Communities
of Practice
Communities of Practice' are springing up all over the
business world as a way of supporting effective skill development
for people who gather around areas of common interest and
shared purpose.
Three, four, 20, maybe 30 people find themselves drawn
to one another by a force that's both social and professional.
They collaborate directly, use one another as sounding boards,
and teach one another.
Here are several definitions, views, and links to their
sources:
Communities of Practice
In their article Communities
of Practice and Organizational Performance, November
2001 edition of the IBM
Systems Journal, Eric L. Lesser and John Storck
defined 'communities of practice' as groups whose members
regularly engage in sharing and learning, based on common
interests and can improve organizational performance.
To build an understanding of how communities of practice
create organizational value, they suggest thinking of
a community as an engine for the development of social
capital. They further suggest that the social capital
resident in communities of practice leads to behavioral
changes, which in turn positively influence business performance.
Common practices and language
"Communities of Practice" is a phrase coined
by researchers who studied the ways in which people naturally
work and play together. In essence, communities of practice
are groups of people who share similar goals and interests.
In pursuit of these goals and interests, they employ common
practices, work with the same tools and express themselves
in a common language. Through such common activity, they
come to hold similar beliefs and value systems.
Bonding by exposure to common problems
There are many shades of definition of this concept,
but we define it as "a group of professionals, informally
bound to one another through exposure to a common class
of problems, common pursuit of solutions, and thereby
themselves embodying a store of knowledge."
Peter & Trudy Johnson-Lenz,
Awakening Technology
Members evolve more creative practice
A community of practice is "a diverse group of people
engaged in real work over a significant period of time
during which they build things, solve problems, learn
and invent...in short, they evolve a practice that is
highly skilled and highly creative."
Robert Bauer, Ph.D., is Director
of Strategic Competency Development, Xerox PARC, in Customer
Inspired Innovation: Creating the Future
From water coolers to commitment
More than a "community of learners," a community
of practice is also a "community that learns."
Not merely peers exchanging ideas around the water cooler,
sharing and benefiting from each other's expertise, but
colleagues committed to jointly develop better practices.
George Pór, Community
Intelligence Labs
Questions to reflect upon
Q: Where are our Leadership
'Communities of Practice'? Organizations
- Government
- Spiritual communities
- Communities where we live and work
- Foundations and Associations
- Families
- Educational Environments
Q: How can we become a Community
of Practice of Legacy Leaders, challenging and supporting
one another to evolutionary and transformational levels
of leadership and Mentorship?
Q: What would happen if we
supported each other in realizing our full co-creative selves,
discovering our unique life purposes, and fully expressing
our creativity in the world?
Q: What would happen if we
all worked together to understand and guide the evolution
of humanity?
Q: What would happen if we
made this the purpose of our relationships? |
