Communities of Practice

Tips, best practices and advice already flow through most organizations.  Some of the informal interactions that happen around the proverbial water cooler are where the most useful information gets transferred.

It happens in the break room, out to lunch or via a response to an email question.  People learn informally and peers are an excellent source for this just-in-time information as they can sympathize with situations and offer input from their experiences.

Orbital RPM adds strategy and structure to this informal organizational element that allows people to learn more from those at their level.  We help cultivate communities of practice, or groups of people who share their tips and insights with others in the same role or with the same objectives.  Mature communities are also adept at storing the information that is most useful to them, making communities of practice an effective method for knowledge management.

Communities at some level already exist in most organizations.  They can be as simple as people that meet for lunch once a month or as formal as a group that reserves space to meet weekly and communicates on-line regularly between meetings.  What many community members don’t realize is that this is where they get their best information.  Orbital RPM helps early communities evolve into something greater and mature communities thrive.  We facilitate their cultivation and support so that they can produce benefits for larger groups and the organization.

For executives we offer membership in communities of practice that are composed of other executives from similar but non-competing organizations.
 

For all other employees we specialize in cultivating communities of practice as a forum for them to learn from their peers, develop their own solutions and add more value to their employer. These groups may also include representatives from the organization’s value-chain.

For more information on how Orbital RPM identifies potential communities of practice please read about our Social Network Analysis service.