VCoP Whitepaper-henk Bellinga

8/2/2019 VCoP Whitepaper-henk Bellinga

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VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:MORE THAN

JUST KNOWLEDGE SHARING

A WHITEPAPER

EVERT CORNELISSENHENK BELLINGA

March 4, 2011


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WhitepaperVirtual CommunitiesofPractice.1

VirtualCommunitiesofPractice:mrdanalleenkennisdele

n.

CONTENT

FROM COFFEEPOT CONVERSATIONS....................................................................................... 1TO VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE? .......................................................................... 1

1VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE:WHY?.......................................................................... 22WELL-FUNCTIONING ICT IS THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLE.............................................................. 53SUCCESS FACTORS OF A VCOP. ............................................................................................. 54PITFALLS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM...................................................................................... 6

5SOME ENABLERS. .............................................................................................................. 8

6ROADMAP TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION AND GROWTH OF A VCOP. ....................................... 107ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE OF A VCOP................................................................................. 128METHODOLOGY, TARGET GROUP, CONTEXT AND BIBLIOGRAPHY. ................................................. 14

From coffeepot conversations.. .

Our workingenvironment is changing.People work in a

virtual environment, have flexible working hours, are

place unbound and switch faster between a project, a

position and/or a company. Information is gathered

quickly and dispersed rapidly to others.Multinationals

employ few experts in specific fields. Their expertise

should be used at the best suited place, at the best suited

time. Informal, face-to-face meetings within the

organization are not suited anymore in a new working-

environment because they take too much time and effort.However, working together in teams is important to get

feedback and to create synergy. Knowledge is

disappearing. Employees of the babyboom generation,

who are experienced and who possess a lot of knowledge,

are retiring. Furthermore, knowledge is disappearing due

to reorganizations. It is a major challenge for large

companies to keep and preserve present knowledge for

future purposes.

to Virtual Communities of Practice?A Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP) is a virtual platform where people with the same interest,

activities, work or expertise can jointly create a community to exchange and preserve knowledge.

In a time of information overkill, a VCoP is a helpful tool to increase productivity and to improve

the involvement within an organization since all the above mentioned aspects about knowledge,

sharing knowledge and preserving knowledge are incorporated in a VCoP.

Explicit and tacit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is hard 'know-what-knowledge

that can easily be transmitted to others. For

example, figures, graphs, descriptions of projects

and business processes.. Everything you know and

that you can share by communication is explicit.

Tacit knowledgeis stored in peoples minds, it is

know-how that helps you to deal with explicit

knowledge. This knowledge is difficult to transfer

directly to others by means of writing it down or by

verbalisating it. To exchange tacit knowledge it isimportant to share experience, thoughts, feelings

and ideas via an intermediary with a lot of

interaction possibilities where people dare to share

things they are not completely sure of. People by

preference share this knowledge face-to-face or via

a video conference.


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Within more and more large organizations VCoP are closing the gap between experienced and

inexperienced employees, between explicit and tacit knowledge, and between countries cultures

and timezones.

1Virtual Communities of Practice: why?During conversations with representatives of several organizations, numerous reasons were

mentioned to start a VCoP. Given the specific context in which these specific organizations operate,

they were all honourable reasons. However, the question that still remains is: will their goals be

met? In the following part of this subsequent chapter I shall

explain the goals for which a VCoP may be a useful tool.

Furthermore, I shall illustrate some situations in which a VCoP is

not the right method. Last but not least, I shall focus on personal

motivation for knowledge sharing, more specificly 'what's in it for

me?'

Knowledge sharing and cooperation.

Very good reasons to start a Virtual Community of Practice are all related to improve existing

cooperative relationships or to share, to preserve and to develop knowledge. One can find a lot of

literature about social capital for which, to a greater or lesser extent, people are prepared to help

one another. A community of practice is an investment in social capital. You start with an existing

network and expand it virtually in order to create a new dimension for knowledge sharing and to

grow the proportion and profundity of relationships and knowledge. The community benefits not

only from the increasing availaibilty of knowledge, advice and feedback but also from the increased

ability to solve problems, to be creative and to launch new ideas. This leads to an increasing

productivity of the employees involved. Furthermore, in view of the future understanding ofemployment, it can lead to a replacement of internal networks around fixed officebuildings. In

organizations that implemented a Virtual Community of Practice, results show an increase of

communication activity which leads to better project results, more new business and more product

innovation. The most tempting results of a VCoP are timesavings due to the higher efficiency of

operations.

