Steve DaleDirectorSemantix (UK) Ltd

CongresoInternacional EDO

2010

www.semantix.co.uk

Who am I?

An evangelist and practitioner in the use of Web

2.0 technologies and Social Media applications

to support personal self-development and

knowledge sharing.

Steve was the business lead and information

architect for the community of practice platform

currently deployed across the UK local

government sector, the largest professional

network of its type, and continues to play a key

role in the support of virtual communities of

practice for value creation in public services.

Stephen Dale (Steve)

www.semantix.co.uk

What I will cover

What is a „Community of Practice‟ (CoP)?

Moving from conversations to collaboration

Community culture and behaviours

What makes a successful community?

CoPs in UK Local Government

Measuring success and ROI

Lessons Learnt

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What is a ?What is a Community of Practice?

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Communities of Practice

an environment

connecting people

and encouraging

the sharing of

ideas and

experiences

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A successful CoP needs certain ingredients

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A community

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A domain of interest

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A place to meet

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But what’s new about Communities of Practice?

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Royal Guild of Cloth makers

Guild of St Luke (painters)Guild of Goldsmiths

Over 800 Worshipful Companies

www.wordle.net

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Why have a Community of Practice?

“CoPs are not about bringing knowledge into the organisation but about helping to grow the knowledge that we need internally within our organisations.”

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Communities of Practice

puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers

allows you to share your experiences and learn from others

allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes

accelerates your learning

validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice

provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

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What is a ?Evolving from conversations to

collaboration

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Degrees of Transparency and Trust

Join our list Join our forum Join our community

Increasing collaboration and transparency of process

Collaborative Working – some distinctionsPurpose Members Adhesive Duration

Formal work group

To deliver a product or service

Employees who reports to the group‟s manager

Job requirements and org structure

Until organisational restructuring

Project team To accomplish a task

Employees assigned by senior management

Project milestones and goals

Until project completion

Social networks

To collect and pass on information

Friends and acquaintances

Mutual needs and interests

As long as people have a reason to connect

Community of Practice

To develop members’ capabilities; to build and exchange knowledge

Members who select themselves

Passion, commitment and identification with the group’s expertise

As long as there is interest in maintaining the group

KIN, Warwick Business School

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Why does a person engage with a Community of Practice?

Attractive purpose grabs and retains attention

Perceived benefits:

Socialisation

Co-learning, knowledge sharing and co-production

Each person chooses to be a member

Volition

Joining in – and leaving!

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Levels of engagementLevel of en

gagem

ent

Type of engagement

Browse, search, learn

(Anonymously)

Comment

(with attribution)

Ask a question

(with attribution)

Write a blog

Become a mentor

Become an expert

Register

Comment

(Anonymously)

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Patterns of contributionRef: Jacob Nielson http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

Number of participants

Nu

mb

er

of

co

ntr

ibu

tio

ns

1% active contributors

9% occasional contributors

90% readers (aka „lurkers‟)

The 1-9-90 rule

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The “1% Rule” For every 100 people online only 1 person will create

content and 10 will “interact” with it. The other 89 will just view it.

Each day at YouTube there are 100 million downloads and 65,000 uploads

50% of all Wikipedia article edits are done by 0.7% of users, and more than 70% of all articles have been written by just 1.8% of all users

In Yahoo Groups, 1% of the user population might start a group; 10% of the user population might participate actively. 100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups

Source: The Guardian

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The important message is: look after your content creators!

But have we forgotten how to have conversations?

Is this what we

asked for or

what

managers

think we

need?

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Group Collaboration

Conversation is NOT:

Discussion, deliberation, negotiation

Committee, team, task or working group

Majority wins, minority dominance, groupthink

Conversation IS:

Free-flowing exchange of ideas among equals

All ideas are solicited and are considered

Best ideas rise to the top

Cass R Sunstein, 2006

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Understanding your community:

Culture and Behaviours

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Community Type

Helping Communities provide a forum for community members to help each other with everyday work needs.

Best Practice Communities develop and disseminate best practices, guidelines, and procedures for their members use.

Knowledge Stewarding Communities organise, manage, and steward a body of knowledge from which community members can draw.

Innovation Communities create breakthrough ideas, new knowledge, and new practices.

