Naval Supply System Command 1 Communities of Practice (CoP) Ready. Resourceful. Responsive! 25 June 2003 No problem can be solved from the same level of

Naval Supply System Command

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Communities of Practice (CoP)

Ready. Resourceful. Responsive!

25 June 2003

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

- Einstein


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Who do I work with?

What do I do?Facilitation

Training

Template Wizard

Metrics Gathering

How did I get involved with Communities of Practice?

Introduction


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Agenda

What are CoP’s?Who uses CoP’s?What’s their value to organizationsPrinciples of Cultivating CoP’sStages of DevelopmentChallengesMeasuring and ManagingSuccess StoryLessons Learned


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Evolving Communications

The old days of courier pigeons

Middle ages of postal service and phone calls

New age of electronic communicationEmail

Video Teleconferences

Chat Sessions


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CoP Defined

Communities of Practice:

“Communities of Practice are groups 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.” – Etienne Wenger


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Who uses CoP’s?

IRS

GSA

EPA

Ford Motor Co.

BP

HP

Xerox

Corning

World Bank

Best Buy

Federal Highways Administration

VA


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Why do they use CoP?

Expertise LocatorLists SkillsCurrent Contact Information

Data RepositoriesElectronic ArchiveRolling CalendarsAutomated Self Help

Knowledge DiscoveryCollaborative forumsThreaded Discussions


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Value Example

Healthcare Information

Justice System

Safe Cities (www.safecities.gov)

Federal Highway

Administration


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Cultivating CoP’s

How do we get started?Find Communities Already Active

Address Barriers

Focus on Value

Find Leaders

Document Business Practices

LASTLY, pick a tool


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Community Development

Planning and LaunchingMission, VisionEstablish Charter with top level support

Building and NurturingRoles and Responsibilities

MaturingEncouraging Ownership

Rejuvenating


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Stages – Planning and Launching

Establish charter w/top level supportRecruit and build a core team

Roles & Responsibilities

Taxonomy/populate siteEstablish ROE/norms/Business Rules/Mission of siteCreate Value for community


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Stages - Building & Nurturing

Launch the communityStand up training and supportDevelop relationships

Legitimize community coordinatorsCreating a Habit of consulting each other for helpContributions

Nurture Community Recruiting membersEngaging Members


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occasional

transactional

peripheral

active

coordinator

core group

lurkers

leaders

outsiders

experts

beginners

Participation Levels


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Stages – Maturing

Identify gaps in knowledge and develop a learning agenda

Identify mentors for newcomers

Measure the value of the community

Build and organize a knowledge repository

Allocate resources for maintenance


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Stages – Rejuvenating

Introduce new topics, speakers, meetings with other communities or teams.Sessions with vendors and suppliers can make the community aware of new technology or practices.Hold renewal workshopsRecruit new people to the core group, rotate coordinators.Mentor new members


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Challenges

Sponsorship

User acceptance

Maintaining momentum

Building trust and personal relationships

How do you transfer tacit knowledge?


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Measuring and Managing

Community Activity New membersMembers participation/# members

Knowledge CapturedHow many contributions/solutions

Performance OutcomesProblems resolvedReduction in cost/hoursMembers mentored


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Success Story


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Lessons Learned

Focus on people not the technology

Need support and participation to be successful

Monitor constantly for assistance and appropriate content

Roll out in waves and phases

Provide constant training,

support and coaching


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Summary

What are CoP’s?Who uses CoP’s?What’s their value to organizationsPrinciples of Cultivating CoP’sStages of DevelopmentChallengesMeasuring and ManagingSuccess StoryLessons Learned


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Contact Information


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Questions


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Backup Slides


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Obstacles

Dr. Gabriel Szulanski led a groundbreaking study to determine why best practices do not transfer from one part of an enterprise to another. The

results can be seen within NAVSUP activities:

Most of us might think that “turf protection” is the leading cause of failure to adopt best practices, but ignorance is the real culprit.

In most organizations neither the “source” nor the “recipient” knew someone else had the knowledge they required or that someone had an interest in their knowledge and best practice.

Lack of resources: time, money, and the practical detail to implement best practices is the second barrier.

Lack of any relationship, personal ties or credibility is missing between geographically dispersed managers.

Transferring best practices takes time. It took an average 27 months for a best practice to go from one part of a large organization to another. Yet, the results are remarkable!


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The Potential Gains are Enormous

Texas Instruments recently avoided the cost of building a $500 million wafer fabrication plant by leveraging internal knowledge and best practices.

Chevron has saved millions through sharing of Best practices across its refineries and other business units. This could be done with the FISC’s.

APQC awarded Eastman Kodak the Gold Award for Benchmarking a few years back for its global study of internal best practices in maintenance. Kodak not only improved uptime, quality, and customer satisfaction, but it also saved at least $12 million annually by implementing best practices.

Chew, Bresnaban, and Clark (HBR, 1992) reported performance differences of 3 to 1 between the best and worst of 42 almost identical food plants within a single company. The profitability of the top plant was more than 80 percent of the mean, and the bottom plant 40 percent below; yet, their situations were virtually the same.

Moving all plants to just the, average level of performance would result in an increased firm profitability of 20 percent.


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OrganizationOrganizationOrganizationOrganization

Short-termShort-termShort-termShort-term Long-termLong-termLong-termLong-term

MembersMembersMembersMembers Improve experienceImprove experience of work of work

Improve experienceImprove experience of work of work

Professional Professional developmentdevelopmentProfessional Professional developmentdevelopment

Develop Develop capabilitiescapabilities

Develop Develop capabilitiescapabilities

Solve business Solve business problemsproblems

Solve business Solve business problemsproblems

BuildBuildmomentummomentum

BuildBuildmomentummomentum

JustifyJustifyinvestmentinvestment

JustifyJustifyinvestmentinvestment

ParticipateParticipateParticipateParticipate

SupportSupportSupportSupport

Value


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Several layers of participationStakeholders

Conveners

Partners

Champions

Sponsor committee

Peripheral participants

Chartermembers

COP Network


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Communities of Practice

Short and Long-Term Value to Organizations and Community Members

Short-Term ValueImprove Business Outcomes

Long-Term ValueDevelop Organizational Capabilities

• Arena for problem solving• Quick answers to questions• Reduced time and costs• Improved quality of decisions• More perspectives on problems• Coordination, standardization, and synergies across units• Resources for implementing strategies• Strengthened quality assurance• Ability to take risks with backing of the community

• Help with challenges• Access to expertise• Better able to contribute to team• Confidence in one’s approach to problems• Fun of being with colleagues• More meaningful participation• Sense of belonging

Improve experience of work

Benefits toOrganization

Benefits toCommunityMembers

• Ability to execute a strategic plan• Authority with clients• Increased retention of talent• Capacity for knowledge-development projects• Forum for “benchmarking” against rest of industry• Knowledge-based alliances• Emergence of unplanned capabilities• Capacity to develop new strategic options• Ability to foresee technological developments• Ability to take advantage of emerging market opportunities

Foster Professional Development• Forum for expanding skills and expertise• Network for keeping abreast of a field• Enhanced professional reputation• Increased marketability and employability• Strong sense of professional identity


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Previous AIT CoP


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New AIT CoP


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New AIT Second Level


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Old Business Cards


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New Business Cards

Documents

Naval Supply System Command 1 Communities of Practice (CoP) Ready. Resourceful. Responsive! 25 June 2003 No problem can be solved from the same level of