communities of practise (cop)

8/3/2019 Communities of Practise (Cop)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/communities-of-practise-cop 1/16

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTISE

(CoP)

STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS



Forms of CoP

Small or big

Long-lived or short-lived

Colocated or distributed Homogenous and heterogeneous

Inside and across boundaries

Spontaneous and intentional

Unrecognized or institutionalized



Structuralmodel of

CoP

Domain

PracticeCommunity



Domain

Defines a set of issues.

Common ground and a sense of commonidentity to the community.

Inspires members to contribute andparticipate.

Brings people together and guide their

learning. Without commitment to domain, a

community is just a group of friends.



Domain cont

A shared domain creates a sense of

accountability to a body of knowledge and to

the development of the practise

Examples of recognized domain that

community may share:

- profession or discipline, same job or role,

or dealing with same client



Characteristics of good domain

Not fixed. It evolves along with the world andcommunity.

Involve simple issues as well as complex andlong-standing issues that require sustainedlearning.

Inspire thought leadership and spirit of

inquiry. Boost communitys visibility and influence

within the organization.



Relevant issues to the domain

What topics to be cared?

Hows 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 sharedunderstanding 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 individualidentity. Their interactions source fromcommonality and diversity.

Ideal size

< 15 = members are very intimate.

15-50 = relationship more fluid and

differentiated.50-150 = tend to divide into subgroups.

> 150 = subgroups develop strong localidentities




cont

Voluntary

- membership, may be self-selected or

assigned. Participation can beencouraged.

Internal and external leadership.

- characteristic of the whole community.




cont

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 hardquestions.



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 communitymember 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 practice

Balance between joint activities ; exploring

ideas and production of tools or documents.

Give practitioners a chance to gain areputation as contributors to the communitys

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 ousidethe community?



Implications of model

It is important to develop all three elements in

parallel.

Healthy community is when all the threeelements 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.

communities of practise (cop)

Documents