And what if there is no cooperation?

A VCoP can enrich, expand and deepen relationsips of existing communities. However, if there are

no cooperative relationships between divisions within an organization a VCoP is not the right

method to develop these relationships. In order to successfully introduce a VCoP some groupactivity should already be present. Several interviewees acknowledge that there is a gap between

various divisions within the organization that would like to establish cooperative relationshops.

A VCoP can only be beneficial for these organizations in a second development stage. First

cooperative relationships should be developped.

Numerous interviewees

mention effective virtual

knowledge sharing as one of

the key factors of employment

in the 21stcentur .


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What are the benefits?

The organizational effects of a VCoP will lead to more efficiency and will thus reduce costs. The

results of a cost benfit analysis to a VCoP may indicate that benefits can easily be measured in terms

of activities and relevance. However, to determine the exact cost reduction will be difficult.

Therefore one tends to advise against starting a VCoP based on a ROI-motive. When organizations

decide to start a VCoP solely because it is an investment with a good return on investment, the

commitment will disappear after a short period of time because there is no measurable return.

Will my people follow me?

It is important to communicate about the added value of a VCoP within an organization in order

that one feels involved with the concept. Although it is difficult to quantify the results, there are

several good ways to convince employees and senior management on an individual basis.

Senior management: first you need tounderstand what the senior managers want before you can

convince them of the added value. Best practices show that the best way to persuade them is to

present data which show that a VCoP:

- is in line with the goals of the organisation

- measurably improves the performance of the organization

- works in a risk lowering capacity

Employees: to involve people and keeping them involved within a VCoP is merely a matter of

sharing success stories. Clear communication about

the achievements of the community results leads to

a positive viscious circle which is necessary to

stimulate sustainable participation.

and when they do, will they then be active?

Every virtual community has a similar division

concerning the activity of users. A community

always consist of three user groups: lurkers, active

participants and leaders.

Lurkers:

- use the community passively

- read and extract information

- make up for approximately 90% of the total users- are relevant to the organization

The number of lurkers gives a good indication of

the relevance to a topic.

Knowledge management: the right data at the right

time with the right person.

Relevance. Research shows that employees, on average,

spend one third of their time looking for information. The

inclination to ask a colleague a concrete question is five

times as big as to seach for an offical document which

covers the matter .Therefore, in order to be efficient

knowledgemanagement should be informal, personal and

above all accessible.

Incentives. Reasons often mentioned by company

representatives to implement knowledge management are:

- to avoid reinventing the wheel

- to shorten the learning curve of new employees

- to have the best knowledge available to everyone, due to

the exchange of best practices that are relevant for several

employees

- a quicker response to questions invited by colleagues and

customers

- to create space for innovation. New ideas for products and

services will be invented, written down and developped

from existing recorded knowledge and ideas.


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Active participants:

- share their knowledge and respond actively to discussions

- determine the extent of a build-up profound and constructive know-how and by making contact

within the community- make up for a little less than 10% of the total participants

Leaders:

- determine the broad outlines of the topics

- moderate discussions

- communicate with all participants about the community

More information to be found in the paragraph about 'management'.

The basis of successful knowledge sharing is creating a positive atmosphere. Every constructive

input should be approached with a sincere positive reaction as this will lead to a viscious circle of

positive inputs. You can achieve this by starting a VCoP based on a discussion topic or document

with information that relates to everyone. People have the natural tendency to like to read and

debate about topics that they can relate to or which contain usefull information. When employees

start to share knowledge their visability and fame within the organization will rise. People are more

prepared to share their knowledge if they get credit from their co-workers which allows to play on

the sense of honour of the individual in question. If you want to stimulate knowledge sharing

amongst people even further, the most easy motivation to play on will be the extrinsic and egoistic

one i.e. confirmation on an individual basis by different people. Research indicates that people are

getting more motivation from a positive feedback by colleagues than positive feedback from their

manager.

