Paul Coyne :: Blog :: organisational change

 

I've been thinking a lot about how to foster more successful Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Interest. A couple of key questions emerge:

How can I make my community of practice truly effective?
How can I prevent my network becoming a "notwork"?

Communities of practice (networks) lie at the heart of successful knowledge management in most organisations. They are the lifeblood of informal exchanges of knowledge. Typically, communities go through a series of stages as they develop. This article, drawn from a best-selling knowledge management fieldbook by its author, identifies the key steps involved in creating and sustaining a successful community of practice, providing practical hints and tips for every part of the lifecycle.

The guidelines below are drawn from the book "Learning to Fly - Practical knowledge management from leading and learning organisations" by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell), and sets out a number steps to launching, energising and sustaining communities of practice (networks) in an organisation.

1. Planning Gather together a list of potential participants. Use referral - ask individuals if they can recommend others in the organisation who should participate. Consider a broader membership to introduce diversity. Would your network benefit from having members NOT closely associated with your domain of interest - to bring in a different perspective?

2. Decide: go/no-go Check for duplication or overlap with other networks/groups, verify the need for the network and make a clear go/no-go decision. Is the scope realistic, or is the subject area too broad for a single network? Take some soundings from potential members and consider splitting to form two or more sub-networks if appropriate.

Getting started

3. Hold a face-to-face start-up workshop Ensure that this includes a social activity to build relationships and trust. If most of the interactions are likely to be via e-mail or telephone, it is important to build relationships face-to-face.

4. Draft a "charter" collectively Develop a simple "charter" which may include:

• the rationale and scope for the network,
• the key roles (facilitator, sponsor etc.),
• the expectations in terms of people's time commitment (do members need help in securing "air cover" from their managers?),
• a "code of conduct" - how members will work together, and key processes/tools,
• a sense of "what success looks like", and any appropriate KPIs. (but avoid over-burdening a network with measures at the early stages of its growth)

5. Consider tools for support Check the available tools and their distribution across the members, particularly for a network which crosses organisational boundaries.

6. Appoint a facilitator The responsibilities of the Network Facilitator, some of which, in practice, may be shared with others in the network, may include:

• organising network meetings/teleconferences;
• maintaining network distribution lists;
• owning and ensuring the maintenance of shared information/knowledge resources;
• monitoring the effectiveness of the network, and stimulating and prodding network members when appropriate;
• acting as a focal point for the network, both internally and for those outside the network

Note - a network facilitator need not be the "subject expert". Far more important is the ability of that person to involve and include others, and to work behind the scenes to keep the network "on the boil".

7. Set up an e-mail distribution list and send a launch e-mail Establish an e-mail distribution list for your network comprising the potential membership names identified. This should facilitate further communication. The Network facilitator should be identified as the owner of this, and can add or delete people from this distribution themselves. Send an initial e-mail to kick off the dialogue.

Building momentum

8. Seed the discussion with some questions Establish the behaviours by asking a question on behalf of a member with a particular need (have the members do it themselves if possible). In the early stages it is important to demonstrate responsiveness. The facilitator should be prepared to pick up the phone and press for answers behind the scenes.

9. Publicise the network What communications media exist within your organisation? Can you write a short news article in a relevant internal or external magazine which describes the network and its aims?

10. Advertise quick wins When you get answers to questions, or the transfer of ideas between members, celebrate and make sure that everyone knows

11. Monitor activity... Monitor the discussion forum/Q&A effectiveness:

• Frequency of contribution,
• Frequency of response.
• Number of unanswered questions
• For larger networks - number of joiners/leavers

12. Maintain connectivity Schedule regular teleconferences, summarise successes, develop a list of "frequently asked questions" and a shared team space/website.

Renewing commitment

13. Refine the membership For large networks, send an e-mail to existing members reminding them to let you know if they would like to be removed from the list. Better to have a smaller group of committed members, than a larger group with variable commitment.

14. Maintain face-to-face meetings Consider an annual face-to-face meeting to renew relationships and introduce any new members

15. Keep the focus on business problems Continue to solicit questions and answers - publicise more success stories.

16. Review performance How is the network performing in relation to its performance contract, mission, KPIs? Are there still regular examples of success stories?

17. Test commitment Don't be afraid to threaten to "switch off" the network and test the response of members. People will soon object if they strongly believe in it!

