HR News

Best Practices Outlined
A community of practice is “a group of people who come together to share and learn from one another both face-to-face and virtually,” APQC (www.apqc.org) explains in its recent best practices report, “Sustaining Effective Communities of Practice.”

Communities generally have a monthly virtual meeting with a posted agenda, but “there are informal communications that go on in a community daily—if not hourly,” says Lemons. Many communities have discussion forums in which members can type in a question and then receive answers from their colleagues from around the world, for example.

The report identifies 18 best practices of successful communities of practice and breaks them down into five categories:

1. Creating a sustainable community strategy. This includes creating a single, enterprise approach; building on existing networks; ensuring that communities fulfill explicit business objectives; using a combination of corporate and business-unit funding; and establishing clear roles and responsibilities.
2. Establishing practices and approaches for sustaining communities. In addition to aligning communities with business needs, this category includes connecting people with other people; using community performance plans; and leveraging technology.
3. Providing tools and resources for community leaders. It is important to define a community leaders’ role and responsibilities; to build an internal support network for them; and to provide them with training. Applicable training might address using technology, facilitating a meeting, communicating effectively, and time management, Lemons says.
4. Promoting awareness and communicating value. Best practice organizations promote the benefits and results of communities of practice (e.g., in success stories posted on an intranet, released to the community itself, and/or published in the company newsletter), according to Lemons. They also reward and recognize community of practice accomplishments, and support and sustain member engagement by addressing the “what’s-in-it-for-me factor” (e.g., giving them resources to perform their jobs more efficiently, providing them with a creative outlet, etc.).
5. Measuring success. This category includes ensuring that measures align with business processes; using both activity measures (the number of people participating in a meeting or community activities) and measures of effectiveness (whether community objectives are being achieved); as well as measuring the “health” of the community across its life cycle, says Lemons.

Three Critical Success Factors
All 18 best practices are important, but Lemons says there are three critical success factors:

1. Strong community leaders. Those selected to lead a community need the appropriate tools, resources, and support, Lemons says. “Community leaders can make or break a community.”
2. Communication. “You cannot overcommunicate,” she says. “You have to continuously remind people of the purpose of the community.”
3. Alignment with business needs. A community must help solve a business issue or connect people to help them perform their jobs better, she says. “People don’t have the time—or don’t want to give time—if they don’t understand the business connection.”