In return for work. Implement a peer-review-system which allows employees to review the

qualities and added value of their co-workers. One of the interviewees, who worked at an

engineering firm, told me that at his firm employees were judged and rewarded partly on the

results based on their track record and peer-review scores. The peer-review score indicates the

added value of an employee which leads to more job security for employees with good reviews.

Stimulate personal pride. Create space for peer-reviews and awards/rankings in the personal

profiles of employees. By making these rankings (see above) public, this will lead to more

motivated employees.

Teambuilding. Stimulate a feeling of pride towards team results by addressing the achievementsof a team. Emphasize the success with which the team clearly distinguishes itself from other teams.

An enhanced feeling of pride has led to more participation and more willingness to share

knowledge at the company of one of the interviewees.

Peer-pressure, if necessary. Explain the necessity of knowledge sharing to people who are

sceptical. Peer-pressure is needed to transform the entire organization.


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2Well functioning ICT is an essential fundament.The helpdesk supports.An ICT-helpdesk should be well accessible and efficient in solving

problems. At successful multinationals several people per

continent are available to support the system. Everyone can easily

contact them with complaints or suggestions. If you indicate that

something does not work properly or is not available, this will be

repaired or adjusted immediately. An ICT support-department is

continuously improving the system by solving the main access

sticking point and user-interface problems.Essential component: the searchengine.

All topics, discussions, knowledge documents, profiles and other information are stored in one

large data-library. These documents contain meta data or tags which are linked by a searchengine

to the requested VCoP. A VCoP established around a specific topic is a collection of documents that

a searchengine links to that specific topic. Furthermore it is an identification mark for the users.

3Success factors of a VCoP.Setting targets.

Set formal, fixed and measurable targets for a VCoP. These targets should be in line with the

strategic reasons of the organization to start the VCoP. Within the framework of knowledge sharing

you will be able to measure the amount and relevance of shared knowledge. Within the framework

of increasing social capital you can measure the number of participants and the degree of their

cooperation.

Domain and people.

What should be the topics of a VCoP and who should talk about

these topics? Added value aimed at the medium and long term for

the entire organization is the most important indicator. First a

domain selection can be made after which the domain determines

who will participate. This procedure may also take place the other

way around. The domain choice determines the target group and

vice versa. The domain should at least be relevant and interesting

for the participants and potentially profitable for the organization. When a limited group (max. 20

persons) sets up a VCoP, the participants will soon start sharing problems which occur in the

organization. This will be followed by a discussion on how to find the bestsolutions for these

problems and by sticking to the procedure it will automatically lead to a domain choice.

An experienced VCoP-user stated:"IT should not be the driver,

however without a proper ICT-

infrastructure and experienced

developpers a VCoP will not

function."

One of the interviewees, told me that

their organisation had problems

with the start of a VCoP, because

they were not able to select and

identify the knowledge areas with

the most added value for the

organisation. A strategic domain

choice is important to proceed.


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Management support.

Strong formal ties with peer management in support of the organization within the community is

one of the most important success factors of a global VCoP.

The so-called 'sponsors' at the top of an organization need to have a good understanding of the

targets and the added value of a community. They should be prepared to support the leaders of a

VCoP and actively join in the planning of the strategy in order to achieve long term goals. A best

practice will be for the top management to demand a clear businesscase with a formal review to

show the importance of a VCoP and, at the same time, enlist their support.

Engagement of employees.

To engage people with a community is one of the most difficult but essential aspects of the start of a

VCoP. The decision who to involve is based on to weigh one against another i.e. to decide between

people and the domain. How to involve people in the best possible way is, as already discussed in a

previous paragraph, to influence their motivation.

Reflection of a VCoP.

Offer space to reflect so that participants may express explicitly what the added value and

productivity of their contribution in the group will be. It is a method to stimulate continuous

improvement of a VCoP.

Share success.

