Chapter 8

If organizastions want communities to become an integrated,influential and pevasive force for learning and innovation , they will need to measure and manage them.Communities of practice create value by stewarding highly prized knowledge resources.It is in the best interests of both community members and managers to see that the value of this stewardship is fully realized and widely recognized.Many claim that knowledge resources cannot be measured and managed;and their partly right because the nature of knowledge is tacit,dynamic and socially distributed.We cannot treat knowledge as if it were a thing or a property.However what we can do,is we can measure and manage "the knowledge system"through which it flows and creates value.A knowledge system includes two highly interdependent processes by which knowledge is produced and applied. The knowledge-development process takes inchoate knowledge assets—such as undeveloped ideas, latent skills, or isolated techniques—and converts these into visible, accessible knowledge resources.These resources are then applied in business processes to deliver products and services to customers. The application process, in turn, generates new problems, ideas, and innovative approaches that can be developed into knowledge resources.
Measuring Value Creation
Some say that efforts to measure the value of knowledge will hurt more than help.the risks of measures are well known—witness the distortions of behavior that result when teachers “teach to the test” or when a team focuses on an ill-conceived productivity target to the detriment of customer and profitability outcomes.Measures of value are instrumental for communities to gain visibility and influence, and to evaluate and guide their own development.
How to Measure: Systematic Anecdotal Evidence

You have to go 

through the entire knowledge system, starting with the activities of 

communities of practice and following their effect through the application

of knowledge resources in business processes, to create value for

customers and other stakeholders.

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.

Communities of practice chapter3

How can communities become"alive"?This question has led to an interesting response;the authors came up with seven principles that,they consider,will bring some "life" into a community.The seven principles are: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.

1.Design for evolution
Design elements should be catalysts for a community's natural evolution.The gate to a healthy growth lies within the community's dynamic nature.The goal of the design is not to impose a structure but to help the community develop.

2.Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives
A good community design asks for an insider's point of view which can lead to the discovery of what the community is about.Only he can judge the community's potential,its knowledge and its perspectives.

3.Invite different levels of participation
There are three main levels of participation:-core group;-active;-peripheral;each bringing an important contribution to the community.The core participates actively in disscusions and debates.Outside the core we find the active part and finally we reach the peripheral,who obeserves intereactions between the core and the active members.

4.Develop both public and private community spaces
Communities have connections both in the public and in the private space.Public space such as:meetings and websites and private space like the one-on-one networking of community members.

5.Focus on value
Communities flourish because they deliver value to the staff and also to the entire company.The everyday interactions are considered the most valuable community activities.

6.Combine familiarity and exicitement
Communities are "neutral places".What they offer to their members is interaction,they permit them to think in an open way and they also allow them to separate from work pressure.

7.Create a rhythm for the communities
"The rhythm of the community is the strongest indicator of its aliveness."We can distinguish many rhythms in a community:the syncopation of familiar and exciting events,the frequency of private interactions,the flow of people etc.

Communities of practice chapter2

Communities of practice embrace many forms.They can be big or small,long or short-lived,collocated or distributed;a big part of them can even cross the boundries between companies.
Although they take various forms,they all share a basic structure,that is composed of three fundamental elements:a domain of knowledge,a community of people and a share practice.Their importance is given by the fact that all three of them represent the "basis" of the communities.For example,the domain creates common ground and a sense of common identity;the community of people helps ideas to run"freely" between the members and it also creates a bond between them;finally,the practice is the knowledge the community maintains,shares and develops.
Their primary purpose is to help the staff work better,to give them the opportunity to exchange knowledge in a loose and friendly way.They are based on collegiality.
Moreover the three elements represent various aspects that determine the people to enter into a community.Most important is that they provide a practical prototype to guide the community development.A good model is important because it assures that the staff maintain an equilibrium between the elements.
To sum up,it is benefical for communities members to understand how the three key elements "work",because they help the community "function"at a high standard.

Communities of practice chapter1

"Time is money".This saying fitted best the Chrysler Corporation back in 1988.
  The company was wasting too much time for developing a new product,thus they wasted money also.Something had to be done.By going against the grain and coming up with an innovative idea, the company  had both to win but also to lose.Communication between the employees was required,thus some members of the staff came up with a revolutionary concept:creating Tech Clubs,nowadays also known as communities of practice.The idea was an instant success and shortly after, companies from all over the world adopted this new "trend".
  But what exactly are the communities of practice?-they are groups of people from a certain company that share the same concerns,passions or set of problems.
  The communities are important because they enable people to interact,to learn and to experience different situations,thus creating an invisible network of information and ideas.
The "engine" of these communities is represented by knowledge.Knowledge empowers communities and helps them grow and develop in an harmonious way.Hence communities of practice can cover many fields and can be efficient and productive for the company.They offer both short and long term value,as well as tangible and intangible "benefits".
Communities of practice provide value through their ability to develop new strategies and through their contribution to the formulation of new techniques.They also provide different approaches towards the same goals.
Nevertheless the most important thing they offer is interaction between people with innovative ideas and precious knowledge;they deliver value to their members as well as to the organization.