Characteristics and transformation

Hello dear ‘learner’,

  I am so pleased to let you know that I have found out even more about the communities of practice. I hope you are on the same page as me as I would like to share with you my ideas and maybe, who knows, debate them.

  So, from the last time we have spoken, I have learnt that these communities, as you can probably imagine, are voluntary. Despite this fact, what makes them successful over time is their ability to generate enough excitement, relevance and value to attract and engage members. This is the phenomenon that the authors called ‘aliveness’. Don’t you agree with them? I know I do. I mean, if you’re not actively participating to these meetings, if you’re not brainstorming on a given subject or idea, if you do not actively communicate with each other, it wouldn’t be called a community. You need energy,- positive energy - to sustain an entire community and you need to invite the interaction that makes your community to be alive.

  Now, a more theoretical knowledge of a community relies in its design. So, the design principles that are stated by the authors of the ‘Communities of practice’ book are the following:

1. Design for evolution.

2. Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives.

3. Invite different levels of participation.

4. Develop both public and private community spaces.

5. Focus on value.

6. Combine familiarity and excitement.

7. Create a rhythm for the community.

  If you were to think about this matter, they are totally true. You know how it looks like in practice, but, once written down, it all makes sense now. Making the design principles explicit makes it possible to be more flexible and improvisational. The key to designing for evolution is to combine design elements in a way that catalyzes community development, such as: the physical structures (e.g places), but as the social and organizational structures (e.g community coordinator). Now, a community needs an insider’s perspective to lead the discovery of what the community is about, but it also needs an outside perspective related to the potential development of the community. This I could not agree more, because, you see, we –as part of a community- tend to find it hard to imagine how much more could our community evolve, how many goals are there to be set, how to understand better the issues inside the community and so on. Also, during their evolution, communities were creating standards of good practice, organizing and systematizing their activities.

  Oh well, the communities were not always like this, of course. They have evolved in time, they have suffered radical transformations, they have grown, they have fallen, but in the end, they kept on continually evolving. The studies show how there are five stages of community development: potential, coalescing, maturing, stewardship and transformation. To be more specific, we can observe the following image:

  Given the above, we may be tempted to think that maturity is a time of stability, but communities, like people, change and grow during their maturity as much as they do during their formation. The ongoing life of an active community is rich and complex. It contains many relationships, many levels of connection, and many subgroups within it. Mature communities go through cycles of high and low energy as they respond, adjust and reorganize. Isn’t that right? How I see things, the composing elements could not exist but together and linked.  The life of a community may have its ups and downs, but this is part of its existence and it defines the community itself. Going through their life, communities need support to continue. This support must come from the energy, from the passion and from the strength of its members. As long as the community’s members efforts are sustainable and continuous, the community will go further on.

  As a side note, what I gave found interesting again are the ‘distributed communities’, which by the book means any community of practice that cannot rely on face-to-face meetings and interactions as its primary vehicle for connecting members ( as C. Dede stated in its paper, these communities refer to virtual or distance education initiatives). Thinking about it, nowadays we have more distributed communities rather than the normal ones and this is primarily because of the evolution of the technology from the last century. They are no different than local communities, but the fact that they share ideas and insights, help each other, document procedures and influence operating teams and business units across communication networks.

  The transformation potentially brought about by communities of practice is twofold. First, communities become more than an integral way of running the business; they become the focal structure, a point of stability in an organization constantly reshaping itself to match the demands of a market in flux. Second, communities do not merely transform how the business operates; they transform it continuously.  This way, it has been proven that transformation has become a way of life.

  Today’s post was a little bit more theoretical, but I hope it was enjoyable as well. So, until the next time, keep up the good work within your communities, because together we are so much more powerful . :)

The evolution

Hi there again,

  As I stated yesterday, I am now coming back with more stories and opinions that I want to share with you regarding the ‘Cultivating Communities of Practice‘ book.

  Being a multinational company and trying to maintain your business on the top is really hard nowadays considering the evolution era that we are going through.

  What I want to bring into discussion today is a very simple, yet relevant story of one of the greatest IT companies: Hewlett –Packard (HP). The reason I was intrigued by this ‘backstage’ story is that the employees knew how to understand the background processes and how to share their experiences stories, forming a knowledge base so strong, that the work immediately became more effective. But, it’s worth reminding that the communities of practice vary widely in both name and style in different organizations.