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Understanding your CommunityHelping Communities

Best Practice Communities

Knowledge Stewarding Communities

Innovation Communities

Drivers Lower cost through reuse

Social responsibility

Lower cost through standardisation

Consistency of project

Improves outcomes

Professional development

Tracks shifting marketing trends

Regulation and legislation

Activities Connecting members

Knowledge who‟s who

Collecting,

Vetting

Publishing

Enlisting leading experts

Manage content

Decipher trends

Share insights

Development of Policy

Structure and roles

Problem solving

Sub committees

Index and store Best practice

Publishing

Task force Domain experts

Sub-committees

Reward for participation

Sense of belonging

Assistance to daily work

Desire for improvement

Passion for the topic

Professional development

Job responsibility to detect emerging trends

Knowledge Tacit - high socialisation

Low tacit

Explicit to explore

Tacit to explicit

Tacit to tacit

Explicit to tacit.

Community Roles and Responsibilities Champion/Sponsor is able to envision the services

of a CoP over time, and should have a sense of how the CoP can interact across the organisation

Facilitator/Coordinator consulting, connecting, facilitating, helping, guiding.

Leader serves an integral role in the community's success by energising the sharing process and providing continuous nourishment for the community

Librarian organises information/data (may be part of Facilitator/Coordinator role).

Technical Steward understands business needs and ensure the appropriate tools are available to meet these needs.

Experts are the subject matter specialists Members/Participants without these there is no

community; the essence of a community is its members.

Members of an active community

occasional

transactional

peripheral

active

facilitator

core group

lurkers

leaders

outsiders

experts

beginners

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Your community‟s life-cycle

Plan

Start-up

Grow

Sustain/Renew

Close

Le

ve

l o

f e

ne

rgy

an

d v

isib

ilit

y

TimeDiscover/

imagine

Incubate/

deliver

value

Focus/

expand

Ownership/

openness

Let go/

remember

From: Cultivating Communities of Practice by Wenger, McDermot and Snyder

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The community will go through cycles of activity

Activity

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What makes a successful community?

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What makes a successful CoP?

clear purpose – what will it be used to do?

creating a safe and trusted environment

committed core group of active participants

being motivated

knowing the needs of participants

having a clear action plan with activities to meet needs

blending face-to-face and online activities

This can all be achieved by good, active facilitation

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Facilitators‟ (Coordinators, Moderators) responsibilities

Facilitation and Coordination of a CoP includes:

monitoring activity

encouraging participation (facilitation

techniques)

producing an action plan

reporting CoP activity – metrics, evaluations

monitoring success criteria and impact

managing CoP events

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A Facilitator/Coordinator

cultivates the community

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A Good Facilitator/Coordinator?

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Facilitating online - the challenges

designing the right mix of online and off-line activities ('blended learning')

catering for different learning styles and needs

learning to become a 'guide' or 'facilitator'

dealing with administrative, technical issues and support requirements, and issues of time

avoiding the dangers of misinterpretation of text

finding the right voice

standing back, and allowing members to discover the power

Nine steps to a successful CoP

1. Provide significant funding for face-to-face events

2. Ensure community activities address business issues

3. Provide CoP facilitator training

4. Ensure CoP facilitators are given sufficient time for their role

5. Ensure high levels of sponsor expectation

6. Engage members in developing good practice

7. Improve the usefulness of Tools provided

8. Ensure there are clearly stated goals

9. Promote CoPs ability to help employee‟s solve daily work challenges

Source: Knowledge & Innovation Network, Warwick Business School

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Communities of Practice in UK

Local Government

www.communities.idea.gov.uk

There is a growing recognition but not yet a consensus about

integrating Community of Practice (CoP)-style working in the

everyday practice of public sector programmes and services.

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About UK Local Government

Local government in England and Wales employs a workforce of 2.1 million people across 397 local authorities.

Each authority is working to deliver the same 700 services to their residents.

Has an annual operating budget of over £106 billion ($177 billion) for delivering services.

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For some it‟s a culture shock

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Building an environment to support collaborative working

Find and connect with experts

Find and connect with your peers

Threaded discussion forums, wikis, blogs, document repository

News feedsEvent calendar

News and Newsletters

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Evaluating success (and ROI)

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Metrics & Measurement

Identify Business Objectives

Decide on Priorities

Choose What to Measure & Tools

Quantitative

Qualitative

Benchmark

Identifying Trends

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IDeA CoP Membership and communities Over 57,000 registered members

Over 1000 communities

Average membership of a community is 50

Highest membership of a community is over 1800

Over 2700 members are contributing.

