Develop communities of practice
Information about what communities of practice (CoP) are and what they do - people with a common sense of purpose who think together to share information, build knowledge, develop expertise and solve problems. Includes advice to help plan and create a community of practice; build and manage membership; tackle information needs; review and evaluate your community. Plus tools and techniques for knowledge sharing.
About communities of practice
The concept of a community of practice was first defined and described as;
"a group of people who engage in collective learning in a common area of interest" (Wenger: 1998)
Communities of practice (CoP) are cultivated and nurtured rather than formally managed. In this sense they differ from formal teams.
What do communities of practice do?
A community of practice...
- Focuses on a particular area of practice.
- Members share a profession or common interest in a specific subject.
- The community can be formal or informal.
- The community can be based on either a short or long term commitment.
- Works across geographical regions, disciplinary boundaries and formal reporting lines.
But most importantly it has a core group of people who regularly 'think together' about real-life problems.
Benefits of communities of practice
Communities of practice...
- Encourage knowledge sharing
- Give members a networking platform to share personal knowledge, information and experience
- Provide a platform for turning knowledge and research into practice
- Combination of practitioner knowledge and experience with published information supports evidence based practice
- Open to both explicit (published) knowledge - articles, reports, websites, and guidelines - and tacit (personal) knowledge gained through experience and reflection
- Supports social learning and collaboration
Other potential advantages of communities of practice:
- Encourage knowledge sharing to lead to cultural change
- Support organisational development and research
- Transfer and develop best practice
- Reuse information
- Learn from previous mistakes
- Encourage personal and professional development
Community roles and responsibilities
Every community of practice is multi-layered, meaning that members and users participate to varying degrees.
While it is expected that a number of community members will engage passively with the group, using it as an important learning resource, it is essential for the prosperity of each community that several key roles are actively shared;
- Coordinator - As a central role within each community, this person is responsible for steering the group toward an indetifiable goal or aim. He/she develops and encourages the community by stimulating interest in the cause or community objectives.
- Member Support - The ultimate aim of this role is to ensure that community members feel welcomed and comfortable within the group. This is an important task as research shows that within online environments it is essential to foster an atmosphere of trust amongst members - without this, interaction and engagement will suffer.
- Information Resources - The quality and usefulness of a community can be severely affected where resources are not relevant to the groups' needs. This role involves identifying and organising these resources.
- Website Administrator - The functionality and usability of online resources relies on good organisation and maintenance. This role is responsible for maintaining and developing the website itself so that remains current and easy to use.
In general these "key roles" tend to be held by people who are innovators, aware of the benefits of collaborative technologies and the community of practice model.
Each role can be held by one or more people and responsibilties can be shared. However in each case it is essential that it is recognised that the prosperity of a community relies upon the enthusiasm of its "core group".
Background reading
See the links and list of references below for more information and support for communities of practice.
- Etienne Wenger is often considered the father of CoPs and you can read more about the theory at: wenger-trayner.com
- The Health Foundation conducts research into use of communities and networks and produces useful reports with examples: www.health.org.uk
- Q Community promotes communities of practice to support quality improvement: q.health.org.uk