communities of practice proposal

K6233: COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE PROPOSAL –

LAUNCHING OF COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE IN
A VOLUNTARY WELFARE ORGANIZATION IN SINGAPORE

SUBMITTED BY:

NUR SYAHIDAH BINTE ALIM (G1101756D)

NIRMALA SELVARAJU (G1101760J)

SUBMITTED TO:

MR. GOPINATHAN

DATE OF SUBMISSION:

20 APRIL 2012

WEE KIM WEE SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

SEMESTER 2, 2011/2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................... 2
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2. INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY ................................................................................. 4
2.1. About Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) .................................................. 4
2.2. TEACH Me Services .................................................................................................... 4
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3. COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (COP) IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK ...................... 6
3.1. Definition and Rationale of Communities of Practice (CoPs) ....................................... 6
3.2. Five Phases in Building Communities of Practice (CoPs) ............................................ 6
3.2.1. Phase 1: Inquiry .................................................................................................... 7
3.2.2. Phase 2: Design.................................................................................................... 7
3.2.3. Phase 3: Prototype ............................................................................................... 8
3.2.4. Phase 4: Launch ................................................................................................... 8
3.2.5. Phase 5: Grow and Sustain .................................................................................. 8
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4. COMMUNITY INQUIRY PHASE ....................................................................................... 9
4.1. Needs Assessment ...................................................................................................... 9
4.2. Community Identity .................................................................................................... 10
4.2.1. Domain................................................................................................................ 10
4.2.2. Community .......................................................................................................... 10
4.2.3. Practice ............................................................................................................... 10
4.3. Organizational Strategy and Value ............................................................................ 11
4.3.1. Vision and Expected Outcomes .......................................................................... 11
4.3.2. Sponsorship and Organizational Issues ............................................................. 12
4.3.3. Current Success Factors and Risks.................................................................... 13
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5. COMMUNITY DESIGN PHASE ...................................................................................... 14
5.1. Community Cultivation ............................................................................................... 14
5.1.1. Forms of Participation ......................................................................................... 14
5.1.2. Orientation Profile ............................................................................................... 15
5.1.3. Learning Activities ............................................................................................... 17
5.1.4. Community Roles................................................................................................ 18
5.1.5. Technology ......................................................................................................... 19
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6. COMMUNITY PROTOTYPE PHASE .............................................................................. 19
6.1. Discovery and Preparation ......................................................................................... 19
6.1.1. Setting Pre-launch Committee ............................................................................ 19
6.1.2. Overall Approach to the Launch Event ............................................................... 19
6.1.3. Preliminary Assessment of Participants.............................................................. 20
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7. COMMUNITY LAUNCH PHASE ..................................................................................... 20
7.1. Invitation to the Launch .............................................................................................. 20
7.2. Meeting Logistics ....................................................................................................... 21
7.3 Launch Workshop Design ............................................................................................. 21
7.3.1. Education and Context Setting ........................................................................... 21
7.3.2. Community Design and Organizational Context Sharing.................................... 22
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8. COMMUNITY GROW AND SUSTAIN PHASE ............................................................... 23
8.1. Types of Activities ...................................................................................................... 23
8.2. Community Health Assessment: ............................................................................ 24
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9. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 24
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10. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 26

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TEACH Me Services is a division in the Asian Women’s Welfare Association
(AWWA), a Voluntary Welfare Organization (VWO) in Singapore, which aims
to assist children and youths with special needs in ultimately maximizing their
potential to lead dignified and independent lives within the society. The
division consists of three departments: Trans-Disciplinary and Therapy
Support (TDTS), Educational and School-Based Support (ESBS), and Social
Work, Counseling and Enrichment Support (SWCES).

Apart from its key business objectives, TEACH Me Services has expressed its
intention to become a research centre in the long run that specializes in major
areas of disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy and Autism. With that in mind, the
division has adopted an evidence-based practice (EBP) culture that will
encourages its employees (i.e. practitioners) to incorporate their respective
knowledge and/or expertise area with existing best (or effective) scientific
evidences (e.g. therapy and/or assessment methods) in order to resolve the
unique problem faced by each case. Such practices highlight the changing
role of AWWA in becoming an innovative voluntary welfare organization.

