Discuss with your neighbour:

What value do you get from meeting other people that do the same job as you?

@ewebber

Building Successful Communities of Practice Discover How Connecting People Makes Better Organisations

Agile Cymru 2016 Emily Webber @ewebber emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com

“…groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Wenger-Trayner

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Community of Practice

Hello. I’m Emily Webber (and I have a habit)

@ewebber

@ewebber

@ewebber

What brings you here?

“Absence of support is taken as a sign of mass rejection” Matthew D. Lieberman

Social: Why our brains are wired to connect

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@ewebber

sink or swim

Photo by Elaine with G

rey Cats

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Silos are killing your organisation

Photo by joinash

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<homogenous group name> are rubbish at ….

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@ewebber

Who has silos in their organisation?

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@ewebber

@ewebber

PROGRAMMEPROGRAMME

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PROGRAMME

CO

MM

UN

ITY

OF

PR

AC

TIC

E

How you do it

Wh

at

yo

u d

o

PROGRAMME

@ewebber

Photo by Meg Cheng

Connecting people through communities of practice will help break down silos and make your organisation better

Training courses are not helping you learn

Photo by Emory M

aiden

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“Knowledge is something you buy with the money. Wisdom is something you acquire by doing it” Taiichi Ohno

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Who is here on their training budget?

Kolb’s Learning Styles Model

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“Copying other people’s successes, when combined with individual learning, is dramatically better than individual learning alone.” Alex “Sandy” Pentland

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@ewebber

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Photo by clemsonunivlibrary

By learning and practicing together members of communities of practice get better at what they do (faster)

You’re letting your organisational knowledge exit

Photo by Lionel Martinez

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@ewebber

Who left their last job within 5 years?

People don’t stay in jobs for life, they move around on average every 4.4 years

- Forbes

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When people leave they take parts of your organisational brain

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The Knowledge Iceberg

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The Knowledge Iceberg

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Photo by Photo by an1uk

Communities of practice create the right conditions to help retain tacit knowledge

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from silos

to sharing knowledge

to solving shared problems

to using the collective knowledge of the community to create better practices

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Illustration by Tenso Graphics

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Illustration by Tenso Graphics

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Illustration by Tenso Graphics

“Teams of people have a collective intelligence that is independent of individual intelligence and greater than individual intelligence.” Alex “Sandy” Pentland

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@ewebber

Photo by Anders Sandberg

By solving problems together communities of practice use their collective knowledge to create better practices

Your staff are demotivated because they’re unhappy

Photo by Stephen Holt

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“Happier workers… were 12% more productive. Unhappier workers were 10% less productive” ‘Happiness and Productivity’ by Andrew J Oswald, Eugenio Proto and Daniel Sgroi

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Has anyone left an organisation because felt unsupported?

We are wired to connect with other people

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What motivates us

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Dan Pink, D

rive

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Photo by Emily W

ebber

Communities of practice will give people the emotional support they need and motivate them through mastery of their craft

Photo by Sacks08

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Photo by Amancay M

aahs

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Tips for successful communities of practice5

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Photo by J Mark D

odds

Don’t underestimate the time and effort you need to put in to make them work

1

Adapted from Cultivating Communities of Practice - Wenger, McDermott and Snyder

Community maturity stages

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ENER

GY

AND

VIS

IBIL

ITY

POTENTIAL

FORMING

MATURING

SELF-SUSTAINING

input needed

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Photo by Angelo Amboldi

At some point you will need support from your organisation

2

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@ewebber

Photo by Boston Public Library

You won’t get the best results without a sense of community

3

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Photo by Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay

Membership & Safety

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Photo by Ryan Jesse

Influence (both ways)

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Photo by Alper Çuğun

Fulfilment of needs

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Photo by JonathanEmotional connection

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Photo by Meg Cheng

Not everyone will want to join in and that’s ok

4

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@ewebber

Photo by Ryan Roberts

Don’t become your own silo and look for ways to share with other communities

5

@ewebber

Building Successful Communities of Practice

Discover How Connecting People Makes Better Organisations

tacit.pub/tacitbooks

Thank you.

Emily Webber @ewebber emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com