How to run a Community of Practices (COP)

Patterns and anti-pattern on COPs

Community of Practices

What is it ?

A group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

Its purpose

  • Connect people / break silos

  • Consolidate the collective knowledge

  • Improve quality

  • Spread knowledge

  • Standardize practices in the organization

  • Share practices

  • Build new skills / learn together

  • Build a learning organization

  • Solve problems by using the collective intelligence

Who ?

  • 1 leader / facilitator

    • Keep it alive

    • Organize the events

    • Motivate people

  • 1 core of people / Volunteers

    • To participate and contribute

In fact in Community of Practice you can observe 3 types of participants :

  • Takers : self-focused and put their own interests ahead of others’ needs. They try to gain as much as possible from their interactions while contributing as little as they can in return.

  • Matchers : like to preserve an equal balance of giving and taking.

    • Their mindset is: “If you take from me, I’ll take from you. If you give to me, I’ll give to you.”

  • Givers : are others-focused, and tend to provide support to others with no strings attached.

    • They ask themselves, “How can I add value for this person? What can I contribute?”

Communication is key

  • Create the buzz around you community

    • Make it viral

  • Choose the right channels

  • Be consistent in your communications

    • Brand it internally

Examples of Events of a COP

  • Organize Brown Bag sessions

    • 1 speaker on a dedicated topic

    • Spread/Share knowledge

  • Lightning taks

    • Everyone can share a few minutes on 1 topic

  • Lean coffees

    • Solve problems by using Collective Intelligence

  • Xtrems format : learn collaboratively

How

There are some key steps when introducing a COP. This kind of initiative can be associate to a change process :

  • Define the goals of the community

    • Do it collaboratively with those who see the needs to create one

  • Sell the idea internally

    • Find sponsors

  • Initiate a backlog

  • Kick-off the community

  • Run your first events

  • Introduce Continuous Improvement process

    • Gather feedback regularly

    • Organize retrospective

    • Check regularly if you meet the goals you defined

pageXtrem ReadingpageXTREM WATCH — Découvrez la puissance de la veille collective

How to bootstrap yours ?

Here is the facilitation format I use to help organizations bootstrap their own COP.

During a 2 hours workshop you can invite motivated people on the topic you want to create a COP about (examples : software development, UX, Agile, Analysts, Project Managers, ...).

The goal of the workshop : Co-construct a first version of a community vision.

I use a divergent / convergent format with individual / collective reflection times.

1) Vision / Importance

You need to be sure that everyone agrees and is aligned on the Vision and why the community is important at this stage.

2) How / Measures

3) Impact (on what / who)

4) Resources

5) Force Field Analysis (Optional)

Anticipate what could support the Community Vision and what could slow it down.

6) Choose a name

Naming is always important so choose it all together as well.

At this moment you can also elect a leader for the Community.

COP Canva

You can then format the outcome of the workshop into a Canva that you can display everywhere like the one below :

Success criteria

From my experience here are some key success criteria for your COPs :

  • Co-construction is key

    • Involve people from the beginning (Vision)

    • Collaboratively refine your backlog

  • Have 1 and only 1 leader

    • I have already seen COPs with several leaders

      • On the paper I like the idea : no Single Point Of Failure, load is split

    • But I have never seen it worked so I prefer to recommend to have only 1 leader

  • A leader with dedicated time on it

    • Lead / facilitate a COP takes time

    • It must not be a Nice To Have activity

    • Must be part of the person's job

  • Leader needs to be coached at the beginning

    • Often on the skills

    • How to federate and involve people

  • Transparency everywhere on everything

    • Every events should be public

    • Measures of the progress as well

    • Keep a log of everything

    • Publish event minutes and contents on a dedicated platform (Slack, Wiki, ...)

  • Have a strong sponsorship

    • From the management

    • Gather resources

    • Not a nice to have activity for people

    • Need to be convinced that it's a way to evolve as an organization

  • Use different event(s) format(s)

    • Vary the pleasures

  • Autonomy

    • Autonomy means clear responsibility as well

    • Have a clear boundary on what can be done within the COP / clear vision

      • Examples : create standards for programming in the organization

  • Involve people

    • Create a safe place for people (without judgement)

    • The key to involve them

    • No need to be an expert to share. It's by sharing that you will become an expert.

  • Reflect regularly on the community

    • Do it with a survey (self assessment) based on the outcomes expected from the Vision

    • Organize retrospectives

    • You can use the self assessment questions below (I recommend to adapt them regarding your own COP vision)

Community Health check

Infographic

Resources

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