Communities of Practice

Presentation By A.V. Vedpuriswar

Introduction
Knowledge is the key source of competitive advantage today. Traditional Knowledge Management approaches have laid emphasis on codification Focus has been on databases/portals But important knowledge is often difficult to codify

 Kuhn: Scientific knowledge is intrinsically the common property of a group or else nothing at all. In any discipline, knowledge is generated by a community of like minded peers. The validity of what we know is community bound Barabas: There is no universal foundation for knowledge, only the agreement and consensus of the community.

The importance of context

Researchers estimate that only 20 percent of the knowledge in an organization is ever captured, leaving 80 percent in the hearts and minds of employees. Valuable knowledge is difficult to separate from social context. Such knowledge has to be owned by people. Communities are formed by groups of people who band together (formally or informally) based on one or more areas of common interest or need. Communities provide a forum in which members learn from each other. Communities give life to knowledge.

Many organizations target their knowledge management investment at the 20 percent of knowledge that's captured. They invest in content management systems and knowledge repositories, search and retrieval capabilities, and portal technology. However, there's a missing element to captured knowledge --context. Context gives a knowledge asset its richness, detailing background information, alternatives that were tried but discarded, experiments that didn't work, the thinking behind a solution, reasons why an approach worked and reasons why it didn't. Context is part of the 80 percent of knowledge that never gets captured in a database.

Fostering People to people connections

The community approach is based on the fundamental recognition that knowledge resides in people and in their interactions, not just in databases. People-to-people connections are critical and communities are a natural place to make connections between knowledge seekers and the knowledge source. Within a community, members are interested in the same issues or topic, they've developed relationships and built trust, and already practice the behaviors of helping and sharing with each other.

A community-oriented approach recognizes that technology is only an enabler and that behavior is key to successful knowledge management. Incorporating communities into the practice of knowledge management moves it into the realm of organizational development, taking it beyond information management.

The three elements of COP

Sense of joint enterprise, shared identification Relationships and bonding Shared expertise

Types of communities
Within business units Across business units Across organizations

What is different about a COP?

Does not involve reporting relationships Based on collegiality Power is a function of knowledge, no formal authority Unlike a team which is defined by a task, a COP is defined by knowledge Held together by the passion of members Does not form when a project starts Does not disappear when a project gets over People can belong to a business unit or a team even as they belong to a CoP.

Communities bring a knowledge focus

Small companies Larger companies Greater market focus Simple structure Functional structure Divisional structure

Project management focus Knowledge focus

Teams
Communities of Practice

COPs fill the white spaces inherent in any organizational context. They provide a stable form of membership that carries people from one task to the next while allowing them to find continuity in their professional life.

Membership categories
Core group : Passionate and actively engaged. Full membership : These are the practitioners who make up the community Peripheral membership : Belonging to the COP but with less involvement and authority. Transactional participation: Outsiders who interact with the COP occasionally to receive or provide service. Passive access: A wide range of people who have access to artifacts produced by the community such as publications, website or tools.

Evolution of CoP
Usually start as loose networks with latent needs and opportunities As the community matures and grows, members take a more proactive responsibility for establishing a shared practice, a learning agenda and a group identity. Practice continues to evolve over time.

 Some COPs are short lived. Others last for centuries

COPs lose their relevance as knowledge needs shift. Each stage in a community's development has its own challenges or questions. One of the first needs of a community is an inspiring vision or a difficult challenge to advance the state of a practice or to achieve a challenging organizational objective.

 The community challenge at the next stage, is how to make an intimate community scalable so that it can handle the larger numbers. When it reaches maturity, a community loses vitality and must be rejuvenated.

Creating vibrant Communities

The community needs activities to remain vibrant. It might be critical to get together for a face-toface meeting early in its life to build relationships and trust. Members need to know other members -- what their strengths and interests are, what they're passionate about, the knowledge they hold, their experience, etc. Community organizers need to determine the events that require the community coming back together for any meetings in person.

Technology and tools

Collaborative and communication capabilities can support communities. However, technology is only an enabler and not the solution to communication problems. It's important to work out a balance of face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings and collaboration that span both time and space. Communities in different phases of the life-cycle will have different needs for tools. At formation, they need tools that help develop relationships while enhancing divergent thinking. Collaborative environments like chat rooms, brainstorming tools, mechanisms to facilitate the sharing of member biographies and pictures, and simple portals with rich menu choices for collaboration may be best for young communities.

