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![What they observed can be summarized in two main
conclusions:
‣ The ‘tribe’ of technicians never used any manual or
handbook to solve a problem with a photocopier.
Instead, they called other technicians to share their
observations in order to compare them to other
problems they had run into before;
‣ The knowledge that was needed to solve a problem
was produced on the spot as the result of a co-creation
of insights and experiences of other technicians. And
when the problem was solved, this tribe gathered
around a table to drink coffee and replay the whole
story. That is how the new knowledge got stored into
the brain of the community”
- Luc Galoppin
Coffee machines, not knowledge bases
“In [John Seely Brown’s] brilliant 2000 article Growing Up Digital, he describes the
anthropological study he conducted at Xerox in order to find out how technicians solve
problems. A team of anthropologists observed the technicians as they intervened to
repair photocopiers.
3](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kmmelbourne-facilitatingemployeeonlinecops-130925183100-phpapp02/75/Km-melbourne-facilitating-employee-online-co-ps-3-2048.jpg)
![“We sent out announcements to our employees
explaining what the [Project Management]
Communities were and which of the
communities the recipient had been assigned
to. “Congratulations,” we’d say. “You’re now
part of the [Project] Management community.”
And right away, we got push back: “I’m not a
project manager, I’m a marketing manager.” Or
“Yeah, I know my job title is business analyst,
but I’m more of a data manager in practice.”
Here’s the mistake I made: I didn’t design the communities around people. I didn’t design
it so that employees could self-select into the groups they thought matched who they
were. The designations I used were the ones management used to determine pay rates,
career paths, etc. They were not the designations the employees used to describe
themselves. I did not respect the employees’ desire for self-determination.
And as a result they didn’t see themselves in the communities I had put them into. They
felt no connection to the communities and so they resisted them.”
- Ethan Yarbrough
Respect for self-determination
9](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/kmmelbourne-facilitatingemployeeonlinecops-130925183100-phpapp02/75/Km-melbourne-facilitating-employee-online-co-ps-9-2048.jpg)
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Km melbourne facilitating employee online co ps
Xerox technicians solved problems by sharing experiences and insights with each other rather than using manuals. They formed an informal community of practice where new knowledge was co-created when solving issues. Management later tried formalizing this by creating online communities, but technicians did not feel engaged until a community was formed that encouraged their participation and focused on their needs rather than extracting knowledge. Effective communities form organically around shared interests and specialties rather than being imposed from above.
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Km melbourne facilitating employee online co ps
- 1. Facilitating employee online Communityof Practice’s _______________________ Engagement , not Extraction John Tropea – Hatch Associates 1 25th Sep 2013 Melbourne Knowledge Management Leadership Group
- 2.
- 3. What they observedcan be summarized in two main conclusions: ‣ The ‘tribe’ of technicians never used any manual or handbook to solve a problem with a photocopier. Instead, they called other technicians to share their observations in order to compare them to other problems they had run into before; ‣ The knowledge that was needed to solve a problem was produced on the spot as the result of a co-creation of insights and experiences of other technicians. And when the problem was solved, this tribe gathered around a table to drink coffee and replay the whole story. That is how the new knowledge got stored into the brain of the community” - Luc Galoppin Coffee machines, not knowledge bases “In [John Seely Brown’s] brilliant 2000 article Growing Up Digital, he describes the anthropological study he conducted at Xerox in order to find out how technicians solve problems. A team of anthropologists observed the technicians as they intervened to repair photocopiers. 3
- 4. Engagement, not Extraction “Xeroxrolled out an employee community for its repair technicians. They had actually tried a few communities initiatives before, but those failed. Eureka succeeded. Why? Previous communities were set up in a way that did not make the repair technicians feel like they belonged as equal citizens. Management was trying to get something out of them, and made that message too blatant... management asked technicians to submit a quota of repair tips, or they had joint quality circle teams between technicians and engineers. Technicians just didn’t feel at ease in these settings. The Eureka community, in contrast, was set up for the technicians to foster their communal kinship. It encouraged technicians to brag to each other about their clever work-around solutions. This community was for them. Technicians bonded with and helped each other. And incidentally, product engineering and management were able to data-mine the conversation for helpful insight.” - Gil Yehuda 4
- 5. “Communities form aroundpeople who share a common specialty, interest, or concern. Communities exist to help their members better do their jobs and to deepen their skills and expertise. “Communities exchange to learn, groups exchange to execute” - Bertrand Duperrin Project teams and operating units share some characteristics, but they are not self-forming. Project teams and operating units exist to get work done for the organization.” - Stan Garfield 5
- 6. Feathers are anadaptation for insulation and an exaptation for flight Intranet BU profiles Office profiles Support database Challenge groups Project procedures answer desk Client profiles Managers Desktop Webpages 6
- 7. Being social isnot wasting time, it’s allowing for cross pollination “Intel didn’t start the wiki by loading it with work content right off the bat. The greatest number of posts was around the soccer pickup schedule, and where to stay when you came to Santa Clara. It struck me how wise it was that they didn’t shut that conversation down. What happens when I come into town, and I join that pickup soccer game? What are we going to talk about, other than work? We don’t have anything else in common. And all of a sudden this thing that’s social becomes, like the water cooler, a mechanism to drive cross- pollination. Which is why, when people start with community, you shouldn’t just have a pure work focus. It’s OK for there to be a community of practice...about knitting, or about a soccer game, or about fantasy football...because people who participate in that way are from silos, and that can be the way to get cross-pollination, and to get people to socially network across divisions or across subject areas.” - Larry Irons 7
- 8. I create onlinespaces, not communities “A man can no more create a community filling in a form on a webpage than he can make a fruit tree by taping fruit to twigs and twigs to a stump” - Matthew Sweet The manager who thought he could create a community Appoint leader Select members Select topic Select name Select outcomes Congratulations! Create an instant community √ “If a community has value it will form and the technology now allows that.” - David Snowden √ √ √ √ 8
