What are communities of practice? Harvard Business Review explains them as “groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise.”

For instance a group of project managers brought together to share tools experiences and best practices related to project management across industries. As in this image (https://skillssociety.ca/projects/sdx/) from skill society, the community of practice is built on pillars of collaborating, co-learning and connecting.

CoP

It provides a space for idea sharing and questions. Members of the community may be at different knowledge / expertise levels or cater to varied sub-specialities but that only adds to the depth and richness of the groups discussions. The critical theme for a successful community of practice is diversity of its members and this is readily achieved in online communities. Members may belong to different organisations, industry, geographies and still be able to engage with each other via voice or chat -providing access to more diverse viewpoints and experiences and a broader knowledge base. It’s also possible to easily record meetings so they can be accessed later. In certain cases the community of practice may produce a knowledge artefact in the form of a best practice document or newsletter or even enhance or create new tools for the trade.

An important element here is reflection on own experience and learning vicariously from other people’s experiences. Allows for collaborative learning in a broader context. You also start to understand standards for what good looks like from the multitude of experiences shared.

These communities are fascinating  as they are entirely self formed and not mandated in any way, rather held together by shared passion. They differ from teams as they are not working towards a shared, measurable goal necessarily and are neither mandated nor temporary. (See comparison table in this article: https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier)

Comparison

It is a group of people tied together by shared interest or problem. These communities are self perpetuating and renew themselves with members dropping out and joining in, topics of discussion shifting with the times.

It’s important for communities to meet regularly with an identified moderator to sustain momentum. The nature of discussions is often open so meetings might feel awkward at the start but quickly fall into a rhythm. Topics for the agenda are recommended by the moderator or by the group and the audience is the group as a whole.

Communities of practice are very effective tools for collaborative learning and active knowledge building and hence continue to be self formed every day, in fields as diverse as art and engineering.

Sources:

https://skillssociety.ca/projects/sdx/

http://www.communityofpractice.ca/background/what-is-a-community-of-practice/

https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier