COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Knowledge of any field is too complex to any
individual to cover and therefore they need to interact with colleagues to
benefit from stimulation and thus creates a community of practice;
To be able to connect the communities of practice with knowledge
strategy, Wenger defines three elements.
Domain: the area of
knowledge that brings the community together, gives it its identity, and
defines the key issues that members need to address. A community of practice is
not just a personal network: it is about something. Its identity is defined not
just by a task, as it would be for a team, but by an ”area” of knowledge that
needs to be explored and developed.
Community: the group of people for whom the domain is relevant, the quality of the
relationships among members, and the definition of the boundary between the
inside and the outside. A community of practice is not just a web site or a
library; it involves people who interact and who develop relationships that
enable them to address problems and share knowledge.
Practice: the body of knowledge, methods, tools, stories, cases, documents,
which members share and develop together. A community of practice is not merely
a community of interest. It brings together practitioners who are involved in
doing something. Over time, they accumulate practical knowledge in their
domain, which makes a difference to their ability to act individually and collectively.
These three elements in combination are what enable a community of
practice to manage knowledge.
Knowledge management is a strategic activity and it starts with strategy
and ends with strategy. It connects strategy to performance through knowledge.
The doughnut model should not be seen as a chronological sequence of
steps.
The development of communities of practice is a bottom-up process as
well as a top-down process.
Etienne Wenger, Knowledge management as a doughnut: Shaping your knowledge strategy through
communities of practice.
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