When the added value of a VCoP is more visible within the organization, knowledge sharing

becomes easier. Therefore it is necessary to put a lot of effort in communicating the success of a

VCoP in the start-up phase. It is difficult to immediately measure added value of a VCoP. However,

good estimations can often be made after finishing a project. The reputation of the writer of a valuejudgement/performance report of VCoP may have a considerable impact on employees. Do not

underestimate this factor.

Participation is organic but the managementof a VCoP is not.

VCoP management should set the right example. If they are not visible and active, VCoP members

will not be active as well. Participation demands less engagement than managing a VCoP. One can

read more about managing a VCoP successfully in Chapter 7 Organisation structure of a VCoP'.

4Pitfalls and how to avoid them.Give (too) much attention to the structure of a community.

ICT-infrastructure and support is very important and most often far less difficult to manage.

Barriers of successfully implementing a VCoP are 10% ICT related; 90% consists of resistance by

employees and/or the management. So use 90% of your energy in commitment and training of

employees and (top)management.


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The need for much wanted functionality with little use and an increase towards a

vulnerable system.

A solution is to keep the system simple and robust. Start

with well chosen essential components. There are robust

and relatively simple software packages available whichoffer all the required functions.

Make one department responsible for knowledge

management .

From the start knowledge management should be included

as an integral part of all departments within the

organization. It is essential that the steering group

represents all departments.

Willingness to share all knowledge.

Some knowledge should be kept secret from other

organizations. Even within organizations where VCoP are a

unique-selling-point, not all information will be shared.

Mapping what kind of knowledge should be available to which person is very important. A best

practice is to make information/knowledge available to everyone unless there are good reasons not

to make the information publicly known. A company that sells meta-data can not share this

information with the companys entire network. However, it may share know-how about how to

acquire meta-data.

Put everything in the same language.

A flat structure of knowledge is important. Language is an elementary part of this structure. One of

the interviewees told me that not all employees of a multinational have a sufficient level of business

English to share business related information. A well balanced language course in Business English

is a good solution to this problem.

Different timezones.

The phenomenon of different timezones has two sides. On one side a VCoP is globally active for 24

hours, so a question asked at the end of a working day in Europe may be answered at the beginning

of the next day because an American or Chinese employee will respond during their local working

hours. A disadvantage of different timezones is the active presence at virtual group meetings. Best

practices at multinationals consist of having all virtual broad VCoP meetings twice - the second

meeting twelve hours after the first - this to make sure everyone can attend at their preferred time.

Platform is not available/accessible.

At all stages of a VCoP a constant investment is necessary towards the support, the robustness and

accessibility of the ICT-environment of a VCoP. If a VCoP is temporarily not accessible it will lead to

a major loss.

The essential components of a VCoP:

-Data-sharing-platform

-Communicatiemedia zoals:

-videoconferencing

-instant-messaging

-telefone

-How do discussions take us towards

established and recorded knowledge

-Personal profiles with:

- picture

-track-record

-recommendations

-backgroundstudy-some personal information

-contac data


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Nobody responds to entry posts...

It takes a lot of time, effort and patience to build and enlarge a VCoP. People may suddenly (all) stop

being active. This is normal and is part of finding the rhythm and identity of a VCoP. Participants

need time to adjust. Their activity within the community should become part of their daily routine.

Cultural differences, between organization departments as well as between countries.

Every organization that wants to develop a VCoPs across

borders, of different countries or organisation

departments, must deal with cultural differences. Cultural

factors that influence participation are hierarchy, the

amount of freedom of speech of an individual in a group

and individualism. A best practice to deal with cultural

differences is to make sure the steering group and/or

management of a VCoP consists of representatives of

different countries and departments.

An interviewee, who works for a multinational, indicated that making rewards/bonusses

dependent on the cultural features of a department/country contributed in solving cultural

problems.

5Some enablers.The size of the group.

In a small community it is easier to share and develop knowledge succesfully. People know each

other well, there is overview and they feel more secure. Knowledge is easily shared. Therefore a

best practice consists of starting with a small VCoP. Once the small VCoP proves to be successful it

can be integrated in a larger structure/platform.

