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Etienne Wenger

Cultivating Communities of Practice Hardcover – March 15, 2002

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

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Today's economy is fueled by knowledge. Every leader knows this to be true, yet few have systematic methods for converting organizational knowledge into economic value. This book argues that communities of practice--groups of individuals formed around common interests and expertise--provide the ideal vehicle for driving knowledge-management strategies and building lasting competitive advantage. Written by leading experts in the field, Cultivating Communities of Practice is the first book to outline models and methods for systematically developing these essential groups. Through compelling research and company examples, including DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, authors Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder show how world-class organizations have leveraged communities of practice to drive strategy, generate new business opportunities, solve problems, transfer best practices, develop employees' professional skills, and recruit and retain top talent. Underscoring the new central role communities of practice are playing in today's knowledge economy, Cultivating Communities of Practice is the definitive guide to fostering, designing, and developing these powerful groups within and across organizations.

Print length

284 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard Business Review Press
Publication date

March 15, 2002
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

9781578513307
ISBN-13

978-1578513307
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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.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1578513308
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard Business Review Press; 1st edition (March 15, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781578513307
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1578513307
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.39 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #92,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25 in Philosophy Reference (Books)
- #66 in Business Statistics
- #68 in Information Management (Books)

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120 ratings

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Etienne Wenger

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Etienne Wenger-Trayner (formerly Wenger) is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of social learning theory, communities of practice, and their application to organizations. He has authored and co-authored seminal articles and books on the topic, including Situated Learning, where the term "community of practice" was coined; Communities of Practice: learning, meaning, and identity, where he lays out a theory of learning based on the concept; Cultivating Communities of Practice, addressed to practitioners in organizations who want to base their knowledge strategy on communities of practice; and Digital Habitats, which tackles issues of technology. Etienne's work is influencing both theory and practice in a range of disciplines, as well as a growing number of organizations in the private and public sectors. He helps organizations apply his ideas through consulting, public speaking, and workshops. He is also active in the academic sphere. He regularly speaks at conferences, conducts seminars, and is a visiting professor at the universities of Manchester and Aalborg. He recently received an honorary doctorate from the university of Brighton.

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5 star		76%
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2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Excellent work on Communities of Practice

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2008

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Cultivating Communities of Practice is the second book from Wenger which is only about Communities of Practice (COP). The first book was a little dry and academic (and intended to be), but this book is your typical business book, which makes it easy to read. Wenger is teaming up with Richard McDermontt and Willian Snyder, which probably helped a lot in the amount of real-life stories in the book.

The books can be separated in two major parts. The first five chapters are about just about COP and the last five chapters are about COP related to other topics.

The first two chapter are introduction chapters which talk about what COP is and what their value is to the organization. It also does a good job in separating COP from other communities. The three main elements of a COP is domain, community and practice. A COP related to a domain, creates or has a community and owns a set of practices within that domain. They are self-managing and emergent, which means that in organizations its hard to create them -- you need to cultivate them.

The third chapter talks about the cultivation and the principles of doing so. I probably liked this chapter most, it's concrete and clear. It can be used directly in organizations who would like to promote communities.

The next two chapters describe a typical life of a COP and the different stages they go through. Knowing the typical stages helps in deciding your actions to cultivate them.

Interestingly, I wish I would have stopped reading after chapter 5. (which the exception of chapter 7). At this point I thought the book was one of the most interesting books I've read in a while, but then the second part was disappointing to me. Chapter six talks about distributes COP. It is still important, but somehow the tone of the chapter changes (or did my mood reading it?). Chapter seven was good again, about the downside or dysfunctions of COPs and what to do about it.

Chapter eight, about measuring the value of COP, completely lost my interest. The writing style seemed to change (different author?) and the emergent, self-managed tone of the first couple chapters changes to a more controlling tone. The examples also changed and most related to McKinskey.

Chapter nine is the typical "change" chapter of business books and describes the stages for implementing COP in organizations. Chapter ten tries to predict the future of COP. Though I felt chapter ten just miserably failed and it even seemed the authors moved away from their previous definition of COP and talked about communities in general.

After the first five chapters, I would have rated this book five stars and would have recommended it to everyone. Though, the last five chapters would just be a three star rating, so I'll go for the average here.

