In our company, we've
been supporting Communities of Practice (CoPs) as a key enabler for Knowledge
Management for almost a decade, and we've developed a model and some operating
principles that seem to work well. I was honoured that my paper on
Re-Intermediation
was selected as Library Site
of the Day
yesterday, and thought I would return the favour by sharing some of these
principles with readers.
There are three main types of CoPs, shown in the table below. All three
share know-how (expertise), know-what (intelligence) and know-who
(contacts), using electronic tools and databases to supplement face-to-face
meetings, to accomplish set objectives:
|
Life
|
Purpose
|
Shared-Problem Communities
|
Indefinite
|
Implement Solutions, then Continuously Improve
|
Shared-Project Communities
|
Finite
|
Manage the Project
|
Shared-Interest Communities
|
Indefinite
|
Share Knowledge and Viewpoints
|
In many organizations, the majority of communities are focused on shared
problems, such as the achievement of sales targets, bringing a new product
to market, or improving the quality or efficiency of manufacturing or distribution.
Most successful CoPs have clearly defined goals, roles, and
processes. The goals depend on the purpose of the CoP (see above)
and on the specific mandate set by the organization's, project's, or community's
leaders. Goals may evolve over time, but they should be clearly articulated.
Roles depend on the size and scope of the community, but most successful
CoPs define at least six essential and distinct roles for community members
and the organizational teams that support them:
- The Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are the acknowledged
leaders of the community. They are responsible for ensuring that it achieves
its purpose, and that community members have the knowledge they want and need
to fulfil their roles.
- The Core Community members are those that 'wake up worrying'
about the goals of the community and are measured and rewarded on the achievement
of these goals. They generally have 'author/editor access' to the community
tools and databases.
- The Extended Community consists of others with a stake
in achieving the goals of the community, and those that provide critical knowledge
or expertise necessary to its success, but who are not involved with it on
a day-to-day basis.
- Knowledge Stewards or Content Coordinators are responsible
for assessing the knowledge content needs of the community and ensuring that
knowledge is captured in the community tools and databases, often acting as
intermediaries for the SMEs to that end.
- Researchers are those charged with collecting or creating
the knowledge content to fill any gaps in it identified by the Stewards.
- Network Coordinators or CoP Facilitators are responsible
for optimizing the flow of knowledge to and from community members. This entails
arranging community meetings, canvassing community members, assigning work
to researchers etc.
It is important that community members understand their, and others', roles,
and that they receive the necessary training, budget, and other resources
to fulfil them. It is equally important that clear success measures for each
role, leading to the achievement of the community goals, be articulated, and
that those in each role be rewarded or recognized for attaining these measures.
The community must then decide on its operating processes, its modus
operandi. Like goals, processes will evolve, but they need to be
defined to ensure cohesion of effort towards the community's goals. In shared-project
communities, the processes will often be explicitly set out in the project
plan or charter. In shared-problem communities, process decisions will include
how, and how often, the community will meet, and how its work will be apportioned
and carried out: who will do what by when.
Intranets and other new technologies now allow communities to use a variety
of tools and databases in a shared electronic workspace, to further the achievement
of their goals. Here are the most common types of these I've seen:
Tool/Database
|
Purpose
|
Library databases, including:
- Harvesting, publishing or submission tools
- Indexing, taxonomy and search tools
- Distribution and subscription tools
|
Store the accumulated knowledge (content and
links) of the community
- Capture requisite knowledge
- Locate relevant knowledge easily
- Deploy relevant knowledge to the community
|
Discussion databases
|
Record and store community 'conversations'
|
IM or chat tools
|
Enable instant access to community members
|
Collaboration tools and e-spaces
|
Enable virtual teamwork on specific tasks
|
Demonstration, expert and learning tools
|
Enable on-line learning by the community |
| Canvassing tools |
Enable just-in-time information acquisition
|
Event calendars
|
Coordinate community activities
|
Community directories
|
Identify and reach community members and their
expertise
|
Project communities often use additional tools from the project manager's
toolkit.
Finally, here are the ten organizational and operating principles that seem
to lead to highly effective and efficient communities of practice:
- Let CoPs organize themselves. Don't impose organization
on them. They know how to do it.
- Let CoPs manage themselves. Involvement of people in communities
is largely voluntary, whether the boss likes it that way or not, and nothing
kills a voluntary organization faster than someone outside telling the members
what to do and how to do it.
- Content quality is critical. The quality of the knowledge
and expertise that is made available to community members will keep drawing
community members back and keep them involved and engaged.
- Keep it simple. Don't make the tools so powerful and complex
that they intimidate the extended community members.
- Keep it fresh. Just like with a Weblog, you need something
new and interesting everyday to keep the community energized and momentum
high.
- It's the people, stupid. Don't get so enamoured with tools
and databases and processes that you forget that human interaction is the
most valuable and most important mechanism for knowledge transfer.
- If it's dying, pull the plug. 'Indefinite' life for a
community doesn't mean 'infinite'. If enthusiasm and engagement in community
activities is flagging, figure out why, extinguish the 'old' community, and
if there is still a critical problem, project or shared interest there somewhere,
self-organize a new community around that.
- Understand members' knowledge behaviours. Some people
insist on doing everything face-to-face. Others love working with virtual
tools. Still others want relevant community knowledge pushed out to them.
Accommodate them, don't try to change them.
- Make sure the network coordinator is a star. He or she
plays the pivotal role in the community, connecting people to people and
people to knowledge. That takes enormous people skills, exceptional energy,
and a solid knowledge of the subject matter.
- Have fun. If the community is fun to be part of, members
will put up with lots of other imperfections as you get the kinks worked
out.
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1:08:42 PM 
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