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Participation in Communities of Practice

John TropeaSkills in group behaviour

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First things first…

• Do you have a community leader with passion and time?

• Do you have passionate key members?

• Do you have a shared identity on what you want out of the community?

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First things first…

• The manager who thought he could create a community

• CoPs are Voluntary, Emergent, Self-selecting(If they have value they will form)

• It has a sense of place, and needs to be tendered and cared

NOTE: This does not apply as much if your CoP is about team tasks

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First things first…

• Social tools are not built for a specific purpose(People need assistance in how to use them)

• Social tools are interactional rather than transactional(Need to create conditions for conversations to happen)

• Don't need lots of members to succeed(Three or four “active” members is all it takes)

• Subject matter expert needs to run it(Technical facilitator is not enough)

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First things first…

• Merging CoPs is a risk(People want to talk about a topic where they hang out)

• Don’t over design look upfront(Start off simple and concentrate on participation, if successful then design to full intention)

• I don’t want to share, that’s counter to meeting my objectives…and reward!! (Something to be aware of…Bottom-up is not enough, eventually need Top-down structure shift and appraisal model on collaboration)

• Intrinsic motivation, rather than rewards

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CoPs vs Teams

  Team/Task Community of Practice

Purpose Tasks

Processes

Outcomes

Learning/Sharing

Ad-hoc

Emergence

Members Defined roles Informal roles

Manage Manager Facilitator

Participation

Required participation

High interdependency

Encourage participation

Trust

The online tools don’t define how the group operates (many teams are using CoPs)

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The low down on participation

Design (Intuitive / Stickiness)

Frequency of content

Email interaction / Bookmarklet

Peer influence

Champions / Role models

Viral approach

Post, and send link

Attract comments

Re-purposing email

Hand-holding

Barn-raising

In-the-flow / Above-the-flow

Feedback (Reputation / Recognition)

Group building

Confidence / Comfort / Safe

Trust

Relationships (Give and Take)

Personal relevancy / Change

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Design

• Is the tool in tune with human behaviour?(Is it intuitive ; don’t have to think)

• Is the vendor/tool responsive to design changes?

• Not using the system and not sharing are not the same thing

• Ask the users what they want, and then they want something else?(Design as you evolve; as a co-creation process)

SOURCE http://bit.ly/8AAEMN ; http://bit.ly/1fiexz

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Design

• Click or two away from what they need to do

• People don’t have the time to read a manual (Instead place instructions on the actual objects)

• No blank slates; first visit needs to be appealing(Create a stickiness factor so people return)

• Are you appealing to different user experiences?

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Design

• Avoid cognitive stress(Email is easy as one channel to say everything)

• Do I use a blog or a forum for what I want to say?

• Which blog do I post in? Which forum do I post in?

• Where is the “post new entry” button?

• Where is the “subscribe” button?(Where’s a list of subscribers who will get my post?)

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Frequency of content

• Quickest way to get a CoP going is to ask questions(Successful “help” interactions lead to more…trust in the CoP)

• Core group of people to blog weekly columns, initiate forum discussions, leave comments

• Whenever something happens, blog about it (“I uploaded a presentation into our library, go check it out!”)

• Posting, rather than Publishing(People are used to publishing a final piece, rather than posting work-in-progress/thinking out loud)

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Email Interaction / Bookmarklet

• If it’s not in your inbox it doesn’t exist

• People are more likely to react if it comes to them

• Publish and comment via email

• Publish whilst browsing the web

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Peer influence

• Prior to this they have not dedicated the time to investigate, but if a close colleague finds it of value, then this will influence them to give it a try

• We are influenced by people we trust, more than a training programme, or by others we don’t know well

• We take recommendations from people we value

• Influenced by the herd / conformSOURCE http://bit.ly/bMCWr7

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Champions / Role-models / Viral

• If the leads are not role-models in active participation, then this sends a signal that the community is not important

• Facilitators must lead by example, and encourage senior/respected people to be role-models

• Concentrate on training just a small group

• They will set the good examples and be an influence on others

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Feedback (Reputation/Recognition)

• Facilitator feedback encourages more participation(“That was an insightful blog post, I will apply that method”)

• Answer questions promptly so people feel heard and benefit from participating (will influence return visits)

• Comments generate motivation for more blog posts

• Company commander who became an active participant after he found out that other people were getting valuable use from his AAR document

SOURCE http://bit.ly/8ZlJnt ; http://bit.ly/9DkTaW

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Feedback (Reputation/Recognition)

• Being appreciated and feeling you have made a difference are good conditions for further participation

• Sense of belonging leads to engagement

• After a while this system becomes self-rewarding as people may draw a reputation

• Recognition means more coming from strangers/peers who really understand the subject, than the boss

SOURCE http://bit.ly/1fiexz ; http://bit.ly/8wvOnh

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Group building

• Face-to-face interaction and connection, or online

ways for members to connect in real-time

• These can be social gatherings, meetings, or workshops

• Building rapport as conditions for knowledge sharing/participation

• Sense of belonging creates an emotional safety

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Confidence / Comfort / Safe

• Are people confident and comfortable to participate? ie. do they have a relationship with other members