Rhythm of a VCoP.

Frequent activities during which members can meet informally will reflect on the success of a VCoP

and show in what direction the VCoP should evolve. The activities should be frequent enough to

keep the community alive but not too frequent as this might tempt people to turn away. Best

practices indicate that two to four activities a year should be organized. It is important that these

activities are held with a fixed frequency and that a rich communication can take place .

Besides face-to-face activities, VCoP meetings which discourse upon a subject at large by video-chat

or video-conferencing can stimulate contact among VCoP members . For the latter option, one

should compare the pros and cons of the richness of face-to-face activities to the time and costsavings of a virtual activity.

A steering group/ management which

represents different cultures :

-makes it easier to discuss cultural

differences

-leads to a better understanding

-thinks and implements solutions in order

tobridge cultural differences


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Universal structure of data.

A clear structure of knowledge-units is

important in order to establish which

infomartion belongs where and to fix a

corporate format. If all shared data isuniversal it becomes easier to participate

and to understand.

Priority.

Several interviewees indicated that

employees spend little time and effort in sharing knowledge if they do not see the added value or if

they are not offered the initiative to do so by their supervisor. To implement knowledge sharing in

an organization, it is essential to meet the previously mentioned preconditions: employees need to

understand the added value of sharing knowledge and they should get the freedom of their direct

supervisor to do so. Another best practice is to incorporate the amount of shared knowledge in job-

performance and evalution interviews.

Safety and trust.

People who share knowledge should get feedback information about what happened to the

knowledge they shared. It is strongly advised to adopt and to design a public disposed and visually

available code-of-conduct: reward people who apply it and punish people who do not apply it. This

will lead to more trust in other knowledge sharers.

Communication tools

Numerous communication tools can be used by a VCoP. There are several goals and starting points

for communication. If employees learn which intermediary is best for which message the efficiency

of a VCoP is bound to increase.

Social presence.

The perceived level of presence of other VCoP members has an influence on their participation.

The more people feel that someone is present, the more people will be tempted to (re)act. Best

practices consist of putting a lot of relevant professional information in personal profiles. It offers a

starting point for interaction. The more people are aware of their own identity and the identity of

others, the more people will become active within a VCoP.

The ideal knowledge structure consists of:

- a title which is short, clear and powerful

- a description with additional explanation of the title

- a context of who, what, where, when, how, why, costs

- files with the possibility to add relevant documents

- graphics such as graphs,pictures- hyperlinks

- invoices

- meta data i.e. tags that searchengines use in order to

find the right documents and to show to the right persons


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6Roadmap towards the implementation and growth of a VCoP.1. Clearly define your knowledge domain/target group/business case.

The following questions are important:

- what is going to be the specialism (knowledge domain) of the VCoP?- what is the target group?

- what are the goals of the organization, bearing the construction of this VCoP in mind? How can

these goals be achieved?

2. Determine the management of a VCoP and its steering group.

See the chapter on Organization structure of a VCoP.

3. Run a workshop for key employees/participants.

Participation of delegates of each required

department within of the organization will

guarantee commitment.

4. Select the right ICT-tools.

5. Establish agreement on the charter,

targets and a code-of-conduct.

Dare to change these after the start of a VCoP.

6. Determine the starting date.

7. Give publicity to the VCoP within

the organization.

A Newsletter often does wonders.

8. Organize a big open to real-life

event to build involvement within

the target group of employees.

9. Appoint desired participants

and activate them.

Inform them how to gain access.

Create space for public and more

private subcommunities. Determine

which members and means should be

in which (sub)community based on

specific needs. Appoint coordinators

for every subgroup.

The organization of three face-to-face coffee-kick-offs,

without a pre-determined agenda, gave excellent results

in an organization of one of the interviewees. It

stimulated team spirit and problems were more easily

shared and quickly solved together with colleagues. Thus

a VCoP was born...

The VCoP has now started. Does it perform well?