- 9. “We sent outannouncements to our employees explaining what the [Project Management] Communities were and which of the communities the recipient had been assigned to. “Congratulations,” we’d say. “You’re now part of the [Project] Management community.” And right away, we got push back: “I’m not a project manager, I’m a marketing manager.” Or “Yeah, I know my job title is business analyst, but I’m more of a data manager in practice.” Here’s the mistake I made: I didn’t design the communities around people. I didn’t design it so that employees could self-select into the groups they thought matched who they were. The designations I used were the ones management used to determine pay rates, career paths, etc. They were not the designations the employees used to describe themselves. I did not respect the employees’ desire for self-determination. And as a result they didn’t see themselves in the communities I had put them into. They felt no connection to the communities and so they resisted them.” - Ethan Yarbrough Respect for self-determination 9
- 10. “When it wasdone, none of the women used the well, and he would see them everyday walking to the river with the large water jugs on their heads. Finally, out of frustration the bureaucrat asked one of the women,“Why do you walk 10 miles to the river to get water every day when there is a wonderful new well in the middle of your village?” The women replied, “We don’t mind the walk, it gives us time to talk with each other and catch up, and besides, it gives us some time away from our husbands!”” - David Coleman “A bureaucrat from the U.N. noticed all the women in the village walking with large water barrels on their heads. As he watched, the women walked 10 miles round trip everyday to the river to get water for cooking and cleaning. The bureaucrat thought this was unfortunate and a stress on the women, so he persuaded the U.N. engineers to build a beautiful well in the middle of the village.” Do “with”, not “to” 10
- 11. Instead of creatingthe community you should be “listening" for the community “It’s tempting to think that you need to create a community for the thing you want to kick-off. Here’s the secret: you don’t. That community already exists. Here’s a hint: communities typically gather around business processes and solutions that are transversal. A hierarchy with silos can’t cater for that. So instead of creating the community you should be ‘listening for’ the community. Chances are that it is right there below your feet and that you’ve been standing on it all the time. Search for the business process owners or other people that have been fighting for a good cause without a hierarchy to back them up.” - Luc Galoppin 11
- 12. “Hi Sarah, Great thatthey have pain points for us to solve “misalignment in methods, disconnection and weak networks, and limited continuous improvement” You could say the results they want are the opposite of the above ie. alignment, connected people, great continuous improvement Then we have to discuss “what are the actions and behaviors needed to achieve the above results” – you and I both know simply creating an online community won’t magically do it We have to talk about these “actions”, and who the main 2 or 3 people are that will be the role-models ie. the eager people who are keen to post content. Regards, John” Behaviours are actions, not results 12
- 13.
- 14. The dynamics ofmembership “There’s really only one rule for community as far as I’m concerned, and it’s this – in order to call some gathering of people a ‘community’, it is a requirement that if you’re a member of the community, and one day you stop showing up, people will come looking for you to see where you went” - Adam Fields 14
- 15. “…incentives cannot alterthe psychological affinity an individual feels towards to community. At best, the incentive may spur an initial (and temporary) jump from lurker to participant, which the individual then finds satisfying. This success may spur them to try again, and over time start to develop a sense of ownership in the group. (In other words, become part of the community.) This, I believe, is what advocates of incentives are aiming for.” - Andrew Gent We want to be wanted, we want to belong “People share openly when they feel they are part of a community Not a member of the community, a part of the community.” “I think humans love the rush that we are missed, and that when we are absent things aren’t the same…this is an indicator that our longing to belong is being fulfilled, and expressed as us having impact and making a difference….now that’s a good feeling” – John Tropea 15
- 16. “Everybody is, youknow, somebody…We’re all just trying to be seen, to matter” - Tara (True Blood Episode 102, “The First Taste”) “The desire to “be somebody”, to contribute, to be acknowledged, to participate in a meaningful way drives people to learn things that are relevant to their environment. This is what motivates scholars to participate in the activities of a professional community or university students to spend years of their lives “studying”. What seems to make work meaningful beyond earning a pay check is participation in a joint enterprise“ - Brigitte Jordan 16
- 17. “Instant baking mixeswere introduced in the late 1940s…All you had to do was add water and bake. Why was this a problem? …the problem of a “too easy” cake recipe left the bakers with no pride of ownership over the end result. They simply could not be proud of the cake…if they had done so little to create it. When the recipe was re-engineered so that the cake mix required the addition of fresh eggs, milk and oil, sales took off.” - Tom Catalini Members won’t feel the pride of ownership of something they don’t have enough say in creating “When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honour of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.” - Dan Ariely 17
- 18. Peer recognition “There’s agreat story about Eureka, the website where Xerox copy repair technicians share “fixes” they’ve developed while repairing the copy machines. The story is about one of the technicians who had sent in some fantastic “fixes” – he was everyone’s hero. When he walked into the auditorium at an annual meeting of technicians, his peers jumped up and started clapping and whistling – celebrating both his knowledge and his willingness to share – that’s peer recognition! ...the story of a company commander who was moved to become a very activity contributor to a US Army community because he heard from a peer that an AAR he had posted made a difference Because our knowledge is so closely tied to our identity, it’s very important to each of us that our peers view us as knowledgeable and skilful” - Nancy Dixon 18
- 19. ...rewards...remind us of obligations,of being made to do things we don’t want to do…rewards become associated with painful activities…when we get paid for something we automatically assume that the task is dull, tedious and painful—even when it isn’t. Rewards remind us of obligations Yes, sometimes rewards do work, especially if people really don’t want to do something. But when tasks are inherently interesting to us rewards can damage our motivation by undermining our natural talent for self-regulation.” - Jeremy Dean 19
- 20.
