Community of Practice succeeds only with KPIs and Budgets —Voluntary participation does not produce results!

The Gist: Community of Practice (CoP) is formed in an organization to provide a platform for continuous learning, where members share experiences, ask questions, seek advice, exchange information, and develop collective knowledge of the community. CoPs are not committees and usually do not have any performance target or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In theory, CoPs are mostly designed for volunteer participations and that is the problem. Majority of the cases, CoPs without KPIs, budget and deliverables do not produce any concrete results and do not achieve the intended outcome. They are ‘good to have’, loosely connected teams with no proper expectations from the Management. Organizations that design CoPs following its underlying theory observe a ‘slow death’ of the initiative and eventually slash the communities. If you want to see a top-performing CoP, ditch the theory, attach KPIs and provide budgets and you will see the results.

Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of people who come together to enhance knowledge transfer and sharing in a particular topic or discipline. Members in a CoP engage in activities, discussions, and collaborations that contribute to the development and improvement of their practices within the domain. They collectively develop and refine their skills and knowledge. Most of the CoPs are like professional clubs with no official structure or hierarchy within an organization. While CoPs may have facilitators or leaders who guide discussions and activities, they often have flexible or informal structures, allowing members to contribute based on their expertise and interests. CoPs might evolve over time when new members join, knowledge advances, and the interests of the community change.

CoPs can be a great platform in transferring tacit knowledge where personal, peer-to-peer and social interactions help in exchanging knowledge, insights and ideas. CoPs offer an excellent opportunity for junior staff to learn from the seniors. Members of CoPs are able to learn from each other, stay updated on industry trends, innovations, and evolving practices. Many instances, formally constituted CoPs foster a collaborative environment where members can collectively solve problems and brainstorm innovative solutions. CoPs also break down departmental or hierarchical barriers, fostering collaboration and communication across different parts of the organization. In some organizations, CoPs serve as incubators for innovation and adaptability.

However, Communities of Practice (CoPs) come with their set of challenges, despite their numerous benefits-

• Sustaining Engagement and motivation: Maintaining active participation and engagement from members can be challenging for a CoP after a certain period. Some members might become passive observers rather than active contributors, which impact the vibrancy of discussions and knowledge sharing.
• Balancing Structure and Flexibility: CoPs usually do not have formal structure and Management endorsement. Therefore, striking the right balance between providing enough structure to guide discussions and activities while allowing for flexibility and organic growth within the community can be a challenge.
• Alignment with Organizational Goals: Sometimes CoPs may face challenges aligning their activities and goals with broader organizational objectives. How to ensure that the community’s efforts contribute to the overall mission of the organization can be a challenging task.
• Leadership and Facilitation: As CoPs do not have formal mandates in most cases, finding individuals willing to take on the leadership and facilitation roles can be a challenge.
• Resource Constraints: Most of the cases, CoPs do not have annual or adequate budget. Some of the Cops might get limited budget, which can hinder their ability to organize events, provide necessary tools, or sustain activities.
• Measuring Impact and Value: Quantifying the impact and value of a CoP in terms of tangible outcomes or ROI can be challenging. Demonstrating the direct benefits or contributions to the organization might be difficult as CoPs are mostly based on volunteer participation and commitment and designed without concrete deliverables. At ConocoPhillips, functional teams oversee communities and play a crucial role in driving enhancements in targeted areas, such as oil and gas production. These teams set ambitious and quantifiable objectives, such as minimizing the count of unrecovered barrels of oil. Every community takes ownership of a segment of the overarching goal and monitors its advancements towards successful achievement. *

Questions is how to turn CoPs high performing, results oriented and sustaining? Let’s look at some of the case studies.

Case A- where CoPs performed well !

In this organization, CoPs are well formulated with initial Terms of Reference, Annual plans, KPIs, budgets and dedicated leadership roles. Being a multinational corporation with a focus on revenue generation, any initiatives undertaken should be justified in terms of ROIs. The organization understands the value of the communities but did not want to follow the theoretical concept of fully volunteer and informal formulation of the CoPs. Each CoPs have a dedicated leader, who is considered a subject matter expert in the topic/discipline of the CoP. There are co-leads, secretaries, core team members in each CoP as well as general members. Before forming a CoP, interested staff need to submit an application that include the Terms of Reference for the CoP with atleast one year planned initiatives. The central Knowledge Management team along with higher Management review the application and decide on whether the CoP can be formed. Upon the Management approval, members formulate the CoP via formal meeting and launch of the CoP online platform. Based on the activities planned, budget is given to the CoP to organize events, develop knowledge products etc. CoPs in this organization contribute in developing best practices in their area of work, draft guidelines, tips, lessons, and other knowledge products. They also provide expert knowledge to the strategy team on future directions and opportunities for the business. The central KM team monitors the performances of the CoPs via survey, interviews and activities monitoring tool. The KM team developed monthly CoP newsletter where each month a CoP is featured. They also interview CoP leader and feature them on regular basis. These activities create enthusiasm among the CoPs and motivate members to do more good. Each year, KM team also publishes the list of the top performing CoPs based on pre-defined criteria. They also organize an Annual CoP summit where CoP leaders as well as core team members join and exchange views, ideas, pain points and recommendations moving forward. KM team also developed a CoP maturity model and each year they conduct a maturity assessment exercise to find out which CoPs are at the highest level of the maturity and who are lagging. They provide guidance and advise to the CoPs at different levels on how to excel and perform better. With more than 50 CoPs, this organization is doing great in sustaining the Communities of Practice program.

