Strategic

Communities

of Practice

What should we be paying attention to,

doing and valuing? Nancy White

Full Circle Associates

http://www.fullcirc.com

Welcome! Write your

name beneath a chair

and get comfortable!

Choconancy’s chairs http://www.fullcirc.com

PART 1: BASIC

VOCABULARY

Where we develop a way to

describe our work with

communities

What we care about

DOMAIN

What and how we do things

together about it

PRACTICE

Who cares about it

COMMUNITY

Practical hint: all three of these “legs” change over time. The trick is not to have all

three changing at the same time. That can be very destabilizing for a community!

Tech +

Social:Technology has

fundamentallychanged how we can

be togetherhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/exper/1477729345/

DOMAIN

PRACTICECOMMUNITY

What we care

about

What we do

together about it

Who cares about it

Meets needs of sponsors,

leaders and members

Broad enough to attract

Focused enough to matter

in our work

Often shifts over time

Drives the “who” and the

“what we do”

What We Care

About:

What are we about?

What is ouridentity?

What is the significance?

To our Organization

To us as individuals

Practical

Purpose

Points

Is it clear?

Is it sharable?

Is it inviting?

to teams

individuals

Is it reasonable?

Is it negotiable?

What we care about

What we do

together about it

Whocares

about it

It relates to my identity

Connects me to other

people “like me”

Holds sufficient diversity

People who have time

& attention to engage

Involves

relationships

What we care about

What we do together about it

Who cares

about it

Activities

Content people

use, create & share

How people

engage with each

other to learn/do

things

How people apply

what they learn in the

community back at

their work

How are you feeling right now? Draw…

http://www.austinkleon.com/2009/07/27/how-to-draw-faces/

http://www.davegrayinfo.com/2010/10/28/drawing-facial-expressions/

How to draw faces? Check out Austin Kleon and Dave Gray

How are you feeling right now? Draw…

LET‟S LOAD UP A WHITE BOARD AND

TRY…

AFTE

R!

… meetings

… relationships

… community

cultivation

… access to

expertise

… projects

… context

… individual

participation

… content

publishing

… open-ended

conversation

Community

activities

oriented to …

Base material from:

Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for

communities

© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities

oriented to …

Community Name: KM4Dev

global knowledge sharing network

… open-ended

conversation

… meetings

… projects

… access to

expertise

… relationships

… context… community

cultivation

… individual

participation

… content

publishing

Base material from:

Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for

communities

© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

With only one meeting a

year, large size and

diversity, KM4Dev

focuses on enabling

individual participation.

Community knowledge wiki,

content management system

to bring together resources.

Email list is core of

community activity

Once a year and only about

10% do/can participate.

When funding allows. E.G.

supporting ShareFair

Informally via the email list

by asking/answering

questions.

Relationships mostly via

meetings and core group.

Strongly

external – all

resources

public/shared.While everyone pays

attention to the

community, no

centralized efforts…

activities

oriented to …

Example: The Environmental

Resource Network

… open-ended

conversation

… meetings

… projects

… access to

expertise

… relationships

… context… community

cultivation

… individual

participation

… content

Monthly meetings with

everyone at the university

concerned about the

environment, shared calendars

Awareness events,

orientation for environmental

student groups, workshops

Inviting experts to monthly

meetings/events/workshop

s

Twitter, Facebook,

email list, member

directories

Public. Minutes are

shared. Network is

accountable to all

students who pay a

levy

Members connected

through a shared

interest

Anyone with an interest in the

environment can be a member

but the network targets active

student groups, rss

Blog,

website,

Bump into another

member? Have a

conversation, emails

Base material from: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities, © 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

activities

oriented to …

ERN and KM4Dev-ers

… open-ended

conversation

… meetings

… projects

… access to

expertise

… relationships

… context

… community

cultivation

… individual

participation

… content

publishing

Base material from:

Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for

communities

© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

PART 2:

ENGAGEMENT

FROM

3 PERSPECTIVES

Where we pay attention

to our stakeholders…

Strategic Value

Strategic Options

Strategic Practices

Three strategic

perspectives:

Mitigation/AdaptationVulnerability/ResilienceMeasurable/accountable

Communities and… the broader strategic continuum

LeadershipDesign repertoireLife or death practices Measurable

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Three stakeholder

perspectives:

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Three stakeholder

perspectives:Strategic goals

Resources

M & E

Results

Role &

task clarity

Feedback

Purpose

Ease

Value

Strategic goalsResourcesM & EResults

Role & task clarityFeedback

PurposeEase

Value

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Sponsors

Strategic goals

Resource provision

Monitoring & evaluation

Communication of results

Poll #2: What might be some of

the intended and unintended

impacts of sponsors on

community engagement?

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Facilitators &

Leaders Role clarity

Task clarity

Feedback

What does your community

leadership look like online?