- 21. Social tools aredifferent Form doesn’t follow function Not built for a specific purpose Interactional , not Transactional Guidance is paramount 21
- 22. Time is abarrier to learn new things Technology is a barrier to some Resistance to break habits and routines Not used to communicating in public Hand holding 22
- 23. Average user doesn’t reallyexist Don’t train everyone, otherwise it becomes an admin exercise Train those that get it, they can be an influence on others If the leads are not role-models in active participation, then this sends a signal that the community is not important Follow the leader 23
- 24. ...reward them withice cream if they did. You could explain all the reasons why eating their vegetables is good for them. And you could eat your own vegetables as a good role model. Those things might help. But Birch found one thing that worked predictably. She put a child who didn’t like peas at a table with several other children who did. Within a meal or two, the pea-hater was eating peas like the pea-lovers.” - Peter Bregman Peer influence “You could tell the children you expect them to eat their vegetables. 24
- 25. Host “It is notenough to schedule a party, hire a caterer, and send out invitations. Once the event begins, you must play host: introduce people so no one feels left out, make sure they circulate, suggest activities… even plan party games! The exact same sort of activities that are needed to keep a community going once it has begun. What’s more, being actively involved yourself gives you an intimate and immediate sense of the health and well- being of the community.” - Andrew Gent 25
- 26. Curation SIDE A Great thatpeople are sharing, asking and answering questions, having great conversations But all this rolls off into the archives SIDE B Like we go through our music collection to make a playlist, we need to make FAQ’s, topic pages, toolbox, lessons learned, etc... This helps with findability, this helps with new comers getting a little digest of what the CoP is about before they dive into the content , this becomes the curated output of what your CoP is about 26
- 27. Monitor “When sharing links,if you have time, it's a good idea to review the article and add your opinion. People will react to your review, especially if you have an opinion...this could lead to a comments discussion” “I see you blogged about a quiz on our CoP, did you know we have a Polls feature” “That was a great blog post. Did you know someone in another CoP has been posting about a similar thing” “It’s been four days since Jeff asked a question in the CoP and no answers yet. Can anyone refer Jeff to someone?” 27
- 28. Community Adoption Are you harvesting contentinto topic pages? Is the facilitator/champions participating enough? Are you helping members form new habits by hand-holding and reposting emails? Do members have enough confidence and trust? Do they feel co-ownership? Are news/questions posted in the community more than email? Is a “lead” participating as a good example? Do you have thriving conversations? Is the purpose of the community on track? Is the content posted frequent enough? Are subject matter experts surfacing? Are you having enough real-time sessions (offline or online)? Is the homepage intuitive to use? Do members know where to click to participate? Health check 28
- 29. Value for effort “Watchwhere the energy in the system is and try to copy the factors that generated it. Get others interested in why energy emerges and they will want some of it themselves.” - Euan Semple 29
- 30. 1. Do dramaticstory- worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it. 2. Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.” - Peter Bregman Spreading stories “To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things: 30
- 31. What gets measureddetermines what gets done “...a pass becomes an assist when and only when points are scored so it forces people to make the right choices, and not only pass the ball hoping others will do some positive things. So basket ball knows how to evaluate the people who make other’s succeed. If this wasn’t measured I’m sure many players would focus on their own points without paying any attention the team’s points.” - Bertrand Duperrin 31
- 32. “What’s missing isa measurement of how well I use my network…how do we measure a person’s prowess at making their individual contributions better because they knew who knew what, and had a relationship with them such that they could tap their expertise… To network, one must be social, must participate in online communities as well as offline, must spend time getting to know others and letting others know them. If I’m measured on individual contributions, then what’s the carrot for social participation? Aha. Being social requires a stiff price: spending our most precious commodity, Time. So really, we are asking people to spend precious time to do something for which they are not measured.“ - Gia Lyons 32
- 33. Connect About me http://about.me/johntropea Where I’mactive Tumblr http://johntropea.tumblr.com Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/108696582604808530200/posts Where I’m not so active LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/johntropea Twitter http://twitter.com/johnt Email johntropea@gmail.com Library clips (old blog) http://libraryclips.blogsome.com 33
Editor's Notes
- #2 10,000+ design, engineering, project management, etc...Energy, infrastructure and mining sectors50+ communitiesPopular – Industrial Structures, Bulk Materials Handling, Electrical, Hydro-Mechanical, Wind Power, Hydrotechnical, Open Text Content Server CommunitiesRepository (document management)Webpages (wikis)CoP Homepage (html widgets)BlogForumNot self serveNoMicrobloggingNo Social network-We've received feedback from Marketing that CoPs is one of the top searches on insideHATCH. In order to make it easier to find on the homepage, we've added a new link to the HKC/CoP on the homepage-Open Plant Implementation team using YammerI am a facilitator of the Industrial Structures CoP. The CoP’s do not seem to catch on easily which was why we tried Yammer first. I wanted to use Yammer but this is what I was told was available. Yammer draws people in. This will require much prompting which will have to be done verbally. Yammer requires no time to manage this. Since I am using CoP, I will have to do my best I have a concern that the method used for ‘mobile access’ is far more onerous than what users accustomed to Facebook would expect. -Employee Profiles initiativeCommenting on documents initiativeGroup collaboration initiative to replace current CoPs
- #3 What is a CoP?“a group of people willing to share and discuss a topic outside of any hierarchical or structured process. A community may have, of course, a global and permanent objective (ex : capitalizing and sharing best practices on a given topic) but no specific deadline (ex : deliver such or such thing, solve such problem before a given date). Even if the community may be encouraged to behave this way, members won’t have to comply with what can’t be more than a suggestion that has nothing to do with their job definition and appointments.” – Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com/english/2011/06/14/lessons-on-the-hard-job-of-positioning-communities-in-the-organization/
