Communities of Practice The Ultimate Guide

In a world that's increasingly interconnected and collaborative, leveraging collective knowledge can be a game-changer in the journey from project to product, this is where "Communities of Practice" come into play, fostering shared learning and innovation among groups of people who share a common interest or profession.

This powerful concept not only strengthens the internal culture of an organization but also significantly contributes to successful project-to-product transformations.

In this blog post, we'll delve into the dynamic world of Communities of Practice, shedding light on how this concept is vital in catalyzing effective project-to-product transformations.

Communities of Practice are collaborative networks that enable the sharing of insights, experiences, and best practices, driving collective growth and learning. They can foster a sense of camaraderie and mutual understanding, making problem-solving and innovation much more seamless and effective.

For a project-to-product transformation, this shared wisdom can significantly enhance decision-making, risk management, and execution strategies.

Whether you're an experienced project manager, a product development leader, or a team member in the process of a project-to-product transformation, understanding and leveraging Communities of Practice can greatly enhance the results of your transformation efforts.

Join us as we explore this powerful concept, its benefits, and how you can cultivate these valuable networks within your organization for successful project-to-product transformation.

ADAPT Methodology® is a unique Digital Product Development framework to change traditional project-centric companies toward product-led companies!

Society changed and leaders need support in the way how they lead and design their digital product organizations, that is the reason why the ADAPT Methodology® was created, but now let's get a deep dive into Communities Of Practice if you want to get a deeper knowledge about this topic.

Communities of Practice have been an efficient way of leveraging businesses over the past decades, and it's a mandatory practice for every Digital Product Company.

Communities of Practice

Every company that implements CoPs is expected to rapidly and effectively increase its success compared to their competitors due to its impact such as:

1. Eases up the adaptation stage of newly hired employees since the communities of practice serve as a mentor in understanding their role and most of all, how their work is essential to the company. In addition to that, newly hired employees can obtain a sense of belongingness through the help of communities of practice.
2. Projects with community backing are executed faster because employees have some sort of “buy-in” to the plans. Compared to executives just issuing “orders”, employees don’t feel like they’re just blindly following plans they don’t have any personal involvement.
3. It helps the members of CoPs to think outside of the box in creating additional services and products for the company during a brainstorming session.
4. CoPs help companies recruit and retain talent. You can easily identify who among your employees is competent and can work productively with other employees in a community of practice.
5. CoPs serve as your first line of defense in the company. They can turn weaknesses into strengths as long as they work together.

Best Approach to Implement the CoPs

There are two frameworks you can use to implement the communities of practice in your company. The first one is canonical in which a company has formal rules or processes that must be followed by the members of a community of practice.

The other one is a non-canonical approach which is the opposite of the first framework. CoPs created through a Non-canonical framework rely on the informal “routines” that the members do during their meetup “sessions”.

Some time ago we wrote a blog post called: 10 Communities Of Practice Best Practices, I think this could be interesting as well.

Below are some of the factors that you must consider:

• The communities of practice members should be independent in constructing an organizational structure to ensure that they meet their objectives and be truly helpful towards the company’s objectives.
• Membership in communities of practice is voluntary. Let your employees select their group based on their interests and interact with other members freely based on topics that attract them the most. If members are forced to join, the tendency of them to be uncooperative is high.
• Communities of practice are not websites or blogs that you manage; it is a group of professional members. In line with this, it cannot be complete if it will only have members of less than five persons. It’s more effective with a larger membership.
• The growth of the company lies within the people working for it. Therefore, members of the communities of practice should be nurtured in every possible way. As the employer or as an executive, you must be more than willing to listen and weigh in on their suggestions that might lead to drastic but good changes in the company.

The Pillars of Communities of Practice

The CoP is not just an ordinary circle of friends or community group within the company that anyone can join for as long as the admins allow them to be part of. Identifying what is the CoP based on Etienne Wenger, a theorist, helps you to prevent it from becoming a normal group on social media platforms.

Therefore, if you are planning to have a community of practices, you should know the components are as follows:

DOMAIN

The "titles" of the communities of practice within your firm might be used to identify this. For instance, group A is referred to as "marketers" because of their shared interest in marketing.

