On 3 Jul 99, at 8:38, T.J. Elliott wrote, carrying on Fred Nickols'
thread:
> > Does anyone know of any instances in which companies have successfully
> > initiated Communities of Practice? I've heard of a few but when I've
> > pursued them to learn more they evaporate.
>
> This is an important question. Companies might identify and recognize even
> nurture and encourage CoPs (as was the now famous case with the Xerox
> service technicians of John Seely Brown) but can they initiate them?
> Depends a great deal upon what you mean by community. Even if you did
> 'start' one the community might then take its own form and slip around the
> interactional facilities, joint tasks, boundaries, artifacts, orientation,
> focus, communication and other elements. They might as a community move in
> their won direction and even leave behind the original purpose and
> procedures set in place by the company.
This is my experience, also. I had the opportunity in a company I once
worked for to nurture several small CoP's [in a very modest sense of the
phrase]. The very process TJ describes of "slipping around the
boundaries" in order to pursue what the participants saw as crucial to
their ongoing learning and success almost inevitably brought them into
conflict with those higher in the organization who found that the group
was "out of control" from their point of view. In one case, management
was ruthless in closing down the group as punishment for exceeding their
mandate; in others, the groups withered for lack of support.
Isn't this just another example of what's likely to happen when the
commitment to self direction and empowerment confronts the reality of
management's control needs?
Sorry to sound cynical.
Malcolm Burson
--Malcolm C. Burson Management Solutions--An ODi Affiliate and Leapfrog Innovations partner Orono, Maine (207) 866-0019 mburson@mint.net
"The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained." --- David Bohm
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