After two to three months a VCoP is successfull if:

-it is (still)active

- already some documents are being shared

-there is a limited growth in membership

-decision makers are aware of the VCoP and (even) use it

After 6 months aVCoP is successfull if:

-there has been 25-50% growth in membership since the

kick-off

-there are 10 or more 'regular' (1 or more contributions a

week) entry posts

-participants start to generate there own topics

-participation and communication from the steering

group have reached a varied group of VCoP-members

After 1 year a VCoP is successful if:

-there has been a 50-100% growth in membership since

the kick-off

-there is an apparent influence of the VCoP on project

contributions

- there has been at least one face-to-face activity or party

for the participants to celebrate the success of the VCoP


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10. Determine the main topics of the community.

The previously decided focus and reflection possibilities of the VCoP should be taken into account.

Filter information and best practices of other offices that are available on relevance and quality,

uniform ize them in shape and language and link them to your knowledge management system.

11. Give all people on the payroll access to the VCoP.

12. Judgement of participants is based on the amount of shared knowledge.

Have as much as possible accessible knowledge available to all participants.

13. Open the VCoP for formal use.

Make sure that at a given moment in time there are sufficient lenient people to post messages. The

credibility of a VCoP is undermined when there are not sufficient volunteers to post.

14. Celebrate the opening of a VCoP.

It gives (new) energy to people. The start and

expansion of a VCoP requires patience, lots of

patience. Thus, be persistent!

Response on topics is not only dependant on the

content but also of the timing and the shape of the

message. If some content does not get a lot of

response, try to give it a twist at a later moment.

After a certain period of time a VCoP should be able to create its own topics and substance

independently from management. The latter only facilitates and monitors the VCoP.

15. Celebrate the birthdays of a VCoP and communicate about achieved success.

Link them, if possible, to face-to-face events.

Some VCoPs already excist on a small scale.

In many organizations you will find numerous little communities where colleagues share

knowledge and information with each other. These virtual networks often stem from a commitment

of small groups of people who know each other well, often have face-to-face meetings and who have

decided to, in the form of informal, organic and closed ranks, share some information virtually.

During the construction of a VCoP you should

anticipate a participation cycle whereby three to

four days of activity are followed by three to fourdays with less activity. This cycle is completely

normal and may continue for years . Do not try to

alter this cycle but use the days with less activity

to recuperate.


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An organization can identify communities of practice by the following characteristics:

You can use these groups, if they are active, in order to stimulate the growth of a bigger VCoP.

When to dismantle

A VCoP can be dismantled when there is no work left in a certain business area or when a VCoP was

built to support a project which has been completed.

When you have decided to dismantle a VCoP it is important to preserve its information and data

and to make sure that all this information remains available. The VCoP may no longer excist but the

knowledge and experienced gained is thus kept within the organization.

7Organization structure of a VCoP.Knowledge domain manager.

Someone should keep an eye on the community. It is essential for the functioning of a VCoP. This

dedicated person should maintain good relationships with all stakeholders of the VCoP.

Task of a knowledge domain manager.

Make sure knowledge is shared on a global scale and that this knowledge is used to improve theperformance within the knowledge domain.

To facilitate this knowledge, standards and procedures should be collected, created, checked,

standardized, spread about and evaluated in a structured way by following strategic goals and by

anticipating developments in the knowledge domain.


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Profile of a knowledge domain manager.

A knowledge domain manager:

-has experience with the knowledge

domain. He/she does not have to be

an expert- has sufficient technical skills and

knows his/her way in a digital

environment

A knowledge domain manager can:

-communicate well

-work independently within

different structures

-connect and maintain relationships

between other people-create linkages between implicit

and explicit knowledge

-make people enthusiastic

A knowledge domain manager has:

-affinity with knowledge and

process improvement

-intrinsic motivation and

persistence

-an extended network both withinand outside the community

- a positive style of communicating

VCoP-sponsor at the top of the

organization.

This person is crucial for the success of a

VCoP. He/she provides support and

arranges funding for specific projects

within the knowledge domain of the VCoP.

Furthermore he/she has an important task

in the peer-review which consists ofevaluating and making a classification in a

neutral manner of the recommendations that employees give of each other. The classification may

then be published on the VCoP billboard. A best pratice in relation to peer-reviews is to make the

treshold of filling in a review big enough so that the quality of their review increases.

