This presentation describes communities of practice, providing a background as well as various examples.

1. Across the border with Communities of Practice September 2007 Dr. Robin Teigland Stockholm School of Economics robin.teigland@hhs.se

2. A world of rapidly growing knowledge …. > A person’s lifetime 18th century One week 2007 Fisch 2007

3. … that becomes quickly outdated …. 50% knowledge relevant 50% knowledge outdated First year of technical-based education Third year of education

4. ..making it increasingly hard to keep up Growth Time Output of information and knowledge Human absorptive capacity Junks 1989

5. An increasingly connected world new friends family local colleagues old friends old colleagues colleagues at other offices Just a click away… virtual communities local networks old classmates avatars

7. The formal organization Top-down, command hierarchy

8. Where do individuals go for help with problems? Co-located colleagues Intranet Non-electronic documents Internal electronic networks Contacts in other offices Firm boundary External electronic networks Internet Non-electronic documents Other contacts ? ?

9. It is increasingly through an organization’s informal networks that work gets done Informal network in pharmaceutical multinational

11. Two departments within the same firm Department 1 Department 2 Higher degree of learning & knowledge sharing Poorer degree of learning & knowledge sharing

12. San Francisco Stockholm London Brussels Helsinki Madrid Copenhagen Islands of competence Rotated from Stockholm

13. Hinton 2007 What are communities of practice?

15. Examples of communities of practice Hinton 2007

19. Knowledge is experience, everything else is just information. -Albert Einstein

20. CPs are not teams or personal networks McDermott 2001 -Obligation -Job requirement -Value -Commitment - Friendship Glue -Planned -Actively discovered -Serendipitously discovered Value Creation -Organize tasks -Meetings -Informal communications -One-on-one Activity -Assigned -Not voluntary -Defined boundary -Mostly volunteers -Permeable boundary -Friends & acquaintances -No boundary Members -Accomplish goal -Solve problems -Share info. & ideas -Expand knowledge -Share information -Friendship Purpose Team Community of Practice Personal Network

21. Hinton 2007 Top-down Command hierarchy Emergent organic network Communities of practice

23. Communities have different primary purposes Helping Best-practice Innovation Knowledge stewarding AQPC 2000

25. A variety of virtual communities at an IT firm Knowledge Networking VP BD Business Concepts VP Sales Industry Knowledge HR Competencies COO Processes & Methodology Virtual community led by COO Wireless Branding Intranet *Virtual communities led by Business Concept responsible *Functional reporting to VP BD Travel Automotive Finance *Virtual communities led by Industry Group responsible *Functional reporting to VP Sales Proj Mgrs Technology Design *Virtual communities led by Competency Group responsible. *Functional reporting to HR

28. Communities of practice cross all boundaries Company Suppliers Customers Competitors Partners McDermott 2001

29. External communities are growing in importance! Online communities Schoolmates Avatars Previous work colleagues Large portion of new ideas and formal collaboration relationships come from external contacts Organization Physical networks

30. Encourage an open innovation attitude Not all the smart people work for us. We need to work with smart people inside and outside the company. The smart people in our field work for us. If you create the most and the best ideas in the industry, you will win. If you make the best use of internal and external ideas, you will win. Closed attitude Open attitude Chesborough 2003

31. The wisdom of crowds (Surowiecki 2004) Closed Expensive Complex Accurate Open Inexpensive Simple Close enough Hinton 2007

33. What can organizations do? Innovation Product development Content generation Decision making Funding Sales & marketing Distribution Brayrie 2007

34. Innovations - www.innocentive.com

35. Problem solutions - The Goldcorp Challenge

36. Decision making & funding – My football club Brayrie 2007

37. Product development - www.ideastorm.com Brayrie 2007

38. Building the Dell community Brayrie 2007

42. Cultivating communities of practice Define Motivate Moderate Connect Connect

45. Community membership and roles Wasko & Teigland 2002 Outsiders Ask questions Don’t contribute Not committed Peripheral Contribute less Not committed Enjoy helping Coordinator “ Eldsjäl” Active Contribute less Challenge Enjoy helping Experts High commitment Contribute more Reputation Core Group

48. Two extreme communities of practice Face-to-face Virtual

49. Public & private community space ~ 30% in the public space Public Space McDermott 2001 Events: Meetings, website, telecons Private Space Person to person

51. Cultivating communities of practice Define Motivate Moderate Connect Connect

54. But remember people have dueling loyalties Loyalty Loyalty Organization Communities

59. Appendix

64. What about performance? Firm A High creative Low on-time High on-time Low creative Teigland 2003 High creative Virtual community Firm B

65. The strength of weak ties Network A’s knowledge Network D’s knowledge Network B’s knowledge Network C’s knowledge Granovetter 1973