A key factor to make KM a success

Communities of Practice (CoP) are a key element in modern organisations. Effective knowledge management without CoPs is out of question. The term Community of Practice has been brought up in the 1990ies.

The mode of a CoP-like functioning has been invented most probably at least a decade ago – at different spots of our planet. So, do not be amused to be (or to know) a member adhering to a CoP for longer than the term exists.

A Community of Practice differs from other forms of people organising themselves in a group. A CoP is not the same as a team, a task force, an interest group, a network, though with all these forms there are elements in common. Six elements are essential and define a Community of Practice:

• Community: A CoP is a self-organising group: the associates agree on the thematic scope, the form of working and sharing and the results they want to achieve. The members may be from within one organisation or from many different ones; a CoP never consists of members of one department only.
• Domain: A CoP is dealing with a theme that interests people having a large variety of professional backgrounds, and thus looking at the topic from different perspectives.
• Practice: The interest in a CoP is focused on practical experience and questions. The associates share their experience and together they look for answers to their questions and for helpful ways in solving their problems.
• Motivation: The associates have a passion for the CoP based on the fact to take a personal profit out of it. It is a matter of personal interest and not a question of being delegated by the institution.
• Mandate: By their mandate, the organisations show their interest and commitment for the CoP. They define the thematic focus of interest and the expected results.
• Structure: Every CoP has a typical balance between formal and informal structure. A CoP exists beyond organisational lines and boxes – it interlinks them.

If managers of an organisation have a will to have communities of practice within their organisation, there are two basic principles to keep in mind.

• There is a saying that a community of practice can not be created or mandated, but only nurtured. CoPs need to negotiate their values and sense of mission through interaction. A CoP grows in its own rhythm, follows its own rules, and produces its own results. A CoP is not able to fulfil mandates as a task force can do.
   
• Knowledge Managers tend to say that only written information exist.
  A CoP deals with explicit and tacit knowledge; explicit knowledge can be expressed by words or numbers and thus can be stored; tacit knowledge is everything that is intuitive, difficult to formalize and revealed by practice, and difficult to store. Knowledge cannot always be separated from the communities that create, use, and transform it. A CoP is a place for tacit-to-tacit knowledge production and transmission.

So, prerequisites for a CoP are interest, trust, time, openness, and an absorption capacity for unexpected results.

If you want to start a CoP …

... Start small and do expect surprises instead of results

... Get in contact with interested people inside and outside your organisation

... Show the outcome and let others benefit of your activity

... Don't bother too much, whether your interaction is a CoP or not. You will realize it in time.

Are you interested in knowing more about CoP within five to ten minutes? Read the flyer.