 During the growth stage, the community needs tools that enable convergent thinking to help it agree on a course of action, a best practice, a recommended solution, or a decision about which product idea to pursue. It needs technologies that help it to find relevant knowledge assets quickly, and engage internal and external customers in dialogue. It needs the capability to vote on alternatives, and features that help surface and resolve inter-community conflicts. It also needs an environment that helps new members get up to speed quickly.
During the maturity -- or payoff -- stage, the community may need tools that balance convergent and divergent thinking. When it's in decline, it needs tools that archive and preserve knowledge.

During renewal it needs to be re-energized . More than tools, it needs movies, images and motivating stories or other ways to engage the community's emotions. Face-to-face meetings, as well as skilled facilitation, may once again become essential.

Roles
Different roles are possible : Sponsor -- sponsors the community to the larger organization, helps knock down barriers for the community and helps attain funding. Champion -- the "zealot" who does anything and everything possible to form the community, get it off the ground and keep it moving forward. Facilitator -- ensures that community events are successful, by getting all members involved; introduces techniques and approaches to help the community achieve its goals.

 Social coordinator -- plans and coordinates social events for the community, such as celebrations, birthday parties and special events. Connector -- helps make connections between and among community members, and between the community and the rest of the organization. Health inspector/counselor -- concerned with the overall health of the community, the relationships between and among its members, as well as between community and non community members; serves as "ship's counselor" when required. Knowledge manager -- helps the community to organize and manage its knowledge assets and to find knowledge.

Is a community effective?
Effective
Clear shared purpose Right People profiles Good moderation Knowledge editing Attention to process.

Ineffective
No clarity,coherence Wrong participants Wandering off topic No summarizing Technology gimmicks

Returns
COP benefits can be evaluated in terms of : business problems solved in the community; new knowledge created in the community; joint learning occurring in the community; existing knowledge reused by the community; innovations (products, ideas, processes, etc); improvements in process performance metrics; the community's role in recruiting and retaining talent

Conclusion
Communities are living organisms, formed by people joining together for a common purpose. Understanding the life-cycle of different communities is key to knowledge management. Successful communities require multiple modes of interaction to achieve a proper balance.

References
Brown, John Seely; Duguid, Paul. "Organizational Learning and Communities of Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation Organization Science, 2nd January 1991, pp 40-57. Gupta, Anil K; Govindarajan, Vijay. "Organizing for Knowledge Flows within MNCs" International Business Review, 3rd April 1994, pp. 443-558. Nevis, E; Di Bella A; Gould J. Understanding Organizations as Learning Systems Sloan Management Review, Winter 1995, pp 73-85. Inkpen, Andrew C. "Creating Knowledge through Collaboration," California Management Review, 9th January 1996, pp 123-140. Edvinsson, Leif; Malone, Michael S. Intellectual Capital Harper Business, 1997. Brown, John Seely; Duguid, Paul. Organizing Knowledge California Management Review, spring 1998, pp 90-111. Davenport, Thomas H; Prusak Laurence. Working knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know Harvard Business School Press, 1998. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity Cambridge University Press, 1998.

References(Contd)

Brown, John Seely; Duguid, Paul. The Social Life of Information Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Gupta, Anil K; Govindarajan Vijay. Knowledge Managements Social Dimension: Lessons from Nucor Steel Sloan Management Review, Fall 2000, pp71-80. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice: The Structure of Knowledge Stewarding in Knowledge Horizons edited by Charles Despres and Daniele Chauvel, Butterworth Heinemann, 2001. Davidson, Carl; Voss, Philip. Knowledge Management: An Introduction to Creating Competitive Advantage from Intellectual Capital Tandem Press, 2002. Cross, Rob; Davenport, Thomas H; Cantrell, Susan. The Social Side of Performance Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003, pp 20-22. Cross, Rob; Cross, Robert L; Parker, Andrew. The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations Harvard Business School Press, 2004 Cross, Rob; Liedtka, Jeanne; Weiss, Leigh. A Practical Guide to Social Networks Harvard Business Review, March 2005, pp 124-132.

End of Presentation

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