The Community of Practice (CoP)
Change is happening all the time, in every area of every organization. We know this is true because organizations are self-forming living systems, not machines.
For more than a decade leaders tried to build in as much structural reinforcement as possible to ensure predictable outcomes. Now leaders are acknowledging and embracing the idea that organizations are organic and can benefit from being more agile. This means change is accepted as being necessary and normal. It also means we need change capable orgainzations, where change management is a core competence for people leaders and individual contributors. A Community of Practice (CoP) is one of the best ways to achieve this.
The value of a Community of Practice
“The CoP generates new knowledge to help people transform their practice and it helps each person to be more effective as an instrument of change. ”
Many organizations are deploying a CoP - it adds value because it accelerates the path to individual change management competency and organizational change capability. Typically organizations begin with a project-by-project approach. Deploy a change team on a project; close the project and disband the team. This was suited to the machinist notion of organizations. The evolution to a more holistic ‘learning’ process is gaining momentum — one based on a desire to collaborate to solve common problems and build universal practices through social learning. The CoP approach integrates the deep learning about mindset, competency and the structured practice of change management. In addition, the CoP enables the cycling of knowledge based on lessons learned so that team and groups avoid repeating pitfalls and can rapidly re-use or repurpose proven ideas.
What is a Community of Practice?
A CoP is NOT a team, advisory or task force. It is a community where those who are practicing change management (or are about to take on a role in change management) share their experiences so that the community universally improves their skills and knowledge. The CoP generates new knowledge to help people transform their practice and it helps each person to be more effective as an instrument of change.
In addition, a COP may also be focused on:
establishing measures and metrics for change management,
integrating change management into the project management process,
maintaining a best practices library,
providing access to program and project resources,
training the organization’s next generation change management resources.
There are many flavours. Some CoPs emerge organically (research seems to show this is most common); some are established by senior leaders who recognize the strategic need for great organizational change capability. Whatever the catalyst, the objective is to see value and impact throughout the organization. The desire is to experience change in a less painful and more positive way for all.
Bottom line, a change capable organization will see strong results from investments in initiatives, be flexible in a rapidly changing landscape and be sustainable.
This article still offers good insights 20 years on.
https://hbr.org/2000/01/communities-of-practice-the-organizational-frontier
Whatever your organization’s style (informal vs formal), stewardship of the CoP (HR, L&D, Portfolio Mgt, other), and original reason for starting up a CoP, I love to cross-polinate and cycle knowledge between change practitioners in different organizations. Join the conversation!
*This article was created to accompany a Round Table discussion moderated by Ursula Erasmus on the Community of Practice. For more information about our Round Table discussions, please contact amber.madden@issoriachange.com
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