Communities of practice are everywhere and we all belong to a number of them - visible or invisible.

Cultivating communities of practice is increasingly recognized as an effective way for organizations to address the challenges they face.

As a pioneer of "community of practice" research, Etienne Wenger is a globally recognized thought leader for his work on communities of practice and their application to organizations.

On this page, Etienne shares his thoughts on learning, knowledge and collaborative practice.

On this page you’ll find:

Etienne Wenger

Etienne Wenger is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of communities of practice, and was featured by Training Magazine in their "New Breed of Visionaries" series.

A pioneer of "communities of practice" research, Etienne is author and co-author of a number of seminal articles and books, including Situated Learning, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, and Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge.

Etienne was born in Switzerland to a French-speaking family and moved to the United States to pursue his PhD. His interest in education has led him to many corners of the world.

He is a researcher, author and consultant, and his work has influenced both the thinking and practice of a wide variety of fields, including business, education, government and social theory.

For more about Etienne, click here.

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Communities of Practice

Practically, communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly

Theoretically, a community of practice is a history of social learning that has created a bond among people. People have learned together to do something and that has, in turn, become a social structure.

The basic structure of a community of practice includes three component pieces:

1. Domain - This creates a sense of common identity. It becomes a statement of what knowledge the community will steward.
2. Community - This includes the people who care about and interact with issues related to the domain. The community creates the social fabric of learning.
3. Practice - This is the specific knowledge that the community develops, shares and maintains.

A community of practice is really a group of people engaged in a challenge who use their experience as curriculum. Members of the group teach and learn with each other.

Etienne likes to think of communities of practice as learning friendships. Like a friendship, we may not always be in agreement, but we are committed to the relationship and, together, we work through challenges.

Trust plays an important role in nurturing a learning community. It is very difficult to learn from someone you mistrust or to contribute to a group where you do not trust the relationships.

There are elements of trust that you can make explicit (i.e. what’s said in the room stays there). These are essentially rules of behaviour and trust can be built by modelling appropriate behaviour.

One cannot underestimate the element of practice when building trust. When a community member can see the practitioner in another person, trust is automatically developed.

The downside of communities of practice

Etienne warns us not to romanticize the ideal of communities of practice. A community of practice does not guarantee that the learning will lead to a positive outcome - they are not a panacea.

He points out that a lot of the problems we face in the world can be attributed to communities of practice. For instance, the practice of apartheid was sustained by a community. It is easy to spread negativity or be mediocre when you have company.

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Design for Evolution

You can design for a community of practice - you cannot design a community of practice. A community has to discover itself, but you can design elements that help propel the community forward (e.g. peer input process, community forums, etc.).

Communities of practice can come in many shapes and sizes, what matters most is the quality of their impact. Many larger communities of practice sub-divide into "practice groups" that achieve greater levels of engagement. There needs to be enough diversity in a community of practice to keep it alive.

When designing for a community of practice, Etienne advises finding allies to help convene a core group of learners. There should be a good mix of learning activities. Also build in activities that promote self-design by members to aid them in defining the domain, and exploring who they are and how they function as a community.

Some communities may die if they are not nurtured, but we must be careful not to over nurture communities of practice. Doing so can hinder their natural evolution.

Levels of participation

There are different levels of engagement in a topic, which results in different levels of participation in the community. It is to be expected that there will be people who are closely engaged with the domain of the community, and some people who simply want to keep in touch and know what is going on.

In some cases, we will be part of the core group of learners and others will be lurkers - and vice-versa. This is important to ensuring the diversity of a community of practice.

The primary value in a community of practice is the learning that participants find in their engagement.

Seven principles for convening communities of practice

Designing for evolution, and building in different levels of participation are just two of the essential elements for convening a community of practice. Etienne names seven key principles:

1. Design for evolution.
2. Open a dialogue.
3. Invite different levels of participation.
4. Develop public and private spaces.
5. Focus on value.
6. Combine familiarity and excitement.
7. Create a rhythm for the community.

To learn more about these principles, click here.

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Hope for Communities

Although there are measures to evaluate the success of a community, ultimately it is the members of a community of practice who will know if they are making a difference. Their learning translates into practice and this is where the value of the community of practice manifests itself.

Etienne wonders if there is still a place for long-lived, stable communities of practice. Or, are we moving into an era where networks of relationships are much more fluid?

He is also interested in bringing back the spirit of communities of practice, which involves meaning, engagement and learning. He hopes that, in our organizations, schools and civic life, we can start to understand learning as a profoundly human experience and become "learning citizens."

Characteristics of successful communities of practice

1. There is a constant flow of productive enquiries.
2. The community is intentional about learning for its members.
3. People are able to be candid about what they are facing.
4. There is a sense of mutual commitment to each other's learning and practice.
5. The community exists not just for its members but for the rest of the world.

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Resources & Links

Etienne Wenger's Homepage - Etienne is an independent thinker, researcher, consultant, author and speaker who considers himself a social learning theorist. Widely known for his work on communities of practice, Etienne's focus is on social learning systems.

A Brief Introduction to Communities of Practice - The term "community of practice" is of relatively recent coinage, even though the phenomenon it refers to is age-old. On this page, Etienne defines and contextualizes communities of practice.

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - This excerpt from Etienne Wenger’s book, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, outlines the seven principles for convening a community of practice.

Using Emergence to Take Social Innovations to Scale - This article by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze examines the emergence life-cycle of social innovations, like communities of practice, and considers the importance of the dynamics of networks.

Communities Collaborating Institute Online Community - This online space is the virtual resource centre and meeting place for participants of the Communities Collaborating Institute (a community of practice supported by Tamarack). It is a place to collect and share knowledge related to community collaboration. For full access, you must be a member of this community, but for a sneak peek, click here.

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