This document outlines various use cases for communities of practice, emphasizing collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community building. It provides guidelines for starting a new community, including questions to consider regarding existing communities, topic definitions, participant interest, leadership commitment, and performance measurement. Key activities include communicating, obtaining resources, learning, assisting, resolving issues, and innovating within these communities.

1. M A S T E R O F S C I E N C E I N
Information and Knowledge Strategy
Use Cases for
Communities of Practice
Stan Garfield
April 7, 2017

2. 2
COLLABORATION
1. Communicate
2. Obtain
3. Locate
4. Learn
5. Assist
6. Build
7. Offer
8. Resolve
9. Ask
10. Transfer
11. Innovate
12. Onboard
13. Network

3. 3
1. Communicate
• Inform the organization
about your activities.
plans, and progress
• Interact with colleagues
• Solicit input, feedback,
advice
• Relax, refresh, relieve
tension, laugh

4. 4
2. Obtain
• Gain assistance from
others
• Find out what others are
doing
• Retrieve information
• Receive answers to
questions

5. 5
3. Locate
• Locate subject matter
specialists
• Find documents, credentials,
references, sites, official
methods, lessons learned,
proven practices
• Find needed resources

6. 6
4. Learn
• Learn more about
a topic
• Deepen expertise
• Keep current on
the latest news

7. 7
5. Assist
• Respond to a request
• Respond to a client
request for information.
proposal, or support
• Submit a proposal
• Deliver a product, project,
service, or client
engagement
• Provide thought
leadership

8. 8
6. Build
• Develop and deliver
eminence and thought
leadership
• Write a document or
presentation
• Build and deliver a
product or service

9. 9
7. Offer
• Answer questions
• Provide points of view,
proven practices, lessons
learned, examples,
official methods
• Get staffed on a project
or client engagement
• Lead an effort
• Praise, recognize, and
thank colleagues

10. 10
8. Resolve
• Identify issues
• Solve problems
• Fix something which is
broken

11. 11
9. Ask
• Ask questions
• Request advice
• Submit a query or request

12. 12
10. Transfer
• Transfer knowledge
• Share links, insights, lessons
learned, tips, tricks, techniques
• Contribute reusable content

13. 13
11. Innovate
• Develop new and better ways
of serving clients
• Solicit ideas
• Manage the innovation
process
• Improve existing products,
services, processes, and tools
• Invent new products, services,
processes, and tools

14. 14
12. Onboard
• Onboard new hires or team
members
• Get oriented as a new hire or
team member
• Orient new clients

15. 15
13. Network
• Connect to others with similar
interests
• Work together as part of a
team
• Connect multiple organizations
to deliver services as one

16. 16
SIRCL
• Share new ideas, lessons learned, proven practices,
insights, and practical suggestions.
• Innovate through brainstorming, building on each other's
ideas, and keeping informed on emerging developments.
• Reuse solutions through asking and answering
questions, applying shared insights, and retrieving
posted material.
• Collaborate through threaded discussions,
conversations, and interactions.
• Learn from other members of the community; from
invited guest speakers about successes, failures, case
studies, and new trends; and through mentoring.

17. 17
Communities of Practice
Share a link. “Here is a link to the latest Forrester report.”
Ask a question. “Has anyone encountered this problem before,
and if so, how was it solved?”
Find a resource. “Looking for a specialist in welfare benefits to
help in a project.”
Answer a post. “Here are links to three relevant documents in the
knowledge database.”
Recognize a colleague. “Thanks to John Smith for helping solve a
difficult problem.”
Inform about your activities. “Working on a new wellness initiative.”
Suggest an idea. “I think we should invite Nobel laureates to
attend our recognition event.”
SAFARIS

18. 18
5 Questions to Ask Before
Starting a New Community
1. Is there an existing community which
covers the topic or a related one?
2. Is the topic defined using widely-
understood terminology?
3. Are people likely to want to join in
sufficient numbers to achieve critical
mass?
4. Are you willing to spend the time it takes to
lead a community?
5. Are you willing to measure the community
using monthly health indicators?

19. 19
1. Is there an existing community which
covers the topic or a related one?
• If so, offer to become a co-
leader of that community
rather than creating a new
one
• Add a tab, section, or link
to a sub-page on that
community's site (e.g., sub-
topic, local chapter, etc.)
• Share collaboration tools
such as an enterprise
social network (ESN) group

20. 20
2. Is the topic defined using widely-
understood terminology?
• Try to use industry-
standard, conventional
terms
• Avoid esoteric or
company-specific
nomenclature
• Start with as broad a
topic as is reasonable

21. 21
3. Are people likely to want to join in
sufficient numbers to achieve critical
mass (100 or more)? They should:
• Identify with it: view
themselves as specializing
in it
• Be deeply interested in it,
view it as relevant to their
work, and want to deepen
their understanding of it
• Be willing to spend time
learning and collaborating
about it

22. 22
4. Are you willing to spend the time it
takes to lead a community by performing
the following activities?
• Schedule: Line up speakers and
set up events
• Host: Initiate and run conference
calls, webinars, and face-to-face
meetings
• Answer: Ensure that questions in
the Yammer group receive replies,
that discussions are relevant, and
that behavior is appropriate
• Post: Share information which is
useful to the members by posting
to the discussion board, blog, and
newsletter
• Expand: attract new members and
content contributions

23. 23
5. Are you willing to measure the community
by the following health indicators?
• Activity: at least one post to the
community discussion board per week,
posts by more than two different people,
no questions left unanswered after 24
hours
• Content: at least one document,
newsletter, announcement, or blog entry
posted to the community site per month,
and content is reviewed to ensure that it
is appropriate, current, and accurate
• Membership: at least 100 members
after the first three months, with growth
in membership every quarter thereafter
• Events: at least one conference call,
webinar, or face-to-face meeting every
quarter, listed in the community events
calendar, held as planned, with at least
10 people participating in each event

24. LinkedIn Posts
https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/stangarfield

25. For additional information
• Join the SIKM Leaders CoP http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sikmleaders/
• Twitter @stangarfield
• Site http://sites.google.com/site/stangarfield/
• Implementing a Successful KM Program https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/implementing-
successful-km-program-100th-post-20-years-stan-garfield
Implementing
a Successful
KM Program
(author)
Successful Knowledge
Leadership:
Principles and Practice
(chapter author) The Modern
Knowledge Leader:
A Results-Oriented Approach
Gaining
Buy-in for
KM
(chapter
author)
Managing the ROI
of Knowledge
Management
(chapter author) The
Case against ROI