Group B's interest in website optimization was similar, hence their domain name should be "SEO." Members of communities of practice are dedicated to their chosen field and work together and strategically to overcome relevant obstacles inside their organizations.

COMMUNITY

the actions taking place within their jurisdiction, which is one of the CoP's pillars. a section of the CoP's pillar where participants converse and exchange knowledge about how to advance themselves and deal with discoveries in their specialized fields.

Instead of generating a list of which products or services you now offer need improvement, communities of practice can, for instance, organize a question-and-answer session to identify the key issues faced by customers.

Members of the communities of practice in this situation will be knowledgeable about how your product affects consumers and how to resolve customer problems.

PRACTICE

The final but most significant pillar of the CoP. Here, members trade resources that can aid a domain in developing a strategy that will improve its goals and deal with related issues at once.

To improve sales revenue, for instance, the members of the communities of practice in this stage are all dedicated to strategizing and determining which of your customer locations needs more advertising. This component, which is one of the foundations of communities of practice, might also imply that the participants should decide which marketing tactics are most effective.

At this stage, community members can also come up with fresh ideas for new products that still incorporate the company's goal while addressing fresh markets.

The communities of practice are not only limited to solving problems, meeting the company’s objective, and preventing malicious actions from your competitors.

CoPs can also help you to:

• Re-used assets that can lessen your expenses.
• Discussing developments
• Identifying and resolving gaps within the company.

Basic Structure of a Community of Practice

The exact structure of communities of practice varies among organizations. However, they all follow a more generalized structure, consisting of three components:

The Core Group

The core group is composed of people who have a very good understanding of the domain. They are considered community leaders because they are the ones who decide on the agenda or topics to be discussed during interactions. They also set the direction of meetings and activities.

They are the backbone of a community of practice. They provide secretarial support as necessary, such as keeping records of the members, experts to contact, etc.

The core group is widely respected by all members of the community because of their deep knowledge of the domain and their contributions.

The Inner Circle

These are the community members in general. They have a more informal structure, meeting less often. They participate in activities and discussions, actively bringing their concerns, knowledge, and problems to the community. They may tap the core group from time to time, as necessary.

The Outer Circle

These are the interested members, readers, and contributors in a loose network. They provide support to the community in various ways (sharing resources) as they know that the knowledge obtained through the CoP will benefit the organization as a whole.

Communities develop their practice through various activities. Members obtain and share knowledge by trying to solve problems, requesting information, seeking experience (relatable experience with other members), validation, discussing developments, coordinating with other practitioners, mapping knowledge, and identifying gaps.

Unlike typical project teams in an organization, communities of practice don’t get dissolved once they deliver a set of specific outputs. They grow and evolve, and can last as long as the members are still engaged.

Despite having a less formal structure (far from the hierarchical nature of organisations), CoPs tend to have creative approaches to problems. This makes them a valuable resource for any organization.

It is important to know that communities of practice are not called that in your company. They could be created under various names, such as learning networks or thematic clubs.

They also come in a variety of forms. Some meet face-to-face, and most interact online. Some CoPs are very large, while others only have a core group and a few inner circles. Some communities are local, some are composed of members from various parts of the world.

And as long as your CoP possesses the key elements mentioned above, your imagination is the limit as to how it should look. You can fashion it into a semi-toastmaster club or even a debating team. It’s all up to you.

Communities of practice have existed for decades and have proven to be of great value to many organizations, particularly in the business world.

Being a key driver of learning, nurturing these communities by providing them with support and resources can enable them to thrive and deliver impactful results for your company.

The risks of implementing communities of practice

CoPs are not immune to risks and disadvantages. There will always be dilemmas that you may encounter when implementing the communities of practice, it is better to get ready and plan solutions.

Problem 1:

The communities of practice have been and always been available for decades now, but only a few companies take the leap of faith and take risks of implementing it. In this case, your employees might need to adjust since this is not a common policy at their previous companies. If you are planning to implement the communities of practice to your company, give them enough time to adjust and get acquainted with the idea.