Is it time to "sunset" your community? Or to reinvent it? Consider Options Decide for the future:

• Continue?
• Celebrate & close?
• Redefine the deliverables/scope?
• Divide into sub-networks?

Conclusion

Launching and supporting successful communites of practice is one of the most effective ways to sustain your investment in knowledge management. It takes thought and effort to get started, but with the right people, and the steps outlined above, they can bring KM to life in any organisation.

It's generally the case that Executives tend to invest in new technologies and processes because they hold out the promise of either increasing competitive advantage (for example, by enabling new services or improvements to existing ones) or reducing costs. While opinions differ among discussion participants as to whether Web 2.0 technologies (like InTouch) have yet demonstrated any economic impact, a consensus is emerging that the technologies are valuable internally (mostly by improving collaboration) and externally (by strengthening connections among suppliers, partners, and customers).

Although no longer so very new the ideas and technologies that have become known collectively as Web 2.0 appear to be moving up the agenda for many Chief Execs and Boards. 

It's also clear that motives for this interest varies, as do expectations.

MckInsey conducted a global survey earlier this year, 'how businesses are using web 2.0'. The results are fascinating, and sometimes surprising.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1913&pagenum=1

 

Successful Investments so far...

More than half of the executives surveyed say they are pleased with the results of their investments in Internet technologies over the past five years, and nearly three-quarters say that their companies plan to maintain or increase investments in Web 2.0 technologies in coming years. (A mere 13 percent say they are disappointed with previous investments.) Companies that acted quickly in the previous wave of investment are more satisfied than late movers. Less than a fifth of all those surveyed say they are very satisfied with their returns. Of those who rate themselves as very satisfied, 46 percent are “early adopters” and 44 percent “fast followers”.

Why web 2.0?

Executives say they are using Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with customers and business partners and to encourage collaboration inside the company. Seventy percent say they are using some combination of these technologies for communicating with their customers. For example, about one-fifth of them say they are using blogs to improve customer service or solicit customer feedback.

Respondents report that to communicate with business partners and, secondarily, to achieve tighter integration with suppliers, companies are using Web services, peer-to-peer networking, collective intelligence, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and peer-to-peer networking.

Companies are using the same technologies to help manage knowledge internally. Just over half of respondents say they used one or more Web 2.0 technologies for that purpose. Just under half use these tools for designing and developing new products—for example, setting up systems to gather and share ideas.

Finally, among the executives surveyed, technologies for automation and collaboration appear to be gaining more traction than some of the technologies that have received more attention in the press. Blogs, podcasts, and mash-ups trail technology trends that allow people to contribute knowledge to a common effort or allow machines to exchange information more easily.

However, looking at companies that have invested in specific technologies, two distinct groups emerge. Some 43 percent of companies are even more focused on networking and collective intelligence technologies than the global average; these companies are likelier than others to be large, in high tech, and in Asia. And some 22 percent are much likelier to have invested in RSS, blogs, and podcasts than others; these companies are also likelier to be in industries such as media and telecommunications and located in North America. (might this mean that a Web 2.0 enabled Insight will be attractive to US buyers users?)

Some participants, especially those whose investments have focused on changes in their IT systems and who have invested less in Web 2.0, tend to view advantages as fleeting. “While we have been in the forefront of most technology upheavals over the past two decades, none of our investments have provided us with any significant competitive advantage for a significant duration. The technologies tend to get adopted by competing financial institutions with no meaningful time gap [and] tend to get commoditized very rapidly.”

Participants in the survey see these technologies as enabling a different way of doing business, both internally (for example, by aggregating knowledge from throughout the company) and externally (by tapping customers for product-development ideas). These respondents, such as this executive from a company using several technologies, tend to expect a more sustainable advantage. “Web 2.0 tools are helping to encourage interest in collaboration across the organization and helping us to explore new and different ways of collaborating. In time this may bring us some form of competitive advantage, but it would be hard to quantify anything at this stage.”

Clearly there is  a great deal of divergent opinion in the value of web 2.0 to the business and it's contribution to a firm's sustained competitve advantage but it appears that this uncertainty is not preventing many firms explore what the impact of these tools might mean for them.

It's very interesting to me that those firms looking to encourage and foster a web 2.0/social media approach, including aspects of customer inclusion, employee participation, value co-creation, rich dialogue and interaction, open data and services - are the same firms looking at the long term, strategic,  pay-off rather than the more traditional accounting ROI argument for IT investment..