- #4 This is my slide on why online CoPs are a good KM tool.This is organic knowledge management; and is why online communities practice are the natural extension of taking this approach onlineWe have many examples in our CoPs where people ask questions for help (sometimes it’s a simple answer, sometimes they point someone to a document, sometimes the answer is based on other people’s experiences, sometimes they are referred to someone eg. You should speak to Joe in Chile, he did a similar thing on his last project)
- #5 Management were not following an oblique path.Management treated sharing tips like deliverables; whereas the deliverables are fixing the machine....and there’s no way of measuring if they were sharing all the tips they hadIf you want to know my secrets you don’t demand them from me, instead you create conditions for them to naturally surface.CoPs can’t be managed as teams; they need to be facilitated...this is “the” theme threaded through this whole presentationThe tools are here to support people to sensemake...they are not here for the enterprise (that benefit is a by-product)Inspired by CV Harquailhttp://authenticorganizations.com/harquail/2011/05/12/are-your-social-business-systems-designed-for-extraction-or-contribution/
- #6 Groups exist because they have operational purposes...a community, regardless of its animator’s skills, needs its member’s will to live. The animator stimulates, brings life, but if nobody wants to follow him and if it’s impossible to change its composition, nothing will happen. Groups are built upon the professional obligation to achieve something, whether employees like it or not. So it’s easy to understand that if communities need animation, groups need management.- Bertrand DuperrinCoPs are self-forming and operating units are not. But operating units can still have the qualities and behaviours we see in CoPs.In fact some CoPs may turn into operating units.eg. at work Bulk Materials Handling has become an official operating unit; previous to this is was scattered expertise we had that was weaved together using email, and then later CoPs. Now that it is an official operating unit they will still keep the community dynamic they have (answering questions, building skills and expertise), but they will also now have the team deliverable type dynamic where there is management and coordination of tasks.In an official operating unit people have to churn out deliverables, that’s what they get paid for…they don’t necessarily have to answer questions, and share expertise; but if they are motivated by trust, social connections and reciprocation then this will exist…and what a fortunate operating unit that is.The above is a practice turning into an operating unit...existing operating units may use a CoP to do work rather than just email (this is managed work as it always has been)...but they may also use the CoP to learn and share (this is facilitated as always should be)Shawn Callahan’s cloud diagramDifferences herehttp://www.duperrin.com/english/2009/11/17/community-management-vs-socio-collaborative-management-how-to-make-the-right-choice/Ad-hoc tasks - Groups want to do tasks in an online space rather than emailSignposting - creating a community to let everyone know what is happeningTeam sites – teams that are struggling to collaborate with the tools in their organisation so use a CoP platform as an alternative.Project Support – using the CoP to run and manage the project in a transparent way with all project team membersEvents and meeting support - a document repository of meeting notes agendas and upcoming eventsCoPs – group of people coming together for a common purpose to learn and share with each other.http://mik0ton.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/when-is-a-community-of-practice-not-a-community-of-practice/
- #7 We knew it was working when these types of communities emerged:Dam Design & Safety, Dynamic Simulation Group, Engineering and Sustainable Design, Fertilizer, Financial and Economic Modelling, Fire Engineering, Gateway Logistics, GIS & Sourcing, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Metallurgical Thermodynamics Simulation and Analysis, Machine Design, Welding Materials and Corrosion, Specialised Engineering Analysis and Design, Mine Closure, Plant Layout, Ports & MarineFor some of them, who knew we had people who have learnt these skills on projects and/or have an interest in the topic...now they have a place to discover like people and learn, and also an easier way to locate people with the desired talent for future projectsBut what we didn’t expect was the exaptation of the tool itself for uses other then CoPsAn “exaptation” is just one example of a characteristic that evolved, but that isn’t considered an adaptationAdaptation—a feature produced by natural selection for its current function (such as echolocation in bats, right).Exaptation—a feature that performs a function but that was not produced by natural selection for its current use. Perhaps the feature was produced by natural selection for a function other than the one it currently performs and was then co-opted for its current function. For example, feathers might have originally arisen in the context of selection for insulation, and only later were they co-opted for flight. In this case, the general form of feathers is an adaptation for insulation and an exaptation for flight.People really want this stuffGrass roots (opportunities)Intranet not timely/formalEmail lacks sense of placeCoping mechanismSense-making...like I said before, this is a tool to support people, rather than forcing them to do somethingCoP tools are an evolution of the email distribution listBut webpages are a big use case...not just about communication tools...sometimes people just need an online homepage
- #8 Bicycle Users GroupPhotography GroupToastmasters GroupWomen in the workplace GroupFitness Centre
