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Building Successful Communities of Practice by Emily Webber

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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.

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Emily Webber

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5 stars
67 (26%)
4 stars
101 (40%)
3 stars
59 (23%)
2 stars
21 (8%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews
21 reviews
March 23, 2019
Practical enough to use when starting a CoP

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.
Profile Image for Andrew.
46 reviews
September 3, 2022
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.
Profile Image for Igor Vovk.
2 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2021
Great book

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.
47 reviews3 followers
July 7, 2021
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.
Profile Image for Flo De Sande.
1 review
February 13, 2023
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.
Profile Image for Geir.
3 reviews11 followers
July 31, 2018
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).
Profile Image for Alex.
107 reviews2 followers
December 22, 2020
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.
Profile Image for Ely Apao.
22 reviews1 follower
February 28, 2021
Short, Direct guide

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.
Profile Image for Christoph Kappel.
470 reviews9 followers
June 11, 2021
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.
Profile Image for Nacho Bassino.
Author 4 books18 followers
January 10, 2023
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.
Profile Image for Chris.
126 reviews8 followers
November 19, 2023
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.
Profile Image for Marco Neves.
68 reviews7 followers
October 24, 2019
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.
1 review1 follower
January 27, 2020
A good overview of how to build a community of practice
Profile Image for Nathalie Karasek.
149 reviews19 followers
October 5, 2020
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.
Profile Image for Clancy.
68 reviews
February 2, 2021
Good quick practical summary of steps to creating and sustaining a community of practice.
Price is too high for what it is.
1 review1 follower
June 21, 2025
Good basics

It’s a good book to start with. But you won’t find there more advanced topics like eg. coaching community or dissolving.
Profile Image for Alex.
46 reviews14 followers
July 4, 2016
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).
14 reviews
February 28, 2016
A wonderful guide to build and growth communities of practice in an organization.
11 reviews1 follower
July 31, 2016
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).
Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews

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