I read on Facebook that October 13 is International Skeptics Day.
Or is it?
If you’re like me, you’ve probably learned to view a lot of what you see on social media with a skeptical eye. You figured out a long time ago that just about anyone can create a meme designed to convince you that aliens are coming, a politician is up to no good, or clowns are lurking behind every corner. And you’re not buying it.
It’s this healthy skepticism that keeps most of us from automatically clicking on “share” and contributing to the spread of misinformation. And, of course, we’re endlessly grateful for Google, which lets us fact-check the things we see and read in real time.
Skepticism and research help us make smart decisions in business, too. “Think before you act” is a mantra that has saved many of us from heading down the wrong path. Researching and learning from others’ mistakes – and successes – helps guide informed decisions and improves the odds of achieving good outcomes.
Knowledge management is a discipline built on a culture of community and information-sharing, which means there’s a ton of documented experiences out there for us to learn from. Do a little homework, and you’ll quickly find that there’s one KM approach you don’t need to be skeptical about: communities of practice.
Bringing together communities of people to focus on specific functional domains builds vast knowledge over time. Such communities keep employees engaged with one another while nurturing the competencies and skills that keep your organization thriving. These hotbeds for individual career development also help feed your organizational succession pipeline.
When you support these immersive, knowledge-rich environments with sound KM infrastructure, documentation, and delivery mechanisms, you give the best minds in your organization the tools they need to drive problem-solving and innovation.
APQC’s extensive research – including large-scale research projects and best-practice studies – has documented eight ways to ensure successful communities of practice:
- Have a clear business purpose. Choose to support communities that are important to your business and opportunities.
- Design according to primary business intent. Determine what you want the community to achieve, then design, implement, and support accordingly.
- Solicit active, enthusiastic leaders. The most important factor in ensuring success is the skill and enthusiasm of the community leader.
- Support with central and business-unit funding. Leading organizations support their communities by providing community leaders and coordinators, software applications, and content managers and systems.
- Link to organizational structure and seek leadership sponsors. This provides legitimacy and necessary connections to management support, funding, and shared resources.
- Promote the value of participation. Often, community membership is not required, but is promoted through communications, rewards and recognition, and the overall culture.
- Give members a say in objectives and direction. Communities tend to be member-driven and democratic.
- Measure community health and impact. Appropriate success measures are a direct reflection of the type of community being assessed.
To learn more about how to launch and support successful communities of practice, download our Eight Key Findings About Communities of Practice article. You can also check out this slide deck to learn how Caterpillar Inc. is using communities of practice to support technical knowledge.
I’d love to hear from you about what’s working within your own organization, and I look forward to your comments.