William Snyder’s work has taken him inside some of the largest corporations in the world -- AT&T, Daimler-Chrysler, McKinsey & Company and others. At the center of his work as a consultant and writer are “communities of practice.” A principal of the Social Capital Group, Snyder advises organizations to adopt new practices that will spread ideas, increase innovation and strengthen the people who make up the foundation of an organization’s life.
With Etienne Wenger and Richard McDermott, Snyder is the author of the book “Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge.” The authors describe communities of practice as “groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and a passion for a joint enterprise…[who] share their experience and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways.” Although such communities have existed since ancient times, some companies “install” or nurture them to foster new approaches to solving problems.
Snyder spoke with Faith & Leadership at an event for judicatory leaders at Duke University. In the interview, he shares how churches and larger organizations can increase their vitality by nurturing connections among the people involved.
Q: What are communities of practice?
Communities of practice are groups of people who have a shared interest who then come together to learn from each other. One way to think about them structurally is as having three dimensions: the domain (what it’s about); the topic (the issues that they’re facing); and the community (the people who are involved).
Typically, the community of practice gets together face-to-face and talks about its topic. This isn’t like an organizational team where people are assigned; these are people who show up because they are interested. Communities of practice are particularly helpful for diffusing ideas, for spreading good ideas and good practices.
Q: How do they work?
They use a variety of approaches. A typical one is a face-to-face meeting. Others include teleconferences, visiting organizations, working on projects or workshops together, even having informal conversations. It’s a mix of formal and informal methods. Some of them are online; some of them are face-to-face. Some of them happen weekly; some of them happen monthly or yearly. But they all are important for sharing ideas.
Q: Are such communities common within organizations?
Communities of practice exist everywhere. You can find communities of practice wherever you see a group of people in an organization congregating around a lunch table talking about what’s going on.
What we have found in the last 10 years or so is that it’s helpful to be systematic about cultivating communities of practice in organizations where innovation is important -- especially in organizations that have “siloed” divisions. How do we get ideas across divisions? We’ll encourage people to get together and share the ideas that they are interested in.
Q: How do these ideas apply to Christian organizations?
A congregation is a community of practice. Practices like worship, liturgy, pastoral care, outreach and social justice are important to the congregation’s vitality. What you want are people who are passionate about those practices to develop them so that they are thriving in the congregation. An example would be a congregation looking for new approaches to education. In that case you would have a practice – education -- and you have practitioners, people who are passionate about finding new approaches to that practice in that church.
Another way that communities of practice apply in the Christian context is across congregations. In an Episcopal church you may have 100 churches in a diocese. Often, it is difficult for different churches to share ideas; a lot of the focus is on making sure the individual congregation is vital. But there are a lot of opportunities to learn from other churches. Communities of practice can help congregations be more systematic and intentional about learning from each other.
For instance, people who are interested in worship and liturgy from a particular congregation can find others with the same interests and meet regularly. They can share innovative approaches they are trying in their churches. Others can ask questions and offer ideas.
A community of practice around social justice would include not only parishioners, but also people in the neighborhood and the city who have similar interests.
Q: Where do you see overlap between what churches are already doing and the communities of practice that are being developed in the business world?
There are a lot of ways in which communities of practice overlap with the idea of community in the Christian church. In one sense, no matter what the community is about, it’s about a shared passion that people have for improving their lives, for learning, for contributing to the world. One connection between a basic philosophy of communities of practice and the Christian community would be the shared sense of a purpose, the idea that this is not just about me and my own interests, but it’s about contributing to a community that will help all of us thrive.
Also foundational to communities of practice and congregational communities is a sense of mutual commitment. That sense of trust, reciprocity and a shared identity is the foundation of what makes communities of practice work. You don’t get the level of sharing, learning and encouragement unless you have that foundational sense that you’re connected to each other.
Q: Why do leaders need to be intentional about forming these communities?
Most of the skills and expertise we learn, we learn from others in practice. We don’t learn it in a workshop or a manual. It’s helpful to have those, but the way we really learn is in practice with other practitioners.
Another reason involves diffusing ideas and methods. Often, best practices are put in a manual or on a website. But by themselves those practices aren’t going to get very far. If you have a community of practice, someone can say, “I’m calling you about what I saw on your website. I heard that you tried this in your organization, and I’d love to talk to you about it.”
The bottom line for communities of practices is this: I’m going to learn skills that are important for me, and I’m going to connect with other people in my tribe, which has meaning and value in itself. The organization is going to get better diffusion of methodologies, which you don’t get unless you have others who are helping each other apply their ideas.
It’s also a way of building a reputation: you are more likely to know the people in your field if you are participating in a community.
Q: What are the costs to organizations that want to invest in communities of practice?
The biggest expense is the time of the people. The best test for organizations that are concerned about whether or not they should invest in these communities is if people are showing up and committing their time. If they have a choice, people don’t show up for meetings unless they are useful. That’s a good way to measure the value of a community for an organization.
You may also need to invest in a staff person to coordinate community activities. These include teleconferences, speakers, workshops, clinics. If you are going to have site visits across organizations, you may have to pay for travel and time. At that point you are making some investments. If it’s a full-time employee, that can be quite a bit of money.
But again the bottom line is this: “Are we getting the kind of opportunities that would not happen otherwise?”