However, TEACH Me Services have long been facing with the following
challenges:
• Little / no formal organisational practices of capturing tacit knowledge,
• Lack of knowledge sharing among employees, and
• High employee turnover rate.

Hence, the team would like to propose in launching a small Community of
Practice (CoP) for the practitioners in the TDTS department in TEACH Me
Services. It is hope that the implementation of the Community of Practice
(CoP) will help TEACH Me Services to overcome the key challenges and
ultimately enhances its capability as a research centre in the future.

According to Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002), “Communities of
Practice (CoPs) are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems,
or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in
this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” The essence of communities of
practice (CoPs), as emphasized by Hubert et al. (2001), is all about groups of
people coming together – by a common interest and passion – to share
knowledge and learn from one another, be it face-to-face and/or virtually.

In a world where knowledge constitutes the most vital and scarce resource,
organisations are seeking ever more innovative and economically viable ways
to leverage their knowledge for competitive advantage. Similarly to the case of
TEACH Me Services, the implementation of the Community of Practice (CoP)
will highlight the changing role of AWWA in becoming an innovative voluntary
welfare organization.

The proposal will describe the Community of Practice (CoP) service and
outlines its benefits, key deliverables, strategic roadmaps, methodology,
policies, learning activities and health assessments.

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The implementation of the Community of Practice (CoP) consists of five
stages – inquiry, design, prototype, launch, and grow/sustain –, which will
involve strong collaboration and support from the employees and
management in TEACH Me Services and AWWA throughout the entire
journey.

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2. INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY
2.1. About Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA)

Founded in 1970, the Asian Women’s Welfare Association (AWWA) is a
Voluntary Welfare Organization (VWO) in Singapore that aims to empower
the disadvantaged, which includes the low-income families, the elderly and
the disabled (i.e. young individuals with special needs), in maximizing their
potential to “lead dignified and independent lives” (AWWA, 2010).

AWWA offers specialized services to assist its clients in achieving
independence, which includes:
• Resource Centre, which contains academic and/or educational materials
(e.g. journals, manuals, conference papers, teaching/learning tools) on
various disabilities and learning disorders;
• AWWA School, which provides specialized education for students (i.e.
age range between 6 and 18 years old) with physical disabilities (e.g.
cerebral palsy) and autism;
• Early Years Centre, which provides intervention for young children (i.e.
age range between 1 and 6 years old) with special needs; and
• Integration Services, which aims to integrate students (both children and
youths) into mainstream education, employment and society.

Among the four main services highlighted above, Integration Services is
known as a core business in driving AWWA to achieve its business strategy.
Due to the limitation of time, our research will be focusing on one of the main
sub-division of AWWA’s Integration Services – which is, TEACH Me Services.

2.2. TEACH Me Services

TEACH Me Services focuses directly on assisting children and youths who
are physically disabled but are currently enrolled in mainstream education
institutions (i.e. from primary school level to tertiary level). In order for its
clients to have a smooth integration into the society, series of interventions
are needed to create awareness among its indirect beneficiaries, such as the
parents, caregivers, teachers, classmates, and even members of the public.

According to AWWA (2010), TEACH Me Services has more than 290 clients
to date. Approximately 30 professional staffs, in which majority of them are
foreigners, are currently on board and are positioned across three
departments within TEACH Me Services:
• Trans-Disciplinary and Therapy Support (TDTS), which is responsible
for mobile therapy services (i.e. physiotherapy, occupational therapy and
speech-language therapy) to clients in either their homes or schools.
• Educational and School-Based Support (ESBS), which is responsible
for providing education and school-based support through interventions,
such as school visits, educational outings, competency-based programs.
• Social Work, Counseling and Enrichment Support (SWCES), which is
responsible for managing new and current cases, providing counseling

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and/or financial support to both clients and their families, as well as,
developing enrichment programs to encourage independent living for
clients.

