Size of communities?
How big can a community of practice become? Being a community of practice does not depend on size. It depends on identification with the domain and enough mutual engagement to produce learning value. Of course, if a community is very small, members will likely have...
Level of participation?
What level of participation should one expect in a community of practice? Participation in communities of practice is rarely a person’s main activity or job, so expected levels of participation should reflect this reality. Mainly they should reflect the level of...
Duration of communities?
How long should a community of practice be expected to last? There really is no set length of time that a community should last. In most cases, a community of practice starts without a clear sense of how long it will exist. It will last as long as members find value...
Time to get going?
How long should a community take to get going? Community formation takes time, but the time it takes for a community to become fully operational varies a lot from case to case. Some communities are so ready to exist that they congeal as soon as members have an...
The first three things to do?
What are the first three things one should consider doing to get a community of practice started? You cannot start a community by yourself. In fact you cannot start a community at all, to be quite honest about it. The only people who can form a community are the...
Practitioners’ role?
Why should practitioners be involved in developing strategic capabilities? Traditionally, knowledge has been viewed as something that experts hand down to practitioners. But organizations in all sectors are discovering that something unique happens when practitioners...
Value to organizations?
Why should organizations pay attention to communities of practice and networks? Communities of practice are the perfect vehicle for involving practitioners directly in the management of the knowledge they need individually and collectively to do their work. As a...
Communities versus networks?
How is a community of practice different from an informal network in regard to social learning? All communities of practice are networks in the sense that they involve connections among members. But not all networks are communities of practice: a community of practice...
Communities versus teams?
How are communities of practice different from more familiar structures like teams or task forces? A team is held together by a task. When the task is accomplished the team disperses. Team members are likely to learn something in the performance of that task, but this...
What is a community of practice?
A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. This definition reflects the fundamentally social nature of human...