1. 1 Building a community of leaders using Communities of Practice (CoP) - a tool of the Learning Organization - Knowledge Management through relationships 2/14/2004

2. 2 Community of Practice (CoP) Communities of Practice are informal groups formed around a common issue, problem, skill, or resource.

3. 3 Types of communities Helping community - forum to help each other solve work problems Best practice community - develop and share best practices Knowledge community - organize and manage a body of knowledge Innovation community - cross organizational collaboration for creative ideas

4. 4 Communities of Practice (CoP) Self-organizing relationships operate informally with management support self-select their involvement and invite others set own agenda focusing on company issues establish own leadership structure Knowledge & relationships are inseparable technology alone is not sufficient incentives to share are not sufficient directives to share are not sufficient

5. 5 Snapshot Comparison In perspective with other organizational groupings.

6. 6 Benefits from CoP Tear down silos by focusing on commonality boundary permeability (people & ideas) Increases organizational learning through establishment of employee relationships solving problems without redundancy tap into employee tacit knowledge makes knowledge sharing natural, not forced Provide a mechanism for employees to enable their ideas for innovation and change to “make a difference” (employee satisfaction)

7. 7 Business Purposes Forum to share knowledge for solving work related problems Best practice and knowledge sharing Establish a repository of knowledge not otherwise captured by technology Establish a foundation for learning Adaptive learning – responding to business challenges Generative learning – being innovative

8. 8 Success stories Shell E&P realizes annual benefits of $200+ million through its CoP knowledge sharing American Management Systems (AMS) estimates that their communities save the company between $2-5 million per year and increase revenue by over $13 million An international company formed communities to supplement their management development program

9. 9 Nynex cut service set-up time by 80% through the increased communication that communities bring Andersen Consulting Education division over half of eligible employees participating sample groups: motivation, culture and learning, demographics, virtual classroom, Web technology, problem-based learning More success stories

10. 10 Value measurement Ties to the learning & capability component of the balanced scorecard current activity builds future value value appears in the work of teams and business units, not in the communities themselves discontinue a group when value generation ceases (death is natural as interests change) Measure by anecdotal evidence (stories) how ideas are being used changes resulting from community input

11. 11 Explicit management support provide legitimacy for Communities of Practice commit to concept & provide small operating budget remove barriers as needed encourage collaboration reward participation provide support resources, if requested Directory of Communities knowledge base build awareness & facilitate use Support structure needed

12. 12 Support structure needed Community Facilitator (knowledge manager) assistance in community formation identify initial group membership & help organize define initial community boundaries & expected benefits community promotion and champion establishment of community space on Intranet assist community to get established organize initial meetings (agenda & location) identify and resolve community problems required communication to remove barriers

13. 13 Community governance Community charter (rules and guidelines) community’s mission & goals can change over time voluntary participation (can phase in & out) limit involvement to 1 to 2 hours per week max. in all CoPs virtual lurking is encouraged community boundaries (area of focus) 8 to 15 ideal group size ability to subdivide or merge if desired self-organizing group culture degree of formality determined by the community procedural rules jointly agreed upon

14. 14 Community governance Community “mayor” or team leader keep things on track & serve as group contact initial mayor appointed for 3 month term or rotated for learning opportunities Community history documented on Intranet document group activities & presentations discussion forum between group meetings Start small & leverage success individual actions to implement themselves expand to larger initiatives with more people

15. 15 Sustaining interest Recognition of accomplishments & benefits measure and communicate employee recognition (leading to satisfaction) Annual Showcase & Innovation Fair awareness & diffusion of ideas recruit additional employees into interest groups broaden the base of topics covered

16. 16 Possible communities sales (virtual meetings?) e-business accounting issues workflow processes diversity (racial, gender, age, mental models) retirement community building technology utilization PC tech support business strategy marketing strategy data mining & analysis core competencies Based on needs determination

17. 17 “Leaders are those people who ‘walk ahead,’ people who are genuinely committed to deep change in themselves and in their organizations. They lead through developing new skills, capabilities, and understandings. And they come from many places within an organization.” Senge (1996, p. 45) CoP to provide a structure for emergent leaders

18. 18 Communities of Practice (CoP) - a tool of the Learning Organization - Knowledge Management through relationships Information cannot be assumed to circulate freely just because technology to support circulation is available. Too often information is treated as a commodity to be hoarded and exchanged. A mechanism is needed, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking and acting. It is this free flow of information that makes knowledge creation possible.

19. 19 Bibliography Barth, S. (2000). KM founding fathers ponder future directions. Knowledge Management (March). Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science 2(1), 40-57. Graham, W., Osgood, D., & Karren, J. (1998). A real-life community of practice. Training & Development [Online] 52(5), 34-38. Available: Infotrac/A20991469 [2001, February 20]. Haimila, S. (2001). Shell creates communities of practice. KM World 2/19/01 [Online]. URL: http://www.kmworld.com [2001, February 20]. Hanley, S. S. (1999). Communities of practice - a culture built on sharing. Information Week [Online] April, 26, 1999. Available: Infotrac/A54471244 [2001, February 20]. Manasco, B. (2001). Hidden power of communities. American Productivity & Quality Center [Online]. URL: http://www.apqc.org [2001, February 8].

20. 20 Bibliography Newman, A., & Smith, M. (1999). How to create a virtual learning community. Training & Development [Online], 53(7), 44-47. Available: Infotrac/A55282339 [2001, February 20]. Senge, P. M. (1996). Leading learning organizations: The bold, the powerful, and the invisible. In F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith, & R. Beckhard (Eds.), The leader of the future: New visions, strategies, and practices for the next era (pp. 41-57). San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Publishers. Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G., & Smith, B. (1999). The dance of change: The challenges of sustaining momentum in learning organizations. New York: Doubleday. Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R. B., & Smith, B. J. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Doubleday. Stewart, T. A. (1996). The invisible key to success (communities of practice). Fortune [Online] 134(3), 173-175. Available: Infotrac/A18483315 [2001, February 20].

21. 21 Wenger, E. T., & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of Practice: the organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review January-February 2000. Bibliography