A community of practice is a group of people with a common sense of purpose who agree to work together to share information, build knowledge, develop expertise and solve problems.  Communities of practice are cultivated and nurtured rather than formally managed. 

Origins and definition of the term 'community of practice'

A community of practice was first described as  

"a group of people who engage in collective learning in a common area of interest" (Wenger 1998)

It is recognised that communites have three important dimensions:

PURPOSE - community's aims as understood by its members.

FUNCTION - members are engaged in related activities/projects.

OUTPUT - published and unpublished resources, events and discussions developed or sourced by community members.

A community of practice...

• Focuses on a particular area of practice.
• Members share a profession or common interest in a specific subject.
• The community can be formal or informal.
• The community can be based on either a short or long term commitment.
• Works across geographical regions, disciplinary boundaries and formal reporting lines.

Communities of practice...

• Encourage knowledge sharing
• Give members a networking platform to share personal knowledge, information and experience
• Provide a platform for turning knowledge and research into practice
• Combination of practitioner knowledge and experience with published information supports evidence based practice
• Open to both explicit (published) knowledge - articles, reports, websites, and guidelines - and tacit (personal) knowledge gained through experience and reflection
• Reflect the dual nature of knowledge management
• Promote a learning environment

Other potential advantages of communities of practice:

• Encourage knowledge sharing to lead to cultural change
• Support organisational development and research
• Share good practice
• Transfer and develop best practice
• Reuse information
• Learn from previous mistakes
• Encourage personal and professional development

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) actively supports development of communities of practice:

• The Knowledge Network (www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk ) is an integrated access point to published (explicit) evidence and knowledge - e.g. journals, books, guidelines, policy documents, and patient information leaflets - as well as interactive services to keep users up to date with news and events.
• Provides access to knowledge sharing tools designed to support networks and communities in working with both explicit and tacit knowledge, in a secure or open online environment. (See the tools section below)
• Offers guidance materials and tools to build the community and promote the benefits. (See building communities in this section of the website)

• Extended, national groups of health and social care staff who need to access, share and apply knowledge in a common area of interest.
• Multiple linked communities of healthcare staff and partners in other sectors.
• The building blocks of Managed Knowledge Networks are Communities of Practice. These networks and communities operate across boundaries of disciplines, organisations and sectors and are linked by a common need to access and share information.
• Some are supported by subject specific portals or websites.

The evidence indicates that a number of key roles can normally be identified within a successful community of practice. Each role can be held by one or more people depending on the purpose and number of members.

Leaders - chief organisers steering the community. This role develops community objectives and encourages community members by stimulating interest.

The leader is also an innovator and can see the benefits of collaborative technologies and the communities of practice model.

Developing a community of practice requires much commitment from the leaders in order to develop and nurture the community, particularly at the initial stages.

Communicator - maintains relationships internally and externally and develops community contacts. For example, they are aware of other relevant activities taking place that may be of interest to the community.

Information Resource Manager - identifies and organises resources.

Learning Facilitator - supports ongoing learning and development for community members. This includes developing their own skills in accessing and using information and knowledge.

Learning is not confined to a classroom.  People learn by experience and through communication all the time and increasingly organisations are recognising the importance of this informal learning.  Taking this definition of learning which can be referred to as 'social learning' or 'collaborative learning' it is easy to see how community of practice can provide a forum for social learning. Communities of practice are the building blocks of the social learning system.

There are various suggestions of things you need to consider as part of the pages on Building communities.

There are many tools available to help you evaluate your community.  Some of these are available here.  For information about why to evaluate your community see stage 5 of Building communities.

NHS Education for Scotland provide some tools for communites to use.  The main options for a repository and to help with communication

Shared space

Community websites More information to follow.

Other useful tools are  listed on Tools page.