Average of over 16,000 visits per month.

Average of over 1000 contributions per month.

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Observers

Power

ContributorsContributors

Inactive

Understanding the community profile

What to measure (everything!)

11.00%

12.00%

13.00%

14.00%

15.00%

16.00%

17.00%

Jan-08 May-08 Sep-08 Jan-09 May-09 Sep-09 Jan-10

Percentage of CoP members who are contributors

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000Total registered CoP

members

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Jan-08 May-08 Sep-08 Jan-09 May-09 Sep-09 Jan-10

Number of contributing CoP Members

0.3000

1.3000

2.3000

3.3000

4.3000

5.3000

6.3000

Average no. of contributions made per member

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Network maps provide insight and prompt questions

“I frequently or very frequently receive information from this person that I need to do my job.”

Hutchinson Associates 2005

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Successful CoPs – Measuring Outcomes

Mapping Services Agreement (535 members) –joint procurement strategy on target for achieving

savings of over £100m over 4 years.

NI14 Avoidable Contact (631 members) – highly active online conferences

Policy and Performance (1785 members) –Producing joint policy briefings

Projects and Programme Management (356 members)– Consistent contract templates developed for all local authorities.

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Measuring Return on Investment

Cost of one face to face conference: 100 people attending an event in London £5000/EUR 5,800 for rooms + lunch £30/EUR 58 per person return train travel from a

central England venue (Birmingham).One face-to-face conference would cost

£8000/EUR 9,300

Cost of an on-line conference is virtually £0/EUR 0. There have been over 15 on-line conferences facilitated by IDeA so far.

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What is the value to the individual

Ask the CoP members….

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Keeping up to date with current thinking

“The site is a good way to check things being released by government or to look up something you may have missed, it‟s an extra safety net. I always go on at least a couple of times a week to keep my eyes open to the issues and make sure we‟re pointing in the right direction.”

TH - Policy Officer, Sandwell Borough Council

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Innovations

“Many of the online groups that we set up on the site either reflected new projects or were new groups working on a new priority that wasn‟t covered under the business unit or structure. So for our change groups for example, it was a place for those new projects and communities to have a home.”

NH, Projects and Research Lead, Innovation Unit, Kent County Council.

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Sharing Good Practice / avoiding duplication of work

“I was scanning the website and I happened to come across work by colleagues in Barnet on diversity monitoring, which means you can profile your users to make sure you‟re not providing services that aren‟t needed.”

DB, Senior Policy Manager (equalities), London Borough of

Sutton.

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Relationship Building

“The thing about CoPs is the discussions and ideas that go on,” he adds, “it‟s like having an ongoing network of contacts, and that was difficult to do before.”

PT, business architect, Wolverhampton City Council

Measuring value by productivity

Benchmarking (52 CoPs surveyed)

How do you compare with other CoPs?

Source: Knowledge & Innovation Network, Warwick Business School

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Metrics

Don‟t rely on metrics to claim your community is successful.

Use metrics and indicators to understand your community better.

A chicken doesn’t get fatter the more you weigh it!

Lessons Learnt

Top Tips.

..identify and look after your facilitators – they are quite often the difference between successful and unsuccessful communities

..let users drive their own experimentation and use of tools.

..target and support areas that have a clear desire and need.

..build trust and relationships face to face where possible.

..condition your managers for failure – not every CoPis going to be successful.

..use online conferences and „Hot Seats‟ to build membership growth and encourage conversations.

Do….

Don‟t....

..think you can force people to collaborate

..assume everyone understands how to use Web2.0/social media tools.

..assume everyone knows how to contribute.

..worry about the „lurkers‟.

..let command, control or hierarchy hamper or kill your community

..let managers turn indicators into targets

Top Tips.

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Know when to let go!

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Recommended Reading

Cluetrain Manifesto – David Weinberger

Cultivating Communities of Practice –Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermot, William Snyder.

Community, Economic Creativity and Organization – Ash Amin, Joanne Roberts

Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky

Groundswell – Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Tribes – Seth Godin

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"If you always do what you always did,

you'll always get what you got." Albert Einstein, 1879-1955

Evolution of Knowledge

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Thank you!

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Steve.dale@semantix.co.uk

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