COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE C O P

1. COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE COP “People are best engaged when they are actively involved in an activity.” Etienne Wenger

2. DEFINITION • Communities of Practice (CoP) as “groups of people who share a common concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” A group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or interest in a topic and who Come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.

3. WHAT IS COP? • A community of practice defines itself along three dimensions: • What it is about – its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members • How it functions- mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity • What capability it has produced – the shared repertoire of communal resources that members have developed over time.

4. MEMBERS’OWNERSHIP • Communities of practice develop around things that matter to people. • Their practices reflect the members' own understanding of what is important, as a result. • Outside constraints or directives can influence this understanding, but even then, members develop practices that are their own response to these external influences. • Even when a community's actionsconform to an external mandate, it is the community–not the mandate–that produces the practice. In this sense, communities of practice are fundamentally self-organizing systems.

5. Components of CoP • Domain/Identity. Membership implies a commitment to the domain. • Community. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. There needs to be people who interact and learn together in order for a CoP to be formed. • Practice: Interest and practitioners.

6. Stages of development

7. What do Communities of Practice look like?

8. Benefits of CoP • Promote sustainability • Provide self-directed learning environment • Address perceived “real” needs of participants • Connect people • Enable Dialog • Introduce a Collaborative Process • Help people organize to meet common goals • Promote self responsibility • Promote technical leadership • Stimulate Learning • Capture existing knowledge • Generate new knowledge

9. Advantages & Disadvantages of a CoP

10. What will it take to implement CoP within RPOs? • Discover a common interest • Contact potentially interested people • Design group processes • Develop trust, respect, reciprocity, commitment • Determine goals or what group wants to achieve • Organize events around learning • Capture existing learning • Generate/discover new knowledge • Translate learning to practice • Establish terms for close

11. THANKS FOR LISTENNING!Lydia Irambona