Problem 2:

Few companies were able to take risks and succeed. The success of those few companies that implemented the communities of practice doesn’t guarantee the same level of success for your company. It all boils down to how you will nurture the members of your company.

Implementing CoP comes with action from your end. It does not mean that if you already formed communities of practice, you no longer need to exert effort and provide additional incentives.

Problem 3

You may find it easy to build communities of practice in your company since you have employees’ trust and loyalty in you. But, sustaining these communities can be challenging.

Companies with Communities of Practice

1. Hewlett-Packard (HP)

The community of practice at Hewlett-Packard holds monthly teleconferences that aim to minimize downtime for customers, particularly in computers. Then, they detected several problems, they were able to address and resolve the issue. As a result, they have come up with a consistent pricing scheme for the HP sales team.

1. World Bank

With over 130 office locations worldwide and 189 member countries, the World Bank is indeed one of the successful businesses of our generation today. One of their secrets is embracing the advantages along with the risks of putting up communities of practice in their company.

1. American Management System or AMS

It has been reported that the AMS went through an intense growth decline. The chairman of the company personally invited some of the employees with strong leadership qualities to manage the development of communities of practice is problematic and strategic areas of the company.

The difference in Communities of Practices

A community of practice in an organization is composed of people with commitment, passion, and shared expertise that keep them together. An organization’s communities of practice will last for as long as the employees are still interested to interact and learn from each other.

They will be able to maintain the group and keep their eyes on their shared vision. The regular project teams get dissolved once they deliver a specific set of outputs. This does not apply to a community of practice.

Furthermore, a community of practice is different from an informal network. Usually, your informal networks have a shallow interest in what you do as a professional.

Having your employees grouped based on their expertise and job roles are two of the best ways of demonstrating communities of practice.

Though they may not have a specific day within the week to comply in answering questions and interacting with each other, communities of practice members feature free-flowing and of course creative approaches to problems.

In addition to that, a community of practice members will motivate each other to develop their capabilities on how they would be essential to a company or an organization during a brainstorming session.

Effective methods to nurture the CoPs

Etienne Wenger has stated that managers cannot manipulate the communities of practice. However, the following actions should be taken to nurture the communities of practice:

1. You should provide the infrastructure needed by the communities to be able to meet their objectives and be productive. These “infrastructures” may come as information, supplies, allotted time for discussion/interaction, and so forth.
2. Keeping things simple and informal since all members of the communities of practice have their professional obligations to the company and providing them just minimal responsibility is highly recommended. Do not force them to overwork and let their creativity and ideas flow in their way. Have the decency to give them the privilege of expressing their thoughts. Requiring the communities of practice members to attend several meetings in just one day makes them feel exhausted and unproductive.
3. Appreciating and identifying the efforts of the members of the communities of practice will motivate them. Remember the first reason why you gathered them all and allowed them to be part of the communities of practice. A simple gift certificate from a related event on their domain or allowing them to have at least one free day to discuss and execute their ideas makes them more valued in the company.

Measuring the Value and Contribution of Communities of Practices

“The idea at that meeting helped me persuade the customer to continue to buy our service. Thanks to advice from the community, I got done in two days which normally takes me two weeks. I took a risk because I was confident I had the backing of my community and it paid off.”  Mr James Wolfensohn, World Bank President.

Based on the statement of the World Bank’s President, the best method of measuring the value as well as the contributions of communities of practice is to listen.

Listening and thorough understanding of what the communities of practice have prepared and planned systems will eventually save you and keep on making your company a better one.

Learning organizations have structures that facilitate learning such as boundary, crossing, and openness. I can help your organization to establish these practices in a very simple and “natural” way. 

10 Communities Of Practice Best Practices

Communities of Practice has been an efficient way of leveraging businesses over the past decades, but we think it's not enough for your company to become a great Digital Product Company.

Communities of Practice should be able to provide an opportunity for your team to build their expertise and deepen their knowledge in your industry.

Ideally, this is achieved through regular collaboration within an environment where everyone is eager to share his or her knowledge with one another.