Put your ideas in the chat…

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Members

Clarity of purpose

Ease of use

Efficient of time

Sponsors

Facilitators and

Leaders

Members

Bridging Across

Perspectives

PART 3: ROLES

&

FRAMEWORKS

What is the magic sauce?

enable people to…• discover &

appropriate useful

technology

• be in and use

communities &

networks (people)

• express their

identity

• find and create

content

• usefully participate

facilitators

community leaders

technology stewards

network weavers

Independent thinkers

curators

moderatorsFor example see:

http://wenger-trayner.com/blog/leadership-groups-for-social-learning/

Mendazibal:

6 Network

Functions

• Filters

• Amplifiers

• Convenors

• Facilitators

• Investors

• Community

builders

http://www.odi.org.uk/Rapid/Projects/PPA0103/Functions.html

FAO‟s

“Nine Keys to a Successful

Thematic Knowledge Networks

Don Tapscott

Design for Connection

http://community-roundtable.com/2010/01/the-value-of-community-management/

http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/the-importance-of-active-community-

management-proved-with-real-data/

Facilitation & Management

Tom’s Analysis• Membership growth slows significantly – Community membership grew

62% from January to July at a average clip of 55 new members per

week. From July to December, the membership only grew 13% at an

average clip of 20 members per week. This is a fall-off of more than 63% on

a week to week basis.

• Number of visits drop 60% - The number of visits from January through July

averaged more than 1,300 per week. For the second half of the year,

average visits dropped nearly 60% to an average of 522 per week.

• Number of pages viewed per visit drops 22% - Not only did the number of

visits drop, the number of pages per visit also decreased by 22% with the

average pages per visit going from 3.76 to 2.95.

• Time on site decreases by 33% – Driven by the fewer page views, the time

on site in minutes during active management was 3:38 vs. 2:37 after July

which is a 1:19 or 33% decrease.

• Fresh activity on the site since August has been pretty nonexistant as well –

just 10 new blog posts, 4 new file uploads, and less than 25 discussion forum

questions or comments have been posted.

Glenda Eoyang

• Observe. Don‟t waste a good surprise. Pause and wonder when

something unexpected arises. It may be the weak signal

foreshadowing something important to come.

• Connect. Nothing co-evolves in isolation. The key is connecting in

inquiry with the environment, with current and historical patterns,

and with other thoughtful people.

• Question. Our assumptions blind us to the world around and lock

us into our long-held problems and their failed solutions. A good

question can break through the expected to discover the possible.

• Try it out. Of course expectations based on past experience will

make us question anything we haven't experienced. To see

something new, we really have to see it. Try a new idea out, see

what happens, adjust and try again. We call this adaptive

action. Reward thoughtful risk taking.http://bit.ly/lPyXxJ

• From :

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/04/spreading_critical_behaviors_v.html

• Formal programmatic efforts to change behaviors work mostly on the

rational side of human behavior

• Informal experiential efforts can capture the emotional side

• Programmatic change takes more time& costs more and encounters

more resistance than "viral" change

• You need both over time

• A "viral" effort usually begins with a few respected "master motivators”

• Insights & approaches of the motivators work best in experiential

settings

• Experiential momentum sustained informally & formally

• The most important lesson: importance of cross-organization energy

& its dependence on the informal

Balancing the Formal and the Informal

Community Maturity Model TM

Strategy

Leadership

Culture

Community

Management

Content &

Programming

Policies &

Governance

Tools

Metrics &

Measurement

Stage 1

HierarchyStage 2

Emergent

Community

Stage 3

CommunityStage 4

Networked

Familiarize &

Listen

Command &

Control

Reactive

None

Formal &

Structured

No Guidelines for

UGC

Consumer tools

used by

individuals

Anecdotal

Participate

Consensus

Contributive

Informal

Some user

generated

contentRestrictive social

media policies

Consumer & self-

service tools

Basic Activities

Build

Collaborative

Emergent

Defined roles &

processes

Community

created content

Flexible social

media policies

Mix of consumer &

enterprise tools

Activities &

Content

Integrate

Distributed

Activist

Integrated roles &

processes

Integrated formal

& user generated

Inclusive

„Social‟ functionality

is integrated

Behaviors &

Outcomes

http://community-roundtable.com/

Short term, focused

Explicit purposeCalendar of events, often associated with an event

Defined resources

Defined membership

Starts, works, finishes.

Broad, content as attractor

Information aggregation or source

Defined resources

Little member decision making

Requires long term commitment to content creation and curation

May not stimulate individual engagement, but lots of visits.

Little member “ownership” or association (identity)

Small experiments

Small group tries something

Often emerges out of events

People are attracted and join

Structure emerges from experiments

Often little/no resources

Can be a source of innovation that can then be more formally supported and scaled. May not align with sponsor goals. Look for phase change to more structure.

Maturity

Growth

Launch

• Go forward

• Iterating/refining

• End

• Content capture

• Diversification

• Sub communities

• More roles

• New and Old members

• On-boarding

• Core/periphery

• Structure

• Small, structured

• Open, emergent

• Core members

• Key events

Wenger, Trayner & de Laat

Promoting and assessing value creation

in communities and networks: a

conceptual framework

– Immediate Value (what happened)

– Potential Value (what was produced)

–Applied Value (what difference did it make)

–Realized Value (impact)

–Reframing Value (what‟s changed?)

http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/publications/evaluation-framework/

Measure!

http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/publications/evaluation-framework/

Measure

Next?

Talk, write, Skype, Tweet

Nancyw@fullcirc.com

http://www.fullcirc.com

@NancyWhite

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