  What we are about to learn today, not only relies on the above HP example, but also on day by day examples of communities of practice. We can now conclude that a community of practice is considered to be a unique combination of the domain of knowledge (the knowledge base), a community of people (social fabric of learning) and the shared practice that they are developing (the ideas, tools, information, styles, stories, etc). 

  These being said, I was only thinking of the benefits of such communities. Can you imagine how the entire society has evolved from the beginning of times with this simple gift of communication? I mean, it’s the easiest way to open up your mind, to discover new things, to make heard through the crowd and maybe persuading others of you ideas, which, at some point, may be revolutionary. In my opinion this idea of community has only brought benefits to the human race and it’s an uncontestable proof of what we are capable as intellectuals. Also, as a side note, the effect of all this community work is showing up in the group members’ job performance. In this way, people have created a joint strategy for developing new strategies, new technologies, new relationships and so on. It is part of our existence’s evolution.

  Speaking of the homogeneity of such community, it is not always mandatory. Although, a long-term interaction does create a common history and communal identity, it also encourages differentiation among members.  As Harvard Business School Press stated back to 1999, members take on various roles, officially and unofficially. They create their own specialties or styles. They gain a reputation.   They achieve a status and generate their own personal sphere of

influence. In other words, each member develops a unique individual identity in relation to the community. Their interactions over time are a source of both commonality and diversity.  
 Homogeneity of background, skills, or point of view may make it easier to start a community of practice, but it is neither a required condition nor is it a necessary result. In fact, it is not even an indicator that a community will be more tightly bonded or more effective. With enough common ground for ongoing mutual engagement, a good dose of diversity makes for richer learning, more interesting relationships, and increased creativity. I can only agree with the above statements and I can almost confirm that every one of you will do that do.

  I hope that today’s lesson will strengthen even more the ideas presented during these days in terms of community of practice. It would be good for people to realize its importance and how they changed the course of history.

  Until the next time, I will let you investigate this matter further more and hope you will be as intrigued as I am. Good luck with your communities and keep promoting them! :)

Introduction

Hello everyone,

   My name is Mihaela and I currently am in the last year of what I want to believe to be the last year of my studies. I am a student in the final year at the SIMPRE Master Program (ASE) and for the past couple of weeks I have had an interesting and unexpected assignment.

   I will do my best to give an accurate ‘summary’ so to speak of the book called ‘Cultivating Communities of Practice ‘. Or, more precisely, a relevant personal interpretation of the ideas exposed through this book.

 To be entirely honest, I have never given too much attention to this concept of ‘communities of practice’. I was very impressed to find out that I agree to so many of the presented hypothesis and disagree with only a hand full of them.

  The book 'Cultivating Communities of Practice' represents a major milestone in knowledge management literature.  It provides a crystallized perspective by submitting an important structural model for the communities of practice based on the experiences culled from the World Bank, Shell Oil and McKinsey and Company.  With design principles clearly laid down, readers are able to understand and cultivate communities of practice in their own organisations. These lessons are to be applied when starting your own business, on an rising one or even inside a NGO. The purpose is to invite greater inquiring into such an approach of managing knowledge in the organisation. Personally, I consider this lecture to be a very useful one now  that I have some experience with NGOs, but I think I will most probably apply these findings when I will open my own business.

 So I consider the above mentioned lecture, to be a guide for practitioners for the main reason that it is build on actual examples that describe how communities of practice could be made an explicit part of how the organizations work.

  First of all, I think it’s only fair that we start by defining these communities of practice, in order to get everyone on the same page. Such a community is actually a group of people that share the same interests, passions, ideas, problems and that feel the need to express themselves in a mannered way, being able to debate their ideas with other members of the community. In this way, people bound and gain experience in a very pleasant and relaxing way. You will agree, that, in the end, after reading this book, new doors will open in this field and you will be seeing things differently.

  It is so simple to consider an example of a community or of a group that outlines some of its characteristics. Such an example would be different artists that meet to discuss new trends/styles, managers gathering together to learn upcoming technologies and to foresee shifts in the winds of power. Better yet, another example is that of the gang members that learn to survive on the street by themselves and learn from each other. These kind of actions and of behavior date back to the Stone Age. The difference is that now everything takes place in a more organized manner and that the topics are different, adapted to the era that we are living in. Considering that we live surrounded by these communities, at school, at home, at the office, everywhere, we become unconsciously part of them.

   Now, dear reader, can you imagine in how many communities are you involved day by day without even realizing until now?

   Stay close, I will come back with more information regarding these communities, especially in regards to the cultivating communities of practice. Until then, keep close to your communities :)