- #9 Our CoP technology is designed for content creation (blogs, forums, wikis, documents, homepages)We lack quick bursts of communication (microblogging), we lack connecting outside of a group space (social networking), we lack an online dashboard (activity stream)I am the bottleneck to creating new CoPs, as there isn’t a wizard...it’s not easy like creating a Yammer group.This results in many top-down visioned CoPs done to people...rather than CoP formation percolating from the bottom-upHatch exampleS&PC CoPs Multiple sub-CoPs done to people with no workshopping Ghost town Did a survey for what people want...changed to one global CoP with one blog and forum...people liked the simplicity from here we will see if the sub-topics naturally grow into their own CoPs ie. The global CoP is the seed.If you let people self-serve create groups spaces, then the right group spaces will be created...nothing is being done to them from up top, rather they are self serving their own needs...Dave Snowden says:"if the community has value it will form"...which is why we need to lower the barriers to the formation of new CoPseg. YammerInstead CoPs are:VoluntaryEmergentSelf-selectingSome people wonder why the community is not working...it may be because there is not community to start with...maybe people aren’t interestedMany organizations that try to harness the power of internal communities wonder if participation can be made mandatory. But they already know the answer: participation intocommunities rely on voluntary service and the best they can do is to create the conditions that will make employees feel like participating and understand how important it is- Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com/english/2010/12/07/can-participation-be-mandated-into-communities-yes-most-of-all-when-its-not-communities/
- #10 An example of forcing a community
- #11 Once again this was a failure to understand peopleIs the community personally relevant, or fulfilling needs at an individual level?Does it appeal to intrinsic motivationsNeed to workshop with members so they feel ownershipPeople don’t resist change, they resist being changedResistance to change is about the situation rather than a character traitThis is about co-creation, co-ownershipWorkshop needsDevelop togetherOwnership and RelevancyPotential membersBuilds relationshipsWho has passion and time to run the placeEstablish your role models (Active participants)
- #12 Again this is about being in touch with the frontline…the group can turn into a community for a short time. For instance, when the majority of its members face the same issue and they get organized to fix it or weight enough on the enterprise so it will fix it. In this case, what made the transformation possible is the failure of the organization- Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com/english/2010/12/20/sorry-but-im-not-a-member-of-your-community/Our Office365 pilot where participants asking for a space to share and ask that has nothing to do with the owners of the initiative
- #13 A typical email in my day jobThe above results, aren’t really specific enough...why is it they are not connected etc...let’s fix those little thingsBusiness goal – connect with other employees to deliver quality work to clients...also to solve problemsBehavioural goal – how do we get people to share knowledge (ask and answer questions, proactively share what they know)Psychological tactic – create environments (both offline and online) where people can interact to share personal stories and build relationships; to build rapport, bonds, trust...where people can feel social connected, build a reputation, sensemake...What behaviours or actions are you looking for?- when a document is shared write a blog post about it - once a week share a lesson, insight, experience, tip - if you travel write about what happened, who you met….when this happens, do thisHow do you currently share, communicate, coordinate? Ie. Are you already a community/groupEmail? Meetings? Lunch time chats?What are you trying to achieve?- I learnt this from UX designWhat’s your pain point or purposeImprove a processor strategyTroubleshoot, Support, Problem solveDiversity, new ideas and approachesCross-functionalcommon knowledgeDo you have a substantial enough topic that warrants it’s own community? Do you have a community leader with passion and time? Do you have passionate key members?Do you have a sponsor allowing you time to run this community? Do you have a shared identity on what you want out of the community?
- #14 Is the community personally relevant, or fulfilling needs at an individual level?Does it appeal to intrinsic motivationsNeed to workshop with members so they feel ownershipPeople don’t resist change, they resist being changedResistance to change is about the situation rather than a character traitWhat’s in it for meAnswer to my questionsAm I being noticed (Build your reputation/recognition) - have influence by reputation, rather than having to wait years till you are rightly positioned in the hierarchyDIY career developmentDo I feel connected and part of something (belong) I now have an audience, first thing I do is see if I have any comments work feels good that I’m connected to peopleDo I feel I have ownership, and impact
- #15 The term membership when online doesn’t always have the same characteristics as offline membership...I’m a member of many things, but certainly don’t have to act like one as I would in f2f...the obligation isn’t the same as when you are in a room of 10 people, and you feel that you should contribute somehow...Online, the word member almost doesn’t mean anything- Some people get an email finding out they are a member of a CoP they didn’t know aboutMore members doesn’t mean better For a starter group spaces, unlike point to point networks don’t require network effects A handful of people can make a successful group, but a handful of people don’t make a successful network- Yes more people means more diversity, and weak ties to answer, solve, share...but Lots of members can deter some...some are shy...some only are confident sharing in a closed circle Increasing size may cause congestion, dilution and noise- People will participate when they share the same wavelength, stimulation, comfort, confidence, and trust- People like to talk where they hang out, with people they feel comfortable with...to make a CoP work it needs to focus on the people not the topic- In this case we need to accept duplicate groups; Similar forums may exist in multiple CoPs- That’s OK, as people participate where they live and feel comfortable- Merging these forums into one CoP may reduce participation- Rather than control we let things grow naturally, the most adaptive will survive...then we will know we have not curbed something before it had a chance to be a thingAll you need is a small group of people who want to participate, trust each other, and have a shared identity
- #16 Again this is the theme about “engagement, not extraction”, about facilitating/creating conditions that meet human needs, and from this we get our business goal of knowledge sharing, good practices, etc...The oblique pathTrying to create a knowledge sharing culture or cross-pollinating silos, are outcomes Let’s focus on helping people sensemake, their sense of growth, challenge, autonomy, ownership, connection...engagement If we are cognizant of what makes people tick at work, and nurturing these conditions, then there’s a good chance our outcomes will emerge naturally
