Communities Of Practice: Unleashing Tacit Knowledge for Business Value

Communities of Practice (CoPs) have always been celebrated as a cornerstone of Knowledge Management. In today's Knowledge Management Global Network course on "Leveraging Business Value Creation of Tacit Knowledge," Stan Garfield led the session focusing on Communities of Practice.

"Don’t wait for things to happen. Community leaders must help them happen," Stan emphasized. When someone poses a great question, responses often unveil tacit knowledge that the responder might not have even recognized they possessed. Such questions can ignite the minds of all participants, leading to the discovery of valuable tacit knowledge treasures.

Strategies to proactively foster this process to enhance business value creation may include:

WHO: Encourage individuals with diverse knowledge, experiences, cultures, and roles to join the community. Diversity breeds perspective, generating questions that unearth tacit insights.

WHAT 1:

Deepen Existing Discussions: As community leaders, we can link to ongoing conversations, posing deeper questions to tap into tacit knowledge.

Initiate New Discussions: Share emerging trends, innovative use cases, and articles to spark discussions about their practical applications.

WHAT 2: Conduct community meetings or SubjectMatterExpert interviews focused on torytelling or case analysis to share complex problem-solving anddecision-making scenarios.

Knowledge Documentation:

Lastly, curate and structure the tacit knowledge gathered, transforming it into an easily reusable and accessible resource.

CoPs are natural havens for tacit knowledge to surface, yet it's up to the leaders to elevate these opportunities into organizational business assets. 🚀