Case B — where CoPs faded away!

The KM team at this Organization B made the decision to establish multiple Communities of Practice (CoPs) to enhance cross sharing of knowledge. They conducted a survey to gather staff preferences regarding the thematic areas they would prefer to join or form a CoP around. Initially, 14 thematic areas were identified by the staff. The KM team decided to start small and narrowed it down to 8 areas. They sought the approval from the Management and finally launched these 8 CoPs. Each CoP was headed by a manager. The KM team was allocated a central budget to facilitate and support the activities of the CoPs. Initially there was high level of enthusiasm among the CoP members. The core teams started organizing meetings and planning for events. Focus of most of the CoPs was to organize 1–2 events during the year. At one point, several CoPs requested a budget from the KM team to organize events. The KM team provided support to the extent possible, and a few successful events were organized during the year.

The momentum began to shift in the second year; most of the CoPs became less active in terms of organizing meetings or events. Attendance dwindled, with only a handful of staff participating, primarily the core CoP members. The online presence of these CoPs became dormant. The online sites of these CoPs were dormant. Despite the KM team having sufficient budget for the CoPs, only two of them requested a budget to organize events. The enthusiasm among the members of these two CoPs remained exceptionally high, and they continued to stay active throughout the third year. The remaining CoPs gradually faded away.

So, what could have gone wrong with the communities in this organization? They started off strongly but failed to sustain the momentum. There could be several reasons:

1. Most of the CoPs lacked concrete Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and expected deliverables on a yearly basis.
2. The activities of the CoP leaders were not reflected in their performance objectives or KPIs.
3. Beyond organizing knowledge-sharing events, the CoPs did not contribute to the organization’s business by developing best practices, tip sheets, guidelines, strategic assessments, etc.
4. The CoPs were not structured to facilitate the acceleration of learning for junior staff through interaction with their senior counterparts.

Practical Tips:

How to launch and sustain an effective CoP?

• Align CoPs with business objectives: If the communities do not align with the business objectives of the organization, members will gradually come to the perception that their contributions lack practical impact. They may feel directionless, perceiving their efforts as dedicated to mere “good to have” initiatives. Additionally, Communities of Practice (CoPs) may not attract management attention or receive the necessary resource support. Therefore, teams must ensure that their CoPs are specifically geared towards achieving business objectives and are structured to tackle operational and/or strategic challenges within the organization.
• Develop ToRs and annual KPIs for each CoP: To be more effective and to sustain CoP initiative, it is imperative to develop Terms of Reference of the community, which should include the title of the CoP, objectives, scope of work, list of key members and the CoP lead. Along with the ToR, the CoP should also need annual workplan and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These KPIs should undergo initial review and approval by the Knowledge Management (KM) team, followed by approval from the Management. The Management’s endorsement of the CoP’s KPIs is vital as it ensures support and the allocation of necessary resources to sustain the community.
• Provide budget for activities: If we aim to ensure that Communities of Practice (CoPs) yield tangible results, the organization must allocate a budget for the CoPs to execute their activities. As the nature of work varies across CoPs, their budgetary needs will also differ accordingly. More active CoPs will naturally require larger allocations to effectively produce results. Without a proposed budget, one should not expect CoPs to deliver results.
• Reward and recognize the CoP leaders and members: CoP members deserve proper recognition for their efforts, and this recognition can be designed in collaboration with the HR department. Showcasing the achievements of top-performing CoP members through channels such as newsletters, townhalls, and annual dinners can serve as a significant motivator. In certain organizations, like ConocoPhillips, CoP leaders receive extensive training before leading their CoPs. New community leaders need to attend a boot camp that outlines what management expects from them. The training focuses on how community activities connect to business goals.

Providing additional allowances to staff leading these communities not only demonstrates management’s commitment and support but also inspires others to assume leadership roles within these communities.

• Monitor and develop leaderboard: To instill a sense of competition and enthusiasm among communities, the organization can establish a leaderboard. Leaderboards can play a key role in cultivating a positive competitive environment that enhances productivity, fosters improvement, and nurtures a culture of achievement within the organization. The performance of each Community of Practice (CoP) can be assessed based on a set of predefined criteria, and regular rankings will be showcased on the leaderboard, reflecting their activities and impact. This represents a form of gamification aimed at eliciting desired behaviors and fostering recognition within the organization.

* https://hbr.org/2010/03/harnessing-your-staffs-informal-networks

Copyright : Naguib Chowdhury@2023

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of any organization or entity associated with me.