- #17 SIDE NOTE: I read a book that crossed pop culture and philosophy in regards to a book about the True Blood TV series/novel where I learnt Kant’s supreme moral principle, the categorical imperative where no-one should use another for their own means“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.”For Kant, we must treat persons this way-always as ends in themselves and never as mere means-because of their absolute, intrinsic value as agents who are capable of deliberating on their own choices and setting their own goals this principle is certainly not adhered to in the world of vampires what about organisations, or teams or CoPs?Anyway....pop-culture can teach us about “belonging”What we learn from this is that it’s paramount to nurture “engagement”...people feeling connected and feeling they matter is the foundation for knowledge sharing- Again this is the oblique path
- #18 Many of our CoPs have been created and designed by one person, who then ask people to join as the last thing- These have failed as the “supposed” members don’t really feel a part of itWhen we go through the process, we value what we have more.If I get my son to help me cook, he is much more prone to eat the meal...he feels proud, and has investment in it too much to not eat iteg making chick strips, first the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbsThis human quality is present in CoPs, or wherever humans come togetherThe more we co-create, the more people will own that change with youIn one of our studies, we asked people to fold origami and then to bid on their own creations along with other people’s. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so enamoured with their amateurish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.”- Dan Ariely…Finding ways for team members to crack some eggs is critical for buy-in. Team members won’t feel the pride of ownership of something they don’t have enough say in creating. But, they don’t need more instructions and steps in the recipe. They need more say in the creation of the recipe – the design of the project, the process, and the strategies…Tom CataliniI think a sense of ownership makes you feel valued and worthy, and belong (doing with you, rather than people doing things to you)– John TropeaThe mayor of Tampa had offered a vacant lot on this corner to anyone who would build something there that would help to improve the neighborhood, and Daniel took up the challenge. He and his wife Suzette, along with other volunteers, would build a center that would house a church on Sundays, a daycare and school on weekdays, and a community and recreation center…Daniel clearly trusted them, and trust breeds trustworthiness. Even before the center was completed, the fighting outside that bar stopped and the drug dealers and prostitutes started drifting away. Apparently, such activities were incompatible with the feelings evoked by the thought of a center for little children across the street.The people feel that this fine school and center are theirs, and they are proud of it, and nobody is going to destroy it. The sense of community ownership is a big part of the successPeter Grayhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201011/fight-bullying-babiesWhenever you impose something on someone, it only produces short-term results because the person doesn’t have any ownership in it. Think about it. If these external motivational approaches were effective, getting employees motivated to carry out the company’s needed objectives would be easy, not something managers read countless books about.http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-article/get-your-employees-and-co-workers-do-what-you-want.html
- #19 The primary driver for sharing experiential knowledge is the respect and recognition of peers (as they know what goes into the craft).Recognition means the most to us when it comes from those who really know the subject – who know what they’re talking about. It’s great to have your boss think you’re a top performer, but chances are your boss doesn’t know enough about the technical part of your work to know how good you really are – but your peers do. For a peer to say, “The person that really understands that problem is Pete,” that comment Pete would regard as a sign of respect and one he would highly value.Because our knowledge is so closely tied to our identity, it’s very important to each of us that our peers view us as knowledgeable and skillful. One of the major ways we demonstrate that to our peers is by sharing our knowledge with them. But sharing knowledge is risky, the other person may make a cutting remark about it or indicate that it’s not worth listening to. And sharing knowledge is time consuming, because to really respond to another’s question or problem takes the time to understand the issue and to explain in sufficient depth. So we rightly place conditions around sharing our in-depth knowledge. The relationships we build with others provide a needed level of confidence that our knowledge will be treated with respect. Knowledge sharing and relationship are coupled.Nancy DixonImportant that facilitators monitor their CoPs and be a role model for giving praise
- #20 Rewards are not a sustainable strategy for people to come together to share knowledgePeople share and help others cause they have a thirst to learn, grow, be seen, be part of something, to connect...they don’t do it for a rewardSo we need to focus on helping people realise their intrinsic motivationsI’m an active contributor to a vendor CoP I answer questions (cause I empathize with people in the same position as me, and cause I have experience, and cause it feels good to interact with like people) If I have the time I have nothing to lose by sharing, I only have a reputation to gain I’m self-motivated, but I also hope that by being given a space, that I can request things that can perhaps make the product better, which makes my life easier in supporting CoPs On four occasions I have (usually xmas) been given a games console, camera, iPod, online vouchers I don’t expect this, and I don’t contribute because of this (and never have), but what it has done is make me want to keep on contributing, cause it makes me feel worthy and appreciatedAcknowledgement rewards, rather than targets for rewards...when it’s deserved, and as a celebratory annual thing as a reminder of a band of principle of innovation/collaboration/sharing...you will feel or notice a person that goes beyond and shares and helps people (perhaps they did this before online CoPs, but now we can see them)...in no way do we have gamification aspects (gaming house chores or getting fit is one thing...but it won’t work for sharing behaviours, as they are intrinsically motivated)The whole idea is that people are using these tools for sensemaking, personal development, social connection, learning, getting work done...rewards to push people to participate are not sustainable...instead we need to create conditions so the above personal needs thriveProfile people and successes“...those who had previously liked drawing were less motivated once they expected to be rewarded for the activity. In fact the expected reward reduced the amount of spontaneous drawing the children did by half…What they had been motivated to do intrinsically, they were now being given an external, extrinsic motivation for. This provided too much justification for what they were doing and so, paradoxically, afterwards they drew less….