However, in its early stages, initiating and encouraging your team to make CoPs work can be a bit challenging. This can frustrate you but using the ten best practices below can address this slump head-on.

1. Establish a clear plan or “structure”

This will allow everyone to have an idea of how the Communities of Practice will function and the various expectations of each member.

You can do this by creating a “charter” or a sort of rules of engagement where you identify the group’s strategy, communication techniques, and scheduling and holding meetings. However, remember, this “structure” should not alienate the “informal” nature of CoPs.

CoPs foundation is deeply rooted in its “social” nature. Don’t suffocate your people with rules in CoPs.

2. Arrange a member's introductory meeting

Whether the meeting is online or offline, members should be able to meet one another and start discussing their goals and objectives.

This activity will also give them the chance to gain more confidence in sharing ideas and knowledge with the other members. This will help in enhancing the effectiveness of the Communities of Practice in the long run. It’s a social learning community.

3. Make sure to hold meetings on a regular basis

Holding meetings on a regular basis is undoubtedly another key for Communities of Practice to achieve success. These meetings are perfect opportunities for members’ collaboration and sharing.

Members can also enjoy the following: the opportunity to share knowledge, the ability to strengthen communication, a more effective way to interact, the chance to speak directly with other practitioners, and the ability to receive immediate input and feedback.

What you can do from the management side is to make it sure that you give your team the time for these regular meetings. Also, make sure that there would be less friction and stress in providing this schedule to protect the momentum of your CoPs.

4.  Software tools used in project management can become the community’s virtual headquarters

Some examples of these tools are Basecamp, Asana, Trello, and Facebook’s Workplace.

By using these platforms, members can share documents, delegate tasks, keep track of the project’s deadline, keep themselves updated with a community calendar, and most importantly extend the conversation.

As a result, the community is well organized and can stay on-task which remains true even when some members are participating remotely.

5. Survey your employees to define actual problems

This company-wide survey of employees allows the organization to learn about the issues or weaknesses that should be focused on by the Communities of Practice.

Members can focus on the organization’s most pressing issues and allocate time and resources to tackle these concerns during their regular meetings. The survey spells out the problem for the CoPs.

It is an indirect way to spark a conversation around it without pushing the interest of your company blatantly. Again, we don’t want to alienate the social learning nature of CoPs.

6. Identify a clear objective or purpose

Get a clear idea of the following: the purpose of creating the community; how to fine-tune the community’s training strategy; and ways to improve the CoPs.

As a result, members will have a good understanding of how to do their part to reach the desired results in relation to the established objective and purpose of their CoPs.

7. Stay conscious of the knowledge and experience that each member offers in the community

Be able to determine what each member of the community brings to the table and what core experience or knowledge they can share with the others.

Ideally, the community must be made up of a diverse group of members wherein each one offers something invaluable and unique to the group. You would want to have a group that represents a wide range of employees, expertise, and interests.

This can be particularly useful if you’re building a company-wide learning community. You can identify at least one member to represent a specific department. You can also find those who excel in certain areas or skill sets.

8. There should be an appointed moderator

Having a moderator is vital to the success of the community. Find and appoint someone who is not only knowledgeable on various topics but is also widely appreciated.

Some of the tasks of a moderator include: keeping the group on-task; providing guidance during meetings; and being a liaison between the community and the organization.

The appointment can either be made directly or by conducting a group vote wherein each member would vote for the person who they believe is the community’s best representative.

9. Always keep in touch through online forums and social media

Communities meet both in-person and online. It is essential that members have various means to share ideas and work together. Using these online platforms can be a convenient and fast way for members to arrive at new and innovative solutions.

These include social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Through these platforms, members can easily share files, videos, and images.

The thing is, they should opt for this medium of communication and should not see it as an invasion of their social media use.

10.  Offer resources and support to other communities       

Communities thrive on the support and resources that are offered by their leaders (You). These can include tools, apps, and sometimes monetary funds.

This kind of support is particularly useful in the beginning stages of the group. Communities Of Practice Best Practices must include training, strategies, and development solutions that can benefit your company as a whole.

Community Of Practices FAQs

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