Grow Communities
Communities of Practices are 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.
There are three characteristics of a community of practice:
- Topic: The community members have a shared area of interest, a shared expertise, and a shared commitment that sets them apart. This shared area creates common ground, inspires members to participate, guides their learning, and gives meaning to their actions.
- Community: Members pursue this interest through shared activities, discussions, problem-solving opportunities, information sharing, and relationship building. The notion of community creates the social fabric that makes collective learning possible. A strong sense of community fosters interaction and encourages a willingness to share ideas.
- Practice: The members of the community are actual practitioners in the area of interest and build a shared repertoire of resources and ideas that they take with them into their practice. While the area represents the general area of interest of the community, the practice is the specific focus around which the community develops, shares and maintains its core of collective knowledge.
Promoting Communities is Profitable
Information and ideas do not just flow along hierarchical levels or in predetermined structures. The world today is simply complex.
Out of this need arise agile roundtables, user groups, and community meetings. Outside of our agile community, there are open source projects and older structures such as professional associations or associations of scientists.
More and more companies are also recognizing the benefits of promoting such open structures and supporting internal and external forums, Scrum cafes, open spaces and a variety of other forms. These are structures in which like-minded people can exchange ideas and learn from each other.
- What forms and ideas are there?
- Where can CoPs be found – publicly and, above all, in companies – and how widespread is the idea?
- What forces, creativity and energy can be released by CoPs?
- What direct and indirect advantages do CoPs bring for participants, companies and others?
- What dangers are there, what can go wrong or have negative consequences?