- #21 These slides are a mix – they are about people who facilitate a community, and also about people (like me) who facilitate the facilitatorsWe operate, maintain, support, promote, coach, create, analyse, consult- We don’t just run a product and support it...we help people and teams achieve their needs“External community managers are made legitimate de facto by their role until their audience decide they’re not.""Internal community managers [focus] on specific expertise matters or on projects. In the first case they won’t be legitimate in front of seasoned professionals and won’t even think to joining their discussions so thinking that an internal community manager can lead tens or hundreds of business communities makes no sense. In the second case they can’t replace the managers or project managers. Consequently, the role of an internal community manager is rather about supporting actual community owners and help/coach managers towards new postures and practices.“http://www.duperrin.com/english/2013/07/23/internal-external-community-manager/
- #22 This isn’t deploy, train and maintain...the journey of adoption has just begunForm doesn’t follow function- Not form from function, but function from the unstructured formNot built for a specific purpose- Don’t replace an LOB tool- People need assistance in how to use them- They are unstructured tools that can be used in many waysInteractional rather than Transactional- Uploading a document into a database is transactional, you don’t need anyone else's involvement.. - Whereas communities are interactional as you require people to have conversationsGuidance is paramount- Guide people in using these tools for various use cases- Create conditions for people to participate Need workshops to get momentum going where tools are used by participants eg use a wiki for minutes of meeting, so they then go back to the seats and keep going...remember, they are not replacing a LOB tool, people can still communicate without social tools...this is why people may not make time to learn about them
- #23 Need one-on-one’s to help leads/managers write a blog post; they are so busy and will ignore it unless you show them, until it becomes part of their natural routine
- #24 Average user doesn’t really exist…heavy contributors skew a useful average meaningSME needs to be leader, not a communications assistant eg ET CoP Otherwise hard to have real influence for adoption eg when I led the iPas DM CoPAlso posts need to be visibly authored eg. OS CoP Whether it’s ghost writing or not, we need to see a SME/leads name on the post We to see their humanness...it bridges the gap between us and them
- #25 I found this true when talking to certain leads and managers...they really listened to what I had to say, and understood the benefits...but then they would do nothing about it...but when a peer had done well in another team, this would then motivate themIf we promote successful CoPs then we can drive this even more1928 Study by Hugh Hartshorne and Mark May"Experimental situation in which 10-13 year old had the choice to yield to the possibility of cheating and stealing, or to be honest and considerate of their peers. The study showed that children were not consistently honest or dishonest (the idea that honesty would be a fixed trait of character by this age). The best prediction for the children’s choice of behaviour was the actions of the other children around them."- Jennie Lindon (Understanding Child Development) p 32http://johntropea.tumblr.com/post/391617948/peer-influence
- #26 Without conversations it’s just a websiteSubject matter expert needs to run it, encourage participation, be a role-modelUnlike email, it has a sense of place, and needs to be tendered and caredIntrinsic motivation, rather than rewards
- #27 We don’t do enough of this...A community of practice is not merely a community of interest--people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice.- EtienneWengerhttp://www.ewenger.com/theory/
- #28 Electrical CoP Forum post on SF6 breaker arc model- No replies for 3 weeks Facilitator posts a reply - It looks like there have been no replys so far to this request. Is anyone able to provide a suggestion or other support? suddenly 5 global replies within 24 hoursFacilitator feedback encourages more participation “That was an insightful blog post, I will apply that method” eg coming back to recognition of the AAR paperAnswer questions promptly so people feel heard and benefit from participatingThis will influence return visitsComments motivate more participation Member who became an active participant after he found out that other people were getting valuable use from his AAR documentQuickest way to get a CoP going is to ask questionsSuccessful “help” interactions lead to more trust in the CoPWhenever something happens, communicate it “I uploaded a presentation into our library, it’s about…”Don’t just share links; write an opinion based review This will get people to react; the comments build community spiritPeople are more prone to comment, rather than postWrite content that induces comments as a starter
- #29 NOTE: The aim is not to be a circle; moreso, is it sticking to the original purpose and outcomes, if it hasn’t is it growing in the right direction, is it growing at allValue can be measured; but a chicken doesn’t get fatter the more you weigh it!Don’t rely on metrics to claim your community is successful; use metrics and indicators to understand your community better.- Steve DaleNOTE: Title is from slide 12(Source: steve-dale.net)Some are more about document sharing, others are more about conversation...some are very frequent interactions, others are somewhere to go when a problem arises...some are long term, some are just to solve a problemWho knows; maybe the purpose has organically changed for the good or bad, or maybe you feel like you want to change directionCan people do things better than beforeQuicker time to find people and informationSolve problems and sense-makeEasier to get things done / more productiveDo people feel more aware and engagedCan people do new thingsEmergence of the unexpectedIncrease opportunitiesDiscover and Connect to more peopleHarness diverse input
