Tangibility in communities of practice

© 2014 by Arun Prakash and Sonia Wadhwa. All Rights Reserved.

SESSION 107 SEP 23, 2014 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

DESIGNING TANGIBILITY IN COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE: KEY TO SUCCESS

ARUN PRAKASH ([email protected]) SONIA WADHWA ([email protected])

Contents © 2014 by Arun Prakash and Sonia Wadhwa – All Rights Reserved

Arun Prakash Arun Prakash is a recognized thought leader in the fields of organizaEonal development and learning technologies. He has leveraged his 20+ years of experience in meaningful integraEon of formal and informal methods of learning through technology. These methods have been the cornerstone of award-‐winning collaboraEve learning products and management systems.

Sonia Wadhwa Sonia Wadhwa is a passionate advocate of improving L&D performance by focusing on performance support and collaboraEve learning. She is an authority in sePng-‐up and managing high-‐performance learning delivery operaEons for some of the world’s largest enterprises. With over 20 years of experience in direcEng global L&D teams, Sonia serves as a board member for several learning associaEons and consorEums.


CoP

What are Communi5es of

Prac5ce?


CoP

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE (CoP)

› Groups of individuals who have similar goals and/or challenges, or share a passion for a topic or skill area; who deepen their knowledge and experience in the common area of experEse by regularly interacEng with each other.

What it is NOT?


CoP

WHERE IS THE CONCEPT BEING APPLIED? › •  OrganizaEons

•  Government •  EducaEon •  AssociaEons •  The Web/ The Internet …etc.


Parts

WHAT CONSTITUTES A CoP?

Community

PracEce Roles and

Goals

Domain


Domain

DOMAIN

•  A clear definiEon of the area of common interest to all potenEal members of the community

•  This definiEon should be detailed enough to cover key issues, concerns, and challenges experienced by members

** Members need to demonstrate commitment to the domain and shared competence.


Community

COMMUNITY

•  Members of a CoP may be from significantly different backgrounds and may not have the same work environment.

•  The binding factor between members may be the subject of interest and their commitment to learning and evolving in the same.

**The relaAonships among members and the sense of belonging is supreme for a successful community.


Practice

PRACTICE •  The actual body of knowledge, informaEon, methods, tools, documents, case studies, quesEons and answers

•  A dynamic body of knowledge and resources that build itself over a period of sustained interacEon

**This knowledge is not merely conceptual insights but pracAcal wisdom, that allows for the creaAon of “shared pracAce”.


Roles & Goals

ROLES AND GOALS

•  Defined and Formal Roles: •  Creator/ Sponsor •  Content Coordinator/ Moderator

•  Undefined and Informal Roles: •  That evolve as members interact and parEcipate

•  Goals: Role-‐specific goals and individual goals


So,…

Benefits of a CoP?


Benefits

Knowledge • Dynamic body of shared resources

• Access to experEse

• Transfer of tacit knowledge

People • Help with job challenges

• Personal development

• MoEvaEon • Engagement

Business • ProducEvity • Competence •  Industry Leadership

• Synergies across enEEes

Innova5on •  Industry best pracEces

• New strategies and methods

• StandardizaEon

Long-‐Term & Short-‐Term Value

BENEFITS OF CoP


So,…

Are we achieving these benefits ?


Success Factors

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS OF CoP

Tangible Factors

• Governance • Extent of CommunicaEon • RecogniEon of ExperEse • Leadership • Member Engagement •  InnovaEon

Intangible Factors

• Trust •  IdenEty • Quality of CommunicaEon •  Individual AspiraEon • CollecEve ExperEse • Direct correlaEon with performance outcomes


The Divide

THE GREAT DEBATE

vs.


Success Factors


Extent of CommunicaEon

• Number of community exchanges/ acEvity • Kind of acEvity/ exchange •  Frequency and Currency of acEvity/ exchange •  Sustenance and size of acEvity/ exchange •  Speed and Time to Response

Quality of CommunicaEon

•  Indirectly measure: • Advancement of domain through new knowledge and best pracEces

• Community being the preferred locaEon/ portal for answers


Success Factors


Individual Growth and Leadership

•  RecogniEon of Knowledge •  Emergence of New Though Leaders •  Improvement of Quality of AcEviEes the Community

•  Sense of IdenEty

CollecEve Growth and Leadership

•  Pride in Community •  ContribuEon to the OrganizaEon •  InnovaEon •  Community becoming insEtuEonalized as a core value-‐added capability of the sponsoring organizaEon


Success Factors


Governance

•  Encouragement through PosiEve Governance (e.g., Management Pick)

•  Closing down of irrelevant and dormant topics or communiEes

•  Flagging and moderaEon of content for appropriateness and context

• Help people organize around purposeful acEons that deliver tangible results

Trust • Over-‐governance leading to erosion of trust

•  Lower engagement


?

MEMBER ENGAGEMENT


CONCLUSION •  Iden5fy Benefits of CoP: IdenEfy purpose and charter of the CoP, and all perceived benefits.

•  Successful Governance Model: Categorize tangible and intangible factors for measurement

•  For Tangible Factors: •  Create measurable metrics •  Baseline benchmark performance against metrics •  Create process for measuring, reporEng and comparing with benchmarks

•  For Intangible Factors: •  Categorize them into tacit capital and explicit capital, their success factors

and metrics •  IdenEfy indirect benefits and develop metrics to measure them

© 2014 All Rights Reserved.

Education

Tangibility in communities of practice