Benefits
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