Communities of practice combat cross-functional silos

#communities-of-practice #org-design

Communities of practice are self-organized (communities-of-practice-are-loosely-knit) groups whose members engage in a process of collective learning and produce shared practices.

Communities of practice are defined by three factors:

1. what they are about (a discipline, a skill or a topic),
2. how they function (relationships, operating cadences, etc.), and
3. what they produce (vocabulary, sensibility, routines, best practices, etc.).

Communities of practice are critical to the correct functioning of organizations that recognize knowledge and innovation as key assets—in fact, by helping to break the silos that are naturally created by cross-functional teams, they are the foundation of an organization’s ability to learn (Communities of practice exhibit a two-way feedback loop).

References

• [[the-systems-thinker-communities-of-practice-learning-as-a-social-system-the-systems-thinker|The Systems Thinker – Communities of Practice Learning as a Social System - The Systems Thinker]]