How can communities of practice add value? Let me count the ways.
Image from wikimedia commons |
No doubt you can think of more!
Community members can
- solve problems for each other
- Learn before" starting a piece of work - using the CoP as a "Peer Assist" mechanism
- "Learn during" a piece of work, drawing on the knowledge of the CoP
- "Learn after" by sharing lessons with the community
- support each other emotionally, through messages of support or congratulations
- benchmark performance with each other
- exchange resources through the community, such as tools, templates and approaches
- collaborate on purchasing (buying things that any one member could not justify)
- collaborating on contracts (using the purchasing power of the community)
- cooperate on trials and pilots
- share results of studies, and maybe remove the need for others to re-do the same study
- exchange equipment (re-use old equipment, share spares)
- mentor and coach each other
The community collectively can
- collaborate on a community blog, to act as a real-time story of what the community is collectively learning
- act as a learning resource for new staff
- build and maintain documented Best Practices, perhaps using a community wiki as a shared knowledge base
- build and maintain a curated document base as a shared resource
- decide a taxonomy and/or metadata scheme so members can record their knowledge in a consistent way
- recognise the most useful resources (for example through feedback and voting)
- recognise the most helpful and generous sharers (for example through "contributor of the year" awards)
- develop lists of common risks and warning signs (and what to do when you see them)
- develop checklists and templates for member use
- create knowledge products for use by clients or customers
- identify knowledge retention issues
- identify training gaps and collaborate on training provision
- innovate new products, services or opportunities by combining ideas from everyone
- advise the organisation on strategy
1 comment:
Thank you Dr, I have picked a number of organisational benefits I never thought of
Post a Comment