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Communities of Practice

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY		9

INTRODUCTION
1.	Building on our sense of community	11
	Scope and readership	12
	Ark Group survey results	13
	Summary and conclusions	17

PART ONE – THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF COMMUNITIES
2.	Defining the concept	19
	The knowledge imperative	20
	Essential characteristics	21
	What a community of practice is not	21
	Variations on a theme	23
	Summary and conclusions	25

3.	The business case	27
	Benefits to the organisation	28
	Benefits to the individual	31
	Demonstrating value and assessing community health – why measure?	32
	Demonstrating value and assessing community health – using measures that matter	34
	Realising the limitations of communities of practice	37
	Summary and conclusions	38

4.	The foundations for success	41
	Formal organisational support and levels of accountability	42
	Managing without managing and understanding the community lifecycle	44
	Prerequisites for success	46
	A common purpose?	46
	Senior management buy-in	47
	Behavioural guidelines and a climate for collaboration	48
	Membership, roles and responsibilities	49
	Encouraging member participation and sustaining community activity	52
	Technological infrastructure	54
	Summary and conclusions	55

5.	Advanced techniques and interventions	57
	External support structures	57
	Social-network analysis	59
	Stories, narrative and archetypes	61
	Summary and conclusions	63

PART TWO – FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
6.	ActKM
	Building a public-sector KM community by Shawn Callahan	65
7.	Aon
	Practice makes perfect by Sarah Adams	71
8.	Arthur Andersen
	Lessons from a failed community initiative by Stephen John	75
9.	British Council
	A seven-stage guide to community implementation by Bonnie Cheuk	83
10.	Buckman Laboratories
	Building on a collaborative culture by Melissie Rumizen	93
11.	Caterpillar
	Collaboration and beyond by Reed Stuedemann	99
12.	ChevronTexaco
	Driving operational excellence by Jeff Stemke	105
13.	Dutch KM Open
	Practising what you preach by Paul Louis Iske	113
14.	English Nature
	The emergence of community by Ron Donaldson	119
15.	Fidelity Investment
	CoPs as a catalyst for organisational change by Kurt Kreh	127
16.	Halliburton
	Problem-solving communities by Michael Behounek et al	135
17.	Rio Tinto
	Standing on the shoulders of giants by Mark Bennett	143
18.	Scottish Enterprise
	A step-by-step approach to CoP development by Karen Perkinton	151
19.	Solvay
	Deploying CoPs amid organisational upheaval by Philippe Drouillon & Emmanuel Vergison	159
20.	Thames Water
	Enabling the flow of knowledge by Linda Tait	165
21.	Unilever
	Leveraging community value by Anita Pos et al	171

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
22.	Pitfalls and possibilities	177

USEFUL RESOURCES		181

INDEX		183

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