• People feel safe in closed/private world of email

• Beware of big CoPseg. at a house party we are always more comfortable in sharing our lives after a lot of small talk where we build a rapport (a certain level of trust)…or after a few drinks

• Do we feel safe from speaking out, being wrong, judged and misunderstood? (Psychological Safety)

SOURCE http://bit.ly/9wWte2

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Trust and Relationships

• Not a pre-condition, but a process of engagement

• Informal conversation builds relationships/rapport/trust which leads to sharing

• Assurance that our knowledge will be treated with respect

• People you trust will give you confidence they will not misuse your knowledge sharing

SOURCE http://bit.ly/cGcxQQ ; http://bit.ly/1fiexz

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Trust and Relationships

• Being a Subject Matter Expert can be a burden

• I will share with those who invest a relationship with me

• Time consuming to understand the issue, and research answer

• The more I know you, the more I share(Reciprocated relationship)

SOURCE http://bit.ly/1fiexz ; http://bit.ly/8ZAMoq ; http://bit.ly/5Ov85H

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Trust and Relationships

• Is there an equilibrium of give and take? (Anticipated reciprocity)

• Do some members just ask questions and never help out with answers?

• Are members willing to research answers for questions from non-members?

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Trust and Relationships

• Competent

(Are you known to be knowledgeable?)

• Behavioural

(Are you known to be approachable?)

• Sharing doesn’t require a strong tie, but it requires trust

• Most useful knowledge comes from trusted weak ties

SOURCE http://bit.ly/9SJ1mN

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Personal Relevancy / Change

• Is the community personally relevant, or fulfilling needs at an individual level?

• Engagement, sense of impact and belonging(Intrinsic motivation)

• People don’t resist change, they resist being changed

• Resistance to change is about the situation rather than a character traitSOURCE http://bit.ly/18k2Zs ;

http://bit.ly/7GOUnE

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Posting and Attracting comments

• If intended audience aren’t subscribers, still create the blog post, then send them the link

• Rather than just sharing links, write an opinion based review…this will get people to react

• It’s about the conversations that the blog post triggers (Builds community spirit, and return for more)

• People are more prone to comment, rather than blog or write a forum topic(Write content that induces comments as a starter)

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Re-purposing Email

• CoP tools can replace the email distribution list

• People will use email out of habit

• Facilitator must thank them for participating and correct them with the right tool(Need discipline and repetition)

• Then demonstrate by re-posting their email into the forum/blog, then send them the link(Ask them to subscribe in case the conversation keeps going)

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Hand-holding

• Workers lack time to learn a new tool, but they perhaps will if you instigate it

• Breaking old habits with new technologies(Need repetition to habituate new behaviours)

• People are expected to publish in an open place, rather than the more confident private email channels

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Hand-holding

• People are used to MS Word; reassure them the blog/forum/wiki posting toolbar is a basic version

• Avoid teaching HTML (source code) till later on

• Sit down with a member once a week for a couple of months and guide them in publishing a blog post, until they get used to it and build the confidence.

• Comments on their blog posts motivate them to create new blog posts

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Raids / Barn-raising

• Spend a session on using a wiki for a specific / real purpose

• This gives people real experience at using them, and using new tools for current needs

• The idea is that they will go back to their seats and continue using it

• Rather than creating a wiki and asking people to participate, put important information on the wiki so they have to visit, and provide their input

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In-the-flow / Above-the-flow

• In-the-flow – using CoP tools to do work (Requirement / Interdependencies)

• Choose an activity or type of communication that is conducted in an email list and now do it in the CoP

Eg. broadcast announcements are now done in the CoP blog, people have no choice but to visit the CoP…while they are there they may look around and participate elsewhere

Eg. Drafting articles for a newsletter

• Above-the-flow – using CoP tools for communication, sharing and learning (Volunteered)

SOURCE http://bit.ly/brJFZM

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Activities you can try are…

Offline to Online

Member Intros

Lounge forum

Blog carnival

Polls

Guest posts

Coffee Corner / Fill in the gap

Member of the month

Weekly roundup

Personal stories

People travelling

Blog columns

Engaging media (video)

Email signature

Newsletter

Linking across CoPs

Events

Portal

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Seed, feed, and weed

Garden

Design

Communicate

Welcome

Assist

Support

Prompt

Correct

Guides

Promote

Re-purpose

Suggestions

Feedback

Congratulate

Barnraise

Monitor

Listen

Personal needs

Subscribe

Specialise

It's of utmost importance that a Community Manager is subscribed to every blog and forum in every community.

SOURCE http://bit.ly/193dxQ

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There is no average contributor• Power law (L-curve)• Average user doesn’t really exist…heavy

contributors skew a useful average meaning.

SOURCE http://bit.ly/12S2ll

Tip!Nurture those who are already contributing

• Contributors may be higher within organisations due to peer influence

• People that have a positive influence in one group will influence that to happen in their current group

• Lurkers are important as they act as an audience which motivates people to post in blog/forums, they also pass on your links to others, and perhaps walk what you talk about

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Living and breathing

SOURCE http://bit.ly/4ypMEo

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Time for a health check

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Connect

Library clipshttp://libraryclips.blogsome.com

LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/johntropea

Twitterhttp://twitter.com/johnt

Emailjohntropea@gmail.com