I'd strongly recommend to buy this book and read chapter 1-5 and 7.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

M. A. Netzley

Interesting and Practical Guide for Organizational Leaders

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2003

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The metaphor in this book's title says it all. Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder have written a practical guide aimed at helping you grow and develop semi-informal communities capable of having a life of their own. The model they put forward is fairly simple and easy to understand.
Communities of practice, according to the authors, have three essential focal points. The first is the "domain" which is essentially the topic area or subject that people gather around to discuss, learn, and improve. Next is the "community" which includes the people who want to learn, share, and engage one another. In the words of the authors, these communicating people are the "social fabric of learning." Finally you have the "practice" which is a specific set of frameworks, tools, information, language, stories and documents that the community shares and produces with one another. All communities of practice must address the domain, community, and practices if they are going to be successful and meaningful.
With this framework in mind, the authors go on to discuss how communities of practices move through five idfferent stages--from potenital to transformation--as they mature. The majority of the book discusses the opportunities and obstacles that we face when working with a community of practice throughout the five stages. Many key ideas emerge in these chapters. Stewrdship seems to be more important than management. We cannot expect communities of practice to only solve the problems we face (which they can), but we must also expect them to create problems of their own. Building connections and aiming to add value to each community member should be an early priority. These statements are just a small sample of the ideas discussed.
Finally, the book ends by discussing how you might measure the value added and how community-based knowledge initiatives can help an organization improve its overall learning and performance.
No doubt the addresses a "soft" topic. My reaction is that effectively stewarding a community of practice requires a fairly unique person who is able to work for the good of the group and has particularly strong networking and opportunity identification skills. That said, the authors do a superb job of helping us see exactly what skills are needed for growing our own community.
This is a highly practical and easy to read book. I read this cover-to-cover in a single day. The theory of communities of practice is largely limited to only essentials and most of the time is spent helping the reader see how communities operate. If you are looking for advice about how to form a learning or discourse community around a particular issue or topic at work, or if you are interested in forming a collegial group that shares and learns about a topic, then this book is for you. This book is very much about life long learning in a professional context. It presents the community of practice as a nice alternative to the formal team or ad hoc committee. In short, this is a users' guide for meaningful and productive knowledge management groups and learning communities.

9 people found this helpful

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John Stepper

Many good, practical ideas for implementing Communities of Practice

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2008

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I originally thought this book might be too academic or that the examples from Shell and McKinsey would not be relevant. I was pleasantly surprised, however, that the book contained numerous ideas that I'm using to introduce communities to my IT organization.

The book isn't perfect. It could be shorter. The writing is dry. Some of the observations and recommendations verge on the obvious. But even the chapter on Measuring and Managing Value Creation - one of the more high-level and unhelpful chapters - talked about the use of "systematic anecdotes" to demonstrate value of a community. The examples of story-telling to demonstrate value resonated with me and we're using this approach today.

The bottom line is that the book is very useful. I took many notes, dog-eared a number of pages and I'll be using it as my implementation reference.

4 people found this helpful

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Howard Drossman

Not for academics!

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020

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While the case studies may be good and easy to read for those looking for business tips I found the academic explanations unsatisfactory. I will go back to Lave and Wenger's and Wenger's earlier works for what I need.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

C. Maynard

An encouraging, practical guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2010

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As a professional in the Information Management world, I have found this book SO helpful in signposting a way forward for sharing knowledge and improving practice in our area. The authors state that they wanted to create a book for practitioners, rather than a theoretical work, and I think they have succeeded admirably. For me, there is just the right mix of anecdote, theory, practical steps and real life issues. I have just finished reading it all once through. During that reading I already skipped back to dwell on chapters that will help me in my current work to "cultivate" a community of information workers. And I found that as soon as I finished the last page, I was starting again at the beginning. It has been inspiring, but I am sure it will also be a practical manual I refer to time and again.

2 people found this helpful

Dr John Milliken

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2016

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A must for every educator's bookshely - would buy from this seller again

Charles Smith

A dreadfully disappointing book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2002

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I arrived at this book via Situated Learning, the book Etienne Wenger wrote with Jean Lave, and his own earlier book, Communities of Practice. These present fundamental understandings on the nature of knowledge, practice and meaning in organisations. As a practitioner, I would very much like to see a follow-up, to address the practical implementation of these perspectives in the workplace. Unfortunately, Cultivating Communities of Practice fails to meet this need.
In their desperation to be friendly to a non-academic audience, the authors have avoided anything challenging to conventional management thinking, watering down the original and valuable concepts of the earlier books. The Community of Practice, which was previously "an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge" is now an optional - "a practical way to manage knowledge as an asset". Instead of being a pre-requisite for meaning and practice, it has become merely the latest management idea - a useful place for people to exchange ideas and help each other with problems. Problems and solutions are thereby re-located back into the minds of individuals, rather than being socially constructed.
There are occasional paragraphs - for instance on stewardship and institutionalisation - which briefly touch on the real issues, but for the most part the content is anodyne, and would be better suited to beginner's guide to running a social club.
A dreadfully disappointing book.

53 people found this helpful

Geoffrey Johnson

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2016

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excellent

Matthew Robinson

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2018

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Good product

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