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Community of Practice Design Guide CCoommmmuunniittyy ooff PPrraaccttiiccee DDeessiiggnn GGuuiiddee A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating Communities of Practice in Higher Education Acknowledgments Why Are Communities Important? This guide was developed based on the shared Today, organizations, workgroups, teams, and experiences of several organizations working together individuals must work together in new ways. Inter- in ways that embody the spirit of collaboration. These organizational collaboration is increasingly important. included the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative Communities of practice provide a new model for at EDUCAUSE (http://www.educause.edu/nlii) and a connecting people in the spirit of learning, knowledge community it sponsored, the Bridging VCOP; the sharing, and collaboration as well as individual, group, American Association for Higher Education. and organizational development. (http://www.aahe.org); and iCohere (http://www.icohere.com). We would also like to Communities of practice are important because they: specifically acknowledge the NLII VCOP Facilitators X Connect people who might not otherwise Team and four generations of NLII Fellows for their have the opportunity to interact, either as ongoing contribution to and successful demonstration frequently or at all. of many of the processes and tools presented in this guide. X Provide a shared context for people to communicate and share information, stories, and personal experiences in a way that builds understanding and insight. How to Use This Community Design Guide X Enable dialogue between people who come This guide provides a practical approach to creating together to explore new possibilities, solve challenging problems, and create new, communities of practice (CoPs) based on experiences mutually beneficial opportunities. working with corporations, nonprofits, associations, government organizations, and educational X Stimulate learning by serving as a vehicle for institutions. While it is important to recognize that authentic communication, mentoring, every organization and community is different, this coaching, and self-reflection. guide provides a structure to help clarify the most X Capture and diffuse existing knowledge to important design elements that go into defining, help people improve their practice by designing, launching, and growing CoPs—both online providing a forum to identify solutions to and face-to-face. The first three pages of the guide common problems and a process to collect are designed for those who are considering the and evaluate best practices. strategic use of CoPs to facilitate collaboration, learning, or knowledge generation and want to know X Introduce collaborative processes to more. The subsequent pages of the guide are groups and organizations as well as between designed to help CoP designers and facilitators organizations to encourage the free flow of understand the questions, issues, and options ideas and exchange of information. involved in planning and cultivating communities. X Help people organize around purposeful actions that deliver tangible results. What Is a Community of Practice? X Generate new knowledge to help people A community of practice is a group of people who transform their practice to accommodate share a common concern, a set of problems, or changes in needs and technologies. interest in a topic and who come together to fulfil both 1 individual and group goals. CoPs often focus on How Do You Build CoPs? sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. Interaction Communities of practice are dynamic social structures on an ongoing basis is an important part of this. A that require “cultivation” so that they can emerge and 2 community’s specific purpose and goals inform the grow. Organizations can sponsor CoPs, and through appropriate activities and technologies that should a series of steps, individuals can design a community support it. Many virtual communities of practice rely on environment, foster the formalization of the face-to-face meetings as well as Web-based community, and plan activities to help grow and collaborative environments to communicate, connect, sustain the community. But ultimately, the members of and conduct community activities. the community will define and sustain it over time. ©2005 Darren Cambridge, Soren Kaplan, and Vicki Suter How Do Communities Grow? How Do Online Communities Become Communities have lifecycles—they emerge, they Places? grow, and they have life spans. For each lifecycle Facilitating community is not a static, one-time event phase, specific design, facilitation, and support related to “turning on” a software platform or strategies exist that help achieve the goals of the technology. While technology—the technical community and lead it into its next stage of architecture—can assist greatly in providing a platform development. If the community is successful, over for communication and collaboration, even more time the energy, commitment to, and visibility of the important is the social architecture of the community. community will grow until the community becomes The technical architecture supports the community, institutionalized as a core value-added capability of 3 while the social architecture enlivens it. The roles, the sponsoring organization. The following model processes, and approaches that engage people— outlines the lifecycle phases of communities. whether face-to-face or online—are essential in relationship building, collaborative learning, knowledge sharing, and action. Together, technical and social architectures create the container for the community. An effective approach to community facilitation involves creating a predictable “rhythm” that sets an expectation around how and when to participate in the community. A “sense of place” is created in the minds of community members through an integrated, thoughtful combination of face-to-face meetings, live online events, and collaboration over time within a persistent Web environment. (adapted from McDermott, 2002) The lifecycle phases include: X Inquire: Through a process of exploration and inquiry, identify the audience, purpose, goals, and vision for the community. X Design: Define the activities, technologies, group processes, and roles that will support the community’s goals. X Prototype: Pilot the community with a select group of key stakeholders to gain commitment, test assumptions, refine the strategy, and establish a success story. Purpose Is Paramount X Launch: Roll out the community to a broader While almost every community evolves along a audience over a period of time in ways that lifecycle, every community is indeed unique, with engage newcomers and deliver immediate distinct goals, member characteristics and needs, and benefits. purpose. All design choices (for technical or social X Grow: Engage members in collaborative architecture) must be driven by purpose, so learning and knowledge sharing activities, group community purpose is paramount. Successful and projects, and networking events that meet sustainable communities have focused, well-defined individual, group, and organizational goals while purposes that are directly tied to the sponsoring creating an increasing cycle of participation and organization’s mission. Purposes should be defined in contribution. terms of the benefits to the community’s stakeholders X Sustain: Cultivate and assess the knowledge and the specific needs that the community will be and “products” created by the community to organized to meet. Purposes can be categorized into inform new strategies, goals, activities, roles, the following four areas of activity: technologies, and business models for the future. Successfully facilitating a CoP involves understanding these lifecycle phases and ensuring that the expectations, plans, communications, collaborative activities, technologies, and measures of success map to the current phase of the community’s development. Without conscious facilitation, momentum may be lost during the launch phase and the CoP may not achieve the critical mass needed to evolve into a sustainable entity. Step-by-Step Guide for Designing and Cultivating Communities of Practice Page 2 Culture of Inquiry and Evidence and Community Activities Once purpose has been defined, the next important planning activity is to frame the assessment infrastructure and the language of inquiry and evidence that the community and its stakeholders will use to understand and document success in achieving the purpose, meeting organization goals, responding to needs, and making decisions about future actions. Rubrics for assessment of the effectiveness of community activities have not yet been fully developed; however, the following are general questions to explore in assessing the quality of community design, development, and support in relation to community activities. 1. Foundation: Build Relationships Develop relationships of trust, mutual respect, reciprocity, and commitment necessary for strong communities. Interaction with and development of a wider network of peers is sufficient reason to belong to a community for some. Even if the community purpose is broader, other community activities are dependent on an environment of mutual respect and trust, which “encourages a willingness to share ideas, expose one’s ignorance, ask difficult questions, and listen carefully.”4 For virtual communities of practice especially, relationships are fostered by frequent synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and this
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