Building a Community of Practice

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Building a Community of Practice

• Learning From Our Own Experience

• Context
• What we did
• Lessons learnt
• Where to from here

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Context ACT KM Forum

• Multi-organisation structure
• Resources available
• Purpose

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What We Did 1

• Research members needs
• Learning focus
• Public sector perspective
• Problem solving
• Practical emphasis
• Networking

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What We Did2

• Define purpose
• Community practice
• Leverage existing organisational activities
• Monthly meetings
• Electronic mediums

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What We Did 3

• Monthly Meetings
• Identify suitable venue
• Facilitate meetings
• Ensure meetings are publicised
• Engage membership to provide presenters
• Link with the electronic medium

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What We Did4

• EGroups
• Identify suitable electronic platform
• Tool for sharing information discussion
• Customised interaction
• Archive information
• Publicise and provide initial impetus

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OutcomesMonthly Meetings

• Membership of ACT KM forum has grown
• Meetings attendance growing
• Positive anecdotal feedback on meeting format

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Outcomes Egroups

• 200 messages in 4 months
• 25 of members participated
• Core group (10) use frequently
• gt 100 different bits of information forwarded
• One way flow of information
• Some positive feedback on using information
  provided

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Lessons Learnt 1

• Focus on knowledge important to both the business
  and the people
• Results in competitive advantage
• Individual fulfillment

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Lessons Learnt2

• Find a well-respected community member to act as
  coordinator
• Key roles
• Champion/Networker /Communicator
• Administrator
• Leaders senior practitioners
• Energy

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Lessons Learnt3

• Make sure people have time and encouragement to
  participate
• Time can be a serious limiting factor

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Lessons Learnt4

• Build on a core value of the organisation
• Match core cultural values rather than change
  them
• Use KM to enable your people to pursue something
  that they already value

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Lessons Learnt5

• Involve leaders
• Use networks that already exist
• Typically these networks have thought leaders and
  influential members

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Lessons Learnt 6

• Build energy through community contact
• Live contact is key
• Create a sense of history
• Physical events

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Lessons Learnt7

• Maintain personal contact among community members
• Human connection lies at the core
• One-to-one relationships

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Lessons Learnt8

• Develop an active passionate core group
• Participation in communities vary
• High contributors
• Observers
• Peripheral members
• Strategy build an active core

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Lessons Learnt9

• Make it easy to connect, contribute to and access
  the community
• Ensure software integrates with peoples daily
  work
• Familiar software reduces friction
• Community space needs to be organised according
  to principles intuitive to the community

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Lessons Learnt 10

• Create real dialogue about issues in community
  forums
• Relationships happen in true discussion not
  reports on best practices

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Building a Community of Practice
Identify Common Interest
Trust Others
Make Real Connections
Care For The Thinking Of Others
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Where To From Here?

1. Are people finding solutions?
2. How could we improve our CoP?
3. Seminar
4. Executive changes