COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (CoP)

domain

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Inspires members to contribute and participate

Brings people together and guide their learning

Without commitment to domain, a community is just a group of friends

A shared domain creates a sense of accountability to a body of knowledge and to the development of the practice

Examples of recognized domain that community may share:
- profession or discipline, same job or role, or dealing with same client

characteristic of good domain

Not fixed. It evolves along with the world and community

Involve simple issues as well as complex and long-standing issues that require sustained learning

Inspire thought leadership and spirit of inquiry

Boost community’s visibility and influence within the organization

Relevant issues to the domain

• What topics to be cared?
• How’s the domain connected to the organization strategy?
• What it is in it for community?
• What the open questions and the leading edge of the domain?
• What kind of influence do the community want to have?

community

A group of people who interact regularly on issues important to their domain

They learn together and develop a shared understanding of their domain

build valuable relationship based on respect and trust

in the process develop a sense of belonging and mutual commitment

Concept of community

COMMONALITY
- Each member develops a unique individual identity. Their interactions source from commonality and diversity.

ideal size

VOLUNTARY
- Membership, may be self-selected or assigned. Participation can be encouraged

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LEADERSHIP
- characteristic of the whole community

RECIPROCITY
- people contribute to the community while trusting that they too will benefit

UNIQUE ATMOSPHERE
- offers a place of exploration where it is safe to speak the truth and ask hard questions.

Relevant issues to the community

• What roles are people going to play?
• How often will the community meet and how will members connect on an ongoing basis?
• What kind of activities will generates energy and develop trust?
• How will members deal with conflict?
• How will newcomers be introduced into the community?

practice

A set of frameworks, ideas, tools, information, styles, languages, stories and documents that community member shares.

Establish a baseline of common knowledge.

Explores existing body of knowledge and the latest advances.

Includes the books, articles, knowledge bases, websites and other repositories that members share.

Also embodies a certain way of behaving, perspectives on problems or idea, thinking styles etc.

successful practices

Balance between joint activities ; exploring ideas and production of tools or documents.

Give practitioners a chance to gain a reputation as contributors to the community’s practice.

Relevant issues to the practice

• What knowledge to share, develop and document?
• What kind of learning activities to organize?
• How should the knowledge repository be organized and easily accessible to members?
• Where are the sources of knowledge outside the community?

Implications of model

It is important to develop all three elements in parallel.

Healthy community is when all the three elements interacts.

The art of community development is to use the synergy between domain, community and practice to help the community evolve and fulfill its potential.