The downside of communities of practice-part1

Communities of practicehave their downsides.Even though they can "host"knowledge,ideas and innovation,they can also be the part of the problem.Communities can become an obstacle to learning,they are able to create boundaries to development and can likewise fail to live up to the challenge they present.

Single communities:what can go wrong?
Disorders in a community are generally of 2 kinds.The first one is clear:the community may not function well from various reasons,such as:a lack of communication or trust between members.In this case the practice remains stagnant.A failed community is worst than no community.
The other kind of disorder is more subtle,reflecting the human fragility of its members.Community disorders can be seen as an extreme version of a community's strength.A way in which disorders can be "fixed",is by identifying the element that is most affected:domain,community or practice.

Domain-"the pride of ownership can induce a fall".Too much enthusiasm for domain leads to excessive zealousness.Sometimes arrogance pops in and ruins the well being of a community.Imperialism can also lead to disorders as well as narcissism,marginality and factionalism.
TREATMENTS FOR DOMAIN DISORDERS:
-establish the legitimacy and strategic value of the domain;
-finding ways for the community to add value;
-including the communityin important decisions;


Community:too much of a good thing
Communities are formed of people who have different ideas,beliefs and so on.Thus cliques can be formed.As a result egalitarism is left out,creating dependence and disconnectedness.
TREATMENTS:
-involving new generations;
-connecting with other communities;

Practice:the liabilities of competence
An efficient practice,pays the price of going beyond communication with outsiders;
Documentism-"a single-minded focus documentation";communities fail to organize documents in order to be useful.A failure to development can have results as:amnesia(the opposite of documentism),dogmatism and mediocrity.
TREATMENTS:
-encourage members' involvement in different activities;
-initiating exciting new projects;

Chapter6-key issues in distributed communities

"Distributed"communities of practice are the ones which cannot rely on face-to-face meetings and interactions as their main "engine"for connecting people.They are able to cross different types of boundaries.Geographically distributed communities link people across countries,time zones,and organizational units.
Four factors are essential for distributed communities:distance,size,organizational affiliation,and cultural differences.When these factors are mixed together,they make building and sustaining communities more difficult.

Distance:connections and visibility
Community members connect harder when there are boundaries such as different time zones or geographic separation between them.The main obstacle though, is distance, because it makes it difficult to remember that the community exists.In contrast to local communities,where members can freely interact,distributed communities are generally less"present"to their members.Of course they can communicate through web sites or on a teleconference call,but it is harder this way.


Size-knowing people
Usually distributed communities are formed of hundreds if not thousands of members.Obviously,it's impossible to know so many personally.Size becomes a more important factor when it's combined with distance.

Affiliation:priorities and intellectual property
As normal,distributed communities cross more organizational boundaries than local ones do.A problem that frequently appears in global communities,is that of getting senior managers with different priorities,to aquire interests in the idea of knowledge sharing with other companies.

Culture:communication and values
Distributed communities can cross cultures also.The development of a community can be affected by the members who do not come from the same culture.Thus,they have different points of view regarding different subjects.This can lead to ignorance between them,they can disagree in public or contradict known experts.All these are the result of different backgrounds.

Communities of practice chapters4-5

Communities of practice,like other living things,have to make some important steps in order to develop.They go through a natural process of birth,growth and death.Even though they continually evolve,they have 5 stages of community development:potential,coalescing,maturing,stewardship,and transformation.

1.Potential-the community's development starts with a social network.These people are the ones who are likely to form the core group of the community.At a certain point,members begin to see their problems and interests as communal fodder,and the idea of a community is created.The main topic,at the beginning of a community,is to find common interests in order to create bounds between the members.Discovery,imagination and passion are essential for starting a community.

2.Coalescing-" if a community can combine a good understanding of what exists with a vision of where it can go,it is ready to move to the coalescing stage."Through this second stage,it is essential for the members to build respect,trust,good relationships.However,it takes time for members to really trust one another and to share knowledge that can be very useful.

3.Maturing-"during the maturation stage,the main issue a community faces shifts from establishing value to clarifying the community's focus,role and boundaries."As the community grows,members begin to see gaps and feel an urge to be more systematic in their definition of the community's parctice.

4.Stewardship-in this stage it is important to keep freshness and liveliness in a community.The key practice issue in the stewardship phase is to keep the community on the cutting edge.

5.Transformation-the transformation,or the death of a community is as important as its birth.This happens when members realize that they do not have the same interests anymore or the community's practices can become so commonplace that they no longer need a community.

Communities transform themselves in many ways.