Rolls and responsibilities of a knowledge domain

manager.

In terms of data-content:

-collect, recognize and acknowledge best practices

in cosultation with the network

-make a one-year plan for activities and budgets

- report upon activities and budgets

In terms of people:

-stimulate an export network; make sure that

these people are connected and build knowledge

-stimulate the use of existing knowledge and

standards within the own knowledge domain

-initiate change management which opens up the

possibility within an organization to accept, share

and apply common knowledge

-inspire in order to stimulate improvements

-support people andoffer them a helping hand

-leadership by example

- stimulate and promote participation

-encourage a diversity in viewpoints

-welcome newcomers

-comply with a code-of-conduct

In terms of communication:

- make sure there is consistency in terms of

cooperation within the knowledge domain

-initiate incentives to stimulate discussions

-keep VCoP up-to-date. Make sure people use the

VCoP and that they keep using it.

- conversations to be kept withion constructive

limlits.

-moderate the amount, content and relevance of a

discussion


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VCoP management support team.

Develop a VCoP support team for the entire organization. A best practice consists of letting people,

with different jobs within the organization and who like to share their knowledge, talk to each other

about best practices, success stories and areas with (potential) added value within (the numerous

VCoP in) the organization. The support team makes an inventory of the necessities for theflourishing of a VCoP and offers solutions to (potential) problems. In an ideal situation the team

reports directly to the global knowledge domain manager.

8Methodology, target group, context and bibliography.About the author.

Evert Cornelissen, student of Chemical Technology at the Technical University of Eindhoven, was an

intern for three months at Advitec B.V. The internship focused on virtual cooperation in the future,

more specifically on virtual communities of practice. This paper is one of the results of this

internship.

Methodology.

This paper is based on a literature review (see Bibliography) and interviews with experienced VCoP

users and knowledge workers from different companies and organizations like Fluor, Heineken,

FrieslandCampina, DSM, Fugro, de Baak, Atos, Prorail, Rijkswaterstaat and TNO.

Target group.

The target group of this white paper consists of people who plan to start or already have some

experience with the implementation and/or use of virtual communities of practice. The focus of

this white paper is on best practices of intra-organisational information and knowledge sharing

especially for multinationals in technical industries.


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Literature.

For more information in regards to communities of practice, I like to refer to the various literature

used in writing this whitepaper.

Winkwaves whitepaper 'Communities of Practice ondersteunen met web 2.0'

APQC Publications, Best practices report 'Sustaining effective Communities of Practice'

APQC Publications, Best practices report 'Challenges of Global communities of practice'

APQC Publications, Best practices report 'Defining roles and responsibilities for community leaders'

APQC Publications, an APQC overview 'A Framework for Creating and Sustaining Communities of

Practice'

APQC Publications, Best practices report 'Presenting Community Metrics to Executives'

Facilitator toolkit for building and sustaining virtual Communities of Practice p. 205-212; 2004,

Kimball and Ladd, Idea Group Inc.

Schenkel, A. and Teigland, R. (2008), "Improved organizational performance through communities

of practice",Journal of knowledge management, Vol. 12, No. 1 pp. 106-118

Millen, D.R. and Fontaine, M.A. and Muller, M.J. (2002), "Understanding the Benefits and Costs of

Communities of Practice", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 45, No. 4

Ardichvili, A. (2008), "Learning and Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities of Practice:

Motivators, Barriers, and Enablers",Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 10 No. 4, August

2008 pp. 541-554

E-Democracy National Project (2005), "Local Issues Forum Guidebook", E-Democracy.org, March15th, 2005.

McDermott, R. and Archibald, D. (2010), "Harnessing your Staff's Informal Networks"

Koh, B.J. and Kim, Y.G. and Butler, B. and Bock, G.W. (2007), "Encouraging Participation in Virtual

Communities", Communications of the Ach, Vol. 50 No. 2 pp. 69-73

VCoP Whitepaper-henk Bellinga

Documents

Transcript of VCoP Whitepaper-henk Bellinga