Connecting with other people, finding a sense of belonging and the need for support are natural human desires. Employees who don’t feel supported at work don’t stay around for long — or if they do, they quickly become unmotivated and unhappy. At a time when organisational structures are flattening and workforces are increasingly fluid, supporting and connecting people is more important than ever. This is where organisational communities of practice come in. Communities of practice have many valuable benefits. They include accelerating professional development; breaking down organisational silos; enabling knowledge sharing and management; building better practice; helping to hire and retain staff; and making people happier. In this book, Emily Webber shares her learning from personal experiences of building successful communities of practice within organisations. And along the way, she gives practical guidance on creating your own.
I returned a couple of books on communities of practice before finding this one referred to by another reviewer. And it's a keeper for several reasons: matter-of-fact style based on experience, good illustrations that are not hand drawn, small enough to read in a day and give to prospective leaders without breaking the bank. One insight I had was that the safe feeling level of a CoP member may mirror the type of members from core members providing the most respect and safety, to outside members being less concerned with the communities standards.
Very basic and not entirely true to Wenger's original conception of Communities of Practice. It is somewhat useful as a checklist when setting up a group.... perhaps.... But, there does not appear to be anything really new here. In parts it is rather gratuitous - e.g. do we really need a book to tell us that you might want to send out calendar invites for group meetings??? And it's only 70 pages - really not enough space that anything should be redundant.
Very short (~90 pages) and sense-packed book about building communities of practice. It’s very structured and goes from identifying the need in the community, through forming the community to establishing the community to be self-maintaining. I really like such format, sometimes I was discovering that entire pages were highlighed, that’s how much sense it has.
Short and sweet overview of how to create practice groups in an organization. Provides some great specific frameworks on how to kick them off but everything else is pretty general. I am still unsure about how to keep these groups going through the seemingly inevitable doldrums that happen once the initial excitement wears off though.
This book summarizes several other CoP books. It's a great desk guide and time saver. The only down side is that it doesn't provide a clear blue print of what to do if things don't go as planned. Other than that the book includes everything and anything you would want to understand CoPs if you need quick understanding.
Good ideas and advice, clear and concise, useful I'm sure, but I found the format utterly boring. As a companion/checklist for a training/seminar I guess it could replace taking your own notes (apart from the fact that taking your own notes, by hand, would reinforce your learning).
This is a great book on summing up some of the key factors for setting up communities of practice. Emily writes this in a concise way and you will get through this pretty quickly and find it a useful resource to return to.
Short book and a good simple guide that’s useful in forming communities of practice in organizations. The real value for me were the sources / references of information.
This was really quick read, with actually no new information, but still a pretty good recap what is required for any community to thrive and that you cannot build successful ones without a major invest of time.
Easy read, with a good compilation of what is needed to create and mature a CoP. Not very advanced. If you have been around communities of practices, it's a comprehensive overview, but will not add many new topics.
Great foundational read that is a mix of theory and practice. Useful for those starting communities of practice with a strong focus on skill / capability development.
Easy and quick read with plenty of breadcrumbs to pickup after you've finished the book.
A small collection of relatively common sense things to help people organize groups of people with a common interest - a good chunk specific for people who shares a role in a company.
Nice book that can be helpful to build a CoP. I like that there are a lot of hints to other important concepts and models for further exploration. No surprises.
Emily's book is a good primer on the elements and principles needed to build a community of practice. I would be interested in a volume that goes a bit more into depth, for some of the parts at least ( like rules for organizing the backlog, getting people more engaged with the community, more tips about community governance etc).
Great short book on how to build a successful community of practice. It has many practical tips and some great models (e.g. stages of the community and what to do in each stage).