP
• Pay attention to participation of members – if people leave or join, try to find
out why
7
8.
Tools available for communication and activities
• Forums - ask questions and post information. The best way in for new
members
• Events - promote relevant upcoming events or meetings.
• Library - upload, share, and track documents.
• Wikis - add and edit content collectively. Post a document for others' input or
amend existing documents.
• Blog - your online journal or diary.
• Search facility - search for documents, wikis, blogs, people, and events.
• Alerts - daily summaries of activity from your communities, direct to your e-
mail inbox
• RSS News feeds – Delivers relevant content from other related websites
directly to the community
8
9.
Building and Cultivating a Community of Practice
The guidelines below set out a number of steps towards building and cultivating a
community of practice. They are drawn from experienced facilitators and influenced
by the books Cultivating Communities of Practice and Learning to Fly.
Planning
• Identify and establish a core group of community stakeholders/subject matter
experts. Form a team that will serve as the catalyst for standing up the
community
• Gather together a list of potential participants. Ask individuals if they can
recommend others who should participate. Consider a broader membership
to introduce diversity.
• Check for duplication or overlap with other communities, verify the need and
make a clear yes/no decision
• Is the purpose realistic, or is the subject area too broad for a single
community?
• Develop a community charter – a document that sets out:
o Types of problems the community is trying to solve
o Key roles (facilitator, sponsor etc.),
o Membership criteria e.g who are the members and what are the
expectations in terms of people's time commitment
o code of conduct" - how members will work together, and key
processes/tools,
o sense of "what success looks like", and any appropriate impact
measures
• Appoint facilitators who are responsible for encouraging the formation of
relationships between community members by
o organising community events;
o owning and ensuring the maintenance of shared
information/knowledge resources;
o monitoring the effectiveness of the community, and stimulating and
prodding community members when appropriate;
o acting as a focal point for the community, both internally and externally
Note - a Community facilitator need not be the "subject expert".But will need to know
enough, especially the key people who are the subject experts. They must have the
skills to involve and include others, and to work behind the scenes to keep the
community alive. It is also recommended to have at least three facilitators to cover
leave and to spread the workload.
9
10.
Launch
• Gather knowledge, information and content to populate the community site;
identify knowledge gaps or areas where further content that would be
beneficial
• Decide on the collaborative tools that are best suited for the objectives of the
community
• Ensure that there is some social activity to build relationships and trust. If
most of the interactions are likely to be online, it is important to build
relationships try a face-to-face event or phone conference.
• Promote the launch of the community, e.g. send a launch e-mail for your
community to the potential members. This should facilitate further
communication and a regular newsletter can assist the community’s
momentum. The community facilitators should be identified as the owners of
this.
Building momentum
• Seed the forum with some questions Establish the behaviours by asking a
question on behalf of a member with a particular need (have the members do
it themselves if possible). In the early stages it is important to demonstrate
responsiveness. The facilitator should be prepared to pick up the phone and
press for answers behind the scenes.
• Organise content. Once you have gathered content, keep it organised so
that members can find the right info at the right time. Continually monitor both
existing and new content; review it, feature it and draw attention to it.
• Marketing the community can be accomplished in a variety of ways, from
telling a friend, to passing out leaflets at a conference, to writing a short news
article in a relevant magazine or website which describes the network and its
aims. Every member, and especially those assuming facilitator and sponsor
roles, can help as champions for the community. And don’t forget tp promote
the quick wins. When you get answers to questions, or the transfer of ideas
between members, celebrate and make sure that everyone knows.
• Trust and networking by scheduling regular meetings/events or phone
conferences. This will help build trust between the members and allow time
for connections and will continue the commitment members will have to the
community.
• Keep the focus on the communities’ purpose by encouraging questions and
answers.
10
11.
Review
• Monitor activity.
o Monitor the forum, events, library and wikis:
o Number of registered members.
o Registered member’s growth per month.
o Number of members active in the month (writing or otherwise
measurably participating).
o Number of members visiting in the last 6 months.
o Percentage of members contributing to the CoP.
o Number of unanswered questions
o For larger communities - number of joiners/leavers
• Refine membership: As part of you newsletter remind existing members
them to let you know if they would like to be removed from the community or
you can send send an e-mail to members who have not returned over a set
period. Better to have a smaller group of committed members, than a larger
group with variable commitment.
• Impact measures At some point, each community must take time to re-
evaluate what has been accomplished-does it meet the community's stated
purpose and objectives? Some of the things to look at are:
o Intellectual assets produced - specifically, tracking those produced (or
significantly updated) and published via the community
o Number of “anecdotes” captured from community members -
capturing some of the softer aspects of community value
o Number of knowledge sharing events held - many communities
commonly host virtual and face to face events and track attendance
• Switch off. Don't be afraid to threaten to "switch off" the community and test
the response of members. People will soon object if they strongly believe in it!
Consider these options:
o Continue?
o Celebrate & close?
o Celebrate, close and provide a legacy?
o Redefine the purpose?
o Divide into sub-networks?
11
12.
For more information see…
Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge by Etienne
Wegner, Richard Mcdermott, and William Snyder
Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning
Organizations by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell
12