Cultivating Communities of Practice [Hardcover]

Etienne Wenger (Author), Richard McDermott (Author), William M. Snyder (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From the time our ancestors lived in caves to that day in the late '80s when Chrysler sanctioned unofficial "tech clubs" to promote the flow of information between teams working on different vehicle platforms, bands of like-minded individuals had been gathering in a wide variety of settings to recount their experiences and share their expertise. Few paid much attention until a number of possible benefits to business were identified, but many are watching more closely now that definitive links have been established. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, consultants Etienne C. Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder take the concept to another level by describing how these groups might be purposely developed as a key driver of organizational performance in the knowledge age. Building on a 1998 book by Wenger that framed the theory for an academic audience, Cultivating Communities of Practice targets practitioners with pragmatic advice based on the accumulating track records of firms such as the World Bank, Shell Oil, and McKinsey & Company. Starting with a detailed explanation of what these groups really are and why they can prove so useful in managing knowledge within an organization, the authors discuss development from initial design through subsequent evolution. They also address the potential "dark side"--arrogance, cliquishness, rigidity, and fragmentation among participants, for example--as well as measurement issues and the challenges inherent in initiating these groups company-wide. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Among the myriad challenges managers in large corporations face today, one is becoming increasingly important: how to make the best use of the knowledge that a company's employees possess. The authors consultants all lift models from Xerox, DaimlerChrysler and the World Bank to show how to tap into the wisdom within, making this book helpful, in theory. Wenger, McDermott and Snyder spend much time explaining ways to organize, maintain and sustain communities of practice, which they define as groups that "share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and... deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis." Laying out a logical, step-by-step process for building one of these communities, the authors define specific roles for each member of the group. But senior managers looking, as the subtitle suggests, for "a guide to managing knowledge" may be disappointed in the scant space actually devoted to developing a system that captures and manages the learning that comes out of a "community of practice." Managers seeking the best way to obtain and use the knowledge coming out of these groups probably won't find it here. (Mar. 6)Forecast: Wenger is the biggest name in the theory of communities of practice, and those familiar with his work will want to add this book to their collection. Neophytes would do better with his 1998 primer, Communities of Practice.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Press; 1 edition (March 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578513308
• ISBN-13: 978-1578513307
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #78,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #33 in	Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Reference
  #41 in	Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Strategy & Competition

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A community of practice == a virtual community ?, May 11, 2002

By	"apsrose" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cultivating Communities of Practice (Hardcover)

Wenger, McDermott and Snyder draw on the past to describe the usefulness of a community of practice. In the Stone Age knowledge was passed on to others while people gathered around a fire and discussed hunting strategies. A community of practice is a group of people who may be trying to solve a problem and who interact about a topic in order to deepen their knowledge. The aim is shared insight and information. The authors write that in the time of ancient Rome corporations of metalworkers, potters, masons and craftsmen formed communities with a combined business and social function. Moreover, in the Middle Ages artisans formed guilds as a way to share knowledge and experiences. Therefore, the authors argue that community as a basis for knowledge creation and management has a long historical tradition.

Wenger, McDermott and Snyder believe that knowledge management needs to become more systematic and deliberate. The authors believe in the collective nature of knowledge, which involves every person contributing their perspective of a problem. A Community of Practice (CoP) allows for the connection of isolated pockets of expertise across an organization. The CoP consists of a domain of knowledge, a community of people and the shared practice they are developing. The community environment allows for interactions, relationships, sharing of ideas and the opportunity to ask difficult questions. The purpose of the CoP is to create, expand and exchange knowledge. The authors believe that a large number of CoP members rarely participate. Instead they watch the interaction and learn from the discussions that occur, learning from them. The authors believe that the most valuable activities consist of informal discussions that occur between members to solve a particular problem. A case study given is that of Shell, which has created CoP's around particular technical topics.

Wenger, McDermott and Snyder go into detail over how a CoP functions. At the beginning it is important to find common ground between all the members of the community. Members need to find out if they share similar problems and passions with one another. The authors believe a variety of communities exist: help communities, best practice, innovation and knowledge stewarding communities. Usually a community coordinator is needed who identifies important issues and plans events. The author's method for assessing the performance of a community consists of asking the questions: What did the community do? What knowledge did they produce? And how were those applied to get results?

All the characteristics mentioned, although are only intended by the authors to represent a CoP, share similarities with a virtual community. In fact the authors believe that Internet technology such as asynchronous threaded discussions can be used for distributed communities of practice. In fact some CoP's have websites where members have their pictures and biographical information on the site. However, Wenger, McDermott and Snyder make no connection between a community of practice and a virtual community. In fact they don't mention the two being related in any way at all, despite the dynamics appearing to be very similar. At the end of the book this omission seems very obvious given the incredible growth of virtual community at eBay and Amazon.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Knowledge while Cultivating Life, March 24, 2002

By	G. Bellman (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cultivating Communities of Practice (Hardcover)

You may know the privilege of working with a group that chooses to interact on an on-going basis, that builds on the strengths of its members, that is both highly motivated and productive. This book delves into what allows those groups and communities to thrive.

It answers the question: How do you create work communities that discover their own fire, create their own magic? The authors draw on their extensive experience and research to take us into work communities around the world. Their many case examples allow us to see what actually happens in these groups; their models, concepts, and processes tell us what we can do to build our own successful communities.

This is the most practical book on communities of practice and knowledge management that I've seen so far-and from three founders of the field.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview, implementation is up to you, January 2, 2003

By	Max More "Max More" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cultivating Communities of Practice (Hardcover)

Writing a good book on the topic of communities of practice must a difficult task. The research challenge arises from the difficulty of finding hard data in a soft subject. The complexity of human interactions in groups defies neat categorizations and explanations. The authors of this highly readable volume do better than you might expect. Combining their deep knowledge in the subject with examples from a range of large companies (Shell Oil, Hewlett-Packard, Ben & Jerry's), they explain how this promising aspect of knowledge management and organizational culture can work. Along with stories about communities of practice at various stages of development, the authors succeed in providing a fairly well-developed scheme for these communities and their care and feeding.

A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis. This book explains the potential value of CoPs, their structural elements, principles for crafting CoPs, analyzes their stages of growth, explores their downsides, investigates how to measure the value they create, and what role they play in community-based knowledge initiatives. It seems unfair to criticize this book, but more detail on how to implement CoPs would have been welcome. The authors have developed a helpful framework for understanding CoPs, illustrated by examples, but the reader will still need to think hard to implement them in a new setting.