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
Everyone can share a few minutes on 1 topic
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
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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