- #30 Value for effort Focus on making some key CoPs succeed. When manager’s talk they will discover some use CoPs to success and want to be like them...better than me trying to convince peopleWhere can I add value most? (currently in development)- Focus my attention on those CoPs that "get it".- Keep allowing new CoPs to happen and support them, but only go that extra mile on enthusiastic upcoming facilitators and existing thriving CoPs- This way my time and expertise is being used to add value, rather than being spread thinly.- The idea is to create showcase CoPs.- Better to have 10 engaging CoPs, rather than 50 not so engaging.- The showcase CoPs can act as a magnet or attractor for other CoPs to want to be like them.- If this happens then I can eventually take my attention of the showcase CoPs, as they know what they are doing, and pay attention to existing CoPs that are insistently knocking on my door to resurrect participation.- At the moment I have demand for new CoPs, but I want demand for existing CoPs to want to be better- What I like about this approach is that I’m not denying the creation of new CoPs, that can continue as usual, but at the same time most of my time will be focused just on a handful of CoPs- One at a time…My coping mechanism (currently in development)- A volunteer facilitator network to help new CoPs…especially handy in a global company operating in various time zones- A CoPs in Action wiki to highlight how groups are using CoPs in different ways, how they are using tools in various ways, interviews, case studies, recognition, curating content.- This can help immensely as often new CoPs stare at a blank slate, they are not sure how or which way to flex these unstructured tools…they are used to tools designed for a specific purpose, and now suddenly they are the designers- Monthly webinars on technical skills and participation practicesFollow the energyThis is part of what my job as a Community Manager, it’s about: awareness, monitoring, noticing, correlating, connecting, harnessing the emergence.What I like about this is if you take a look around and notice things, you may see a vision you have, already partly being done…or perhaps it’s something you didn’t even think about. Not only that, it’s being done by people who are not responsible for that task…just the same, there’s a "What’s in it for me?" factor that keeps them engaged.http://johntropea.tumblr.com/post/7070810402/look-around-you-and-follow-the-energyAn example of this is one of the graduate CoPs. In the downtime the facilitator (mentor) wanted to use the graduates idle time, so she trained them in running CoPs...this is someone voluntarily doing aspects of my job
- #31 Do stuff with dataProfile people, profile CoPs, most read posts, etc...doing interesting things with the data
- #32 It’s important to know that adoption can be limited by organisational designMeasurement for individual achievement works against collaboration/sharing/what’s best for the whole...statistics take “assists” (ie passes that help another player to score) into account for players and teams evaluations and they’re as important as points to measure player’s performance. It’s logical : the player who gives the ball makes his partners succeed and without him no point would have been scoreSo basket ball knows how to evaluate the people who make other’s succeed. If this wasn’t measured I’m sure many players would focus on their own points without paying any attention the the team’s points. When such behaviors happen, you often have a team with two main players (according to the points they score) but that lost all of its games.How are people evaluated at work ? The answer will surely help you to understand why effective collaboration seldom happen."- Bertrand Duperrin“every unit was forced to declare a certain percentage of employees as top performers, then good performers, then average, then below average, then poor. …a lot of Microsoft superstars did everything they could to avoid working alongside other top-notch developers, out of fear that they would be hurt in the rankings... people do everything they can to stay out of the bottom bucket,” one Microsoft engineer said. “People responsible for features will openly sabotage other people’s efforts. One of the most valuable things I learned was to give the appearance of being courteous while withholding just enough information from colleagues to ensure they didn’t get ahead of me on the rankings.”Will Oremus (Slate)
- #33 “I...am mainly measured by my individual efforts: how many customers I work with who go on to buy my software; what leadership roles I fulfil...; what assets I create for others to reuse. This is all right and good, for how else can an individual be measured"When an organization doles out bonuses, raises, awards and promotions based on individual contributions, what’s the carrot for social participation?-Gia LyonsKM interventions have more sustainability when others pieces are in concert eg. recognise people who bridge silos in performance evaluations. We are rewarded for our task at hand ie. we are not measured for how well we are aware, share, our resourcefulness, sensitivity to other groups.- How do you measure how resourceful you are at discovering quality people to help you on your task?- Would you do this anyway, since you are measured on individual action (rather than group output)?- How do you measure how much you contribute to the organisation at large (helping others on tasks you are not on)? Why would you do this anyway if this means less time away from your tasks, for which you get rewarded?Especially, if it becomes a burden and everyone wants a piece of the guru- of course we do it to survive (I’ll help you, you help me when you need it)- the idea is we can encourage or legitmise this informal networking with organisational designHuman Capital Media is right on this:"…performance reviews are typically based on pre-determined expectations. Often, they do not take into consideration activities the individual has done that are not related directly to his or her job description, even if those activities play a vital role in achieving the goals of the organization. And they rarely look at the unexpected value an individual provides in finding a new solution, helping a new employee, or driving a critical objective that wasn’t established in their goals.Employees want to be evaluated based on what they are doing to help their team and their organization. They want to be able to show their managers how they are contributing to a wide network across the organization and how highly their ideas are valued, so that they can make the right case for raises and promotions.What if, as a manager, you could not only measure a person by how well they have met certain goals, but also by how much they have contributed to the community? Or better yet, as a Talent Officer, what if you could find emerging thought leaders based on not only how much they have contributed, but even more importantly, how well their thoughts have been received? What better way to assess the talent you have than by looking at the value of their contributions as measured by their peers?“Individual syndromes- I don’t want to share, that’s counter to meeting my objectives…and reward!! - “The business doesn’t reward collaboration. It rewards individual action.” Jack Vinson http://bit.ly/2Dk8sA- “The, you are judged on what you achieved, not on what others have achieved with your help ”syndrome.”- “The, why should I take the risk to help whom I compete with, I wouldn’t get the recognition for it anyway” syndrome.”
- #34 Right now we are working on replacing CoPs to a more modern tool that’s designed with psychology in mind eg Yammer We need to branch beyond group spaces, to point to point networksEmployee Profiles initiativeCommenting on documents initiativeGroup collaboration initiative to replace current CoPs