Communities of practice are invaluable for organisations. In this session, Emily will talk about how communities of practice support learning, break down silos, support knowledge sharing, help create better practices and result in happier staff. She will talk you through her own experiences and reference case studies of building and growing communities within organisations, as well as giving you some practical advice for building your own.

1. Discuss with your neighbour:
What value do you get from meeting
other people that do the same job as
you?
@ewebber

2. Building Successful
Communities of Practice
Discover How Connecting People Makes Better
Organisations
Agile Cymru 2016
Emily Webber
@ewebber
emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com

3. “…groups of people who share a concern
or a passion for something they do and
learn how to do it better as they interact
regularly.”
Wenger-Trayner
@ewebber
Community of Practice

4. Hello.
I’m Emily Webber
(and I have a habit)
@ewebber

5. @ewebber

6. @ewebber
What brings you
here?

7. “Absence of support is taken as
a sign of mass rejection”
Matthew D. Lieberman
Social: Why our brains are wired to connect
@ewebber

8. @ewebber
sink or swim

9. PhotobyElainewithGreyCats
@ewebber

10. Silos are killing your organisation
Photobyjoinash
@ewebber

11. <homogenous group name> are
rubbish at ….
@ewebber

12. @ewebber
Who has silos in
their organisation?

13. @ewebber

14. @ewebber

15. @ewebber
PROGRAMMEPROGRAMME

16. @ewebber
PROGRAMME
COMMUNITY
OFPRACTICE
How you do it
Whatyoudo
PROGRAMME

17. @ewebber
PhotobyMegCheng
Connecting people
through communities of
practice will help break
down silos and make your
organisation better

18. Training courses are
not helping you learn
PhotobyEmoryMaiden
@ewebber

19. @ewebber
“Knowledge is something
you buy with the money.
Wisdom is something you
acquire by doing it”
Taiichi Ohno

20. @ewebber
Who is here on
their training
budget?

21. Kolb’s Learning Styles Model
@ewebber

22. “Copying other people’s successes, when
combined with individual learning, is
dramatically better than individual
learning alone.”
Alex “Sandy” Pentland
@ewebber

23. @ewebber

24. @ewebber
Photobyclemsonunivlibrary
By learning and practicing
together members of
communities of practice
get better at what they do
(faster)

25. You’re letting your
organisational
knowledge exit
PhotobyLionelMartinez
@ewebber

26. @ewebber
Who left their last job
within 5 years?

27. People don’t stay in jobs for life, they
move around on average every 4.4
years
- Forbes
@ewebber

28. When people leave
they take parts of
your organisational brain
@ewebber

29. The Knowledge Iceberg
@ewebber

30. The Knowledge Iceberg
@ewebber

31. @ewebber
PhotobyPhotobyan1uk
Communities of practice
create the right conditions
to help retain tacit
knowledge

32. @ewebber
from silos
to sharing knowledge
to solving shared problems
to using the collective knowledge of
the community to create better
practices

33. @ewebber
IllustrationbyTensoGraphics

34. @ewebber
IllustrationbyTensoGraphics

35. @ewebber
IllustrationbyTensoGraphics

36. “Teams of people have a collective
intelligence that is independent of
individual intelligence and greater than
individual intelligence.”
Alex “Sandy” Pentland
@ewebber

37. @ewebber
PhotobyAndersSandberg
By solving problems
together communities of
practice use their collective
knowledge to create better
practices

38. Your staff are
demotivated
because
they’re
unhappy
PhotobyStephenHolt
@ewebber

39. “Happier workers… were 12% more
productive. Unhappier workers were
10% less productive”
‘Happiness and Productivity’ by Andrew J Oswald, Eugenio
Proto and Daniel Sgroi
@ewebber

40. @ewebber
Has anyone left an
organisation because
felt unsupported?

41. We are wired to connect with
other people
@ewebber

42. What motivates us
@ewebber
DanPink,Drive

43. @ewebber
PhotobyEmilyWebber
Communities of practice will
give people the emotional
support they need and
motivate them through
mastery of their craft

44. PhotobySacks08
@ewebber

45. PhotobyAmancayMaahs
@ewebber
Tips for successful
communities of practice
5

46. @ewebber
PhotobyJMarkDodds
Don’t underestimate the
time and effort you need
to put in to make them
work
1

47. Adapted from Cultivating Communities of Practice - Wenger, McDermott and Snyder
Community maturity stages
@ewebber
ENERGYANDVISIBILITY
POTENTIAL
FORMING
MATURING
SELF-SUSTAINING
input needed

48. @ewebber
PhotobyAngeloAmboldi
At some point you will
need support from your
organisation
2

49. @ewebber

50. @ewebber
PhotobyBostonPublicLibrary
You won’t get the best
results without a sense of
community
3

51. @ewebber
PhotobySankarshanMukhopadhyay
Membership & Safety

52. @ewebber

53. @ewebber
PhotobyRyanJesse
Influence (both ways)

54. @ewebber
PhotobyAlperÇuğun
Fulfilment of needs

55. @ewebber
PhotobyJonathan
Emotional connection

56. @ewebber
PhotobyMegCheng
Not everyone will want to
join in and that’s ok
4

57. @ewebber

58. @ewebber
PhotobyRyanRoberts
Don’t become your own
silo and look for ways to
share with other
communities
5

59. @ewebber
Building Successful
Communities of Practice
Discover How Connecting
People Makes Better
Organisations
tacit.pub/tacitbooks

60. Thank you.
Emily Webber
@ewebber
emilywebber.co.uk / tacitlondon.com