Sunday, January 24, 2010

February 9th: Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young

Please join us for our February meeting at 5:30pm when Darrin Brogan and Brad Kenney will discuss "Practicing Communities of Practice with Ernst & Young." Meeting location details can be found on the sidebar to the right.

It's one of the more interesting, and often exasperating, aspects of managing enterprise communities of practice that each -- by necessity -- has its own character and culture, sponsors and managers. Building and maintaining long-term, healthy communities of practice take practice.

Ernst & Young recently sponsored an APQC report entitled Sustaining Effective Communities of Practice . In this study, we partnered with leading KM research organization APQC to study companies that have successfully leveraged Communities of Practice (CoPs) to identify, share and create valuable knowledge. In the research, APQC identified 18 best practices that enable organizations to sustain thriving, impactful CoPs. These best practices are organized around 5 themes:

1. Create a sustainable community strategy
2. Practices and approaches for sustaining communities
3. Tools and resources for community managers
4. Promote awareness and communicate value
5. Measures

The best practices identified in the report address the organizational challenges that often prevent the launch of successful CoPs and offer a guide for how they can be woven deeply within the fabric of an organization. Talking about the report will be Darrin Brogan, an associate director within the EY Center for Business Knowledge, and Brad Kenney, a senior consultant within the EY Advisory practice.