Rio Tinto Communities Of Practice

Communities of Practice

Mark Bennett

LearningCollaboration

[email protected]

2

Presentation outline

Where do we go from here?

Questions & Answers

Global CoPs in practice….

What have others done?

What are Communities of Practice (CoPs) – why are they important?

Knowledge Management / Knowledge Transfer?

3

See how Communities of Practice are helping Rio Tinto people share expertise and collaborate across the world (available on YouTube and from Rio Tinto website)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSf01_hPnkE

http://www.riotinto.com/whatweproduce/376_video_library_6891.asp

4

Knowledge Transfer: What’s the problem?

“We can always know more than we can tell,

and we will always tell more than we can

write down. The nature of knowledge is such

that we always know, or are capable of

knowing more than we have the physical time

or the conceptual ability to say.

I can speak in five minutes what it will otherwise

take me two weeks to get round to spend a

couple of hours writing it down.” Dave Snowden

5

What types of knowledge exist?

Tacit Knowledge

• The wealth of expertise, ideas and latent insights that lies scattered across or deeply embedded within organisations.

• It’s sometimes very difficult to write down, and is often transferred by conversations, informal e-mails, presentations and methodologies such as a Community of Practice & the RTCF.

• It can easily walk out of the door….

Explicit Knowledge• “Hard” data, procedures, guidelines, policies, project plans,

deadlines, reports. By definition it’s written down.

Even though tacit knowledge is “soft”, there is far more of it in an organisation than explicit knowledge; Both are required and need different tools….

Even though tacit knowledge is “soft”, there is far more of it in an organisation than explicit knowledge; Both are required and need different tools….

© 2005 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6

Tacit

Explicit

Self-Service +- Intranets- Portals to key info- Search- Yellow Pages- Expert directories

Networks & CoPs

- Groups that share, learn- Held together by common interest in

topic- Trade tools, templates, best practices- Solve business problems

Transfer of Best Practices

- Facilitated transfer- Internal benchmarking-Process Masters

-Knowledge Champions-Best Practice Teams

Human Interaction LowerHigher

Knowledge Transfer Approaches

8

Yellow pages in action, linked to CoPs

© 2005 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

9

Tacit

Explicit

Self-Service +- Intranets- Portals to key info- Search- Yellow Pages- Expert directories

Networks & CoPs

- Groups that share, learn- Held together by common interest in

topic- Trade tools, templates, best practices- Solve business problems

Transfer of Best Practices

- Facilitated transfer- Internal benchmarking-Process Masters

-Knowledge Champions-Best Practice Teams

Human Interaction LowerHigher

Knowledge Transfer Approaches

10



Questions & Answers





11

What is a Community of Practice?

“Communities of Practice are groups

of people who share a passion for

something that they know how to do,

and who interact regularly to learn how

to do it better.”

Source: Etienne Wenger

12

Helping - Focus on members connecting to other each, allowing them to request help for problem solving and sharing ideas

Best Practice - Focus on developing, validating and disseminating leading practices

Innovation - Focus on developing ideas

and innovative practices

Knowledge Stewarding - Focus on organising and managing CoPs common knowledge, including any material that members use on a regular basis

Communities of Practice are regarded as KM’s tour de force, but one size does not fit all: 4 types

Source: APQC / Wenger et al

13

Help with challengesAccess to expertiseConfidenceFun with colleaguesMeaningful work

Strategic capabilitiesKeeping abreast InnovationRetention of talentsNew strategies

Personal developmentReputationProfessional identityNetworkMarketability

Problem solvingTime savingKnowledge sharingSynergies across unitsReuse of resources

SHORT-TERM VALUE LONG-TERM VALUE

ME

MB

ER

SO

RG

AN

ISA

TIO

N

Source: Etienne Wenger

The Value of Working Together

14



Questions & Answers





15

Many other companies have made significant use of CoPs

British Petroleum

British Telecom

Buckmann Laboratories

Caterpiller

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

ChevronTexaco

DaimlerChrysler

ExxonMobil

Ford

Halliburton

IBM

Schlumberger

Shell

Siemens

The World Bank

Xerox Corporation

16

Shell’s experience (II)Sharing Expertise

Copyright SIEP B.V. and SIEP Inc., Dec. 2000Copyright SIEP B.V. and SIEP Inc., Dec. 200017

Concept of a Global Network (CoP)

Discussion Group,High traffic area

Knowledge BaseWhat information do we already have ?

What do others know ?

The answer isnew “Information”

Add the new Information

Start withinserting your current Information

Coordinator &Subject Focal points

18

Shell’s experience: show me the money!

Pecten Cameroon (a Shell company) shared its

techniques for improving production from a gas

lifted well, by injecting demulsifier, reducing

viscosity in the production string and thereby

increasing production. They obtained a gain of

500 barrels a day ($5 million per annum), and the

approach is being extended to 17 other wells with

prospective gains of 9 million per year.

A ~US$200m benefitA ~US$200m benefit

19

• First priority: Discover & Adopt

• Second priority: Discover & Adapt

• Last Resort: Develop (&Share!)

We work for ExxonMobil – not just a BU

The ExxonMobil Approach

Maintaining a Knowledge Asset

Dual Citizenship

Kwinana Nerefco Toledo

Communityof

practice

Dualcitizenship

21



Questions & Answers





22

Global CoP structure – source McDermott

Linking BU CoPs with global CoPs….

It’s a win-win when we get it to work.

Linking local and global CoPs

23

RTCF Usage

24



Questions & Answers





25

WIIFM?

Incentives

Culture of “Discover & Adopt”

Overcome fear of groups

“Dual Citizenship”

PEOPLE PROCESS

TECHNOLOGY

Executive Sponsorship

Shared Ownership

Coordinators

Evangelise

Facilitate

Sell, educate & train

Spark debate

Learn by doing

Customer focus – making collaboration ridiculously easy

RTCF

Portal

WebeX, phone conf

RioNet

Build Trust; FTF meetings

Community of Practice - Enablers

Wiki

26

A simple process to keep building a vibrant portfolio of Communities of Practice

• Before any business activity: Ask and Search

• During any business activity: Learn

• After any business activity: Share

With thanks to Shell International

Communities of Practice

Mark Bennett

LearningCollaboration

[email protected]

Rio Tinto Communities Of Practice

Documents

Transcript of Rio Tinto Communities Of Practice