Prospective clients are only able to enroll into TEACH Me Services through
hospitals’ recommendations. After undergoing a series of assessments and
interviews, successful clients will then be regarded as cases. Figure 1 below
illustrates the different taxonomies implemented by respective departments in
classifying and managing cases. TDTS would segregate the cases into four
regions or zones (i.e. North, South, East and West). In contrast, ESBS and
SWCES would categorize them based on the mainstream educational levels
(i.e. primary level, secondary level and tertiary level).
TDTS Classification System ESBS and SWCES
Classification System

Figure 1: Classification of cases based on geography and mainstream
education levels.

Cross-departmental collaboration is strongly encouraged, especially when
AWWA places high importance on the welfare and success rate of every
case. This allows employees with different specialization and expertise to
cooperate and devise a solution on how to further integrate the client into
society.

In addition, TEACH Me Services have recently adopted an evidence-based
practice (EBP) culture, which encourages its employees to incorporate their
respective knowledge and/or expertise area with existing best (or effective)
scientific evidences (e.g. therapy and/or assessment methods) in order to
resolve the unique problem faced by each case. Such practices highlight the
changing role of AWWA in becoming an innovative voluntary welfare
organization.

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Holding on closely to its aim in empowering and enriching clients’ lives,
TEACH Me Services strongly believes in collaborating with other voluntary
welfare organizations such as Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC).

3. COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE (COP) IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
3.1. Definition and Rationale of Communities of Practice (CoPs)

According to Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2004), “Communities of
Practice (CoPs) are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems,
or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in
this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” The essence of communities of
practice (CoPs), as emphasized by Hubert et al. (2001), is all about groups of
people coming together – by a common interest and passion – to share
knowledge and learn from one another, be it face-to-face and/or virtually.

In a world where knowledge constitutes the most vital and scarce resource,
organisations are seeking ever more innovative and economically viable ways
to leverage their knowledge for competitive advantage. Similarly to the case of
TEACH Me Services, the implementation of the Community of Practice (CoP)
will highlight the changing role of AWWA in becoming an innovative voluntary
welfare organization.

3.2. Five Phases in Building Communities of Practice (CoPs)

Unlike formal departments and task forces, communities of practice (CoPs)
are dynamic social structures that require “cultivation” so that they can
emerge and grow. Hence, it is important to bear in mind that the key factor of
defining and sustaining a community of practice (CoP) is the ongoing
participating of the community members themselves.

Figure 2 below illustrates the CoP Implementation Framework, which will be
used throughout the project. The framework consists of five phases – inquiry,
design, prototype, launch, and grow/sustain –, which will involve strong
collaboration and support from the employees and management in TEACH
Me Services and AWWA.

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Figure 2: Community of practice (CoP) implementation framework.

3.2.1. Phase 1: Inquiry

Phase 1 is a stage of exploration and inquiry, in which several important
elements – i.e. audience, purpose, strategic goals, and vision for the
community – will be identified. In this phase, a needs assessment will be
conducted first to gather inputs from other employees about its intention to
implement a community of practice (CoP), as well as other factors (e.g. CoP
benefits, organisational issues) in TEACH Me Services. The assessment may
be conducted through informal discussions, formal interviews, surveys, and/or
focus groups. The data collected will help to clearly define the benefits of the
community, major topic areas for community content, and vision, mission
statement and goals of community. An estimate of the costs for community
technology, special technical development, facilitation, and support will be
created as well. In addition, the recruitment of members into the core team will
commence to represent the community audience.

3.2.2. Phase 2: Design

Phase 2 is a design stage that involves defining the activities, technologies,
group processes, and roles that will support the community’s goals. In this
phase, the newly recruited core team members will brainstorm and design the
community by:
• Identifying the roles of community members, as well as, the tasks/activities
that they would to like to carry out in the community
• Laying out tentative schedule for community meetings (i.e. weekly,
monthly or annual basis)
• Creating timeline for the community’s development
• Identifying the any face-to-face meeting opportunities (i.e. guest speakers)

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• Exploring appropriate technologies that will help to facilitate community
meetings, manage documents/discussions and encourage ongoing
participation.

3.2.3. Phase 3: Prototype

Phase 3, the prototype stage, involves initiating a pilot community with a
select group of key stakeholders. In this phase, the team will be able to test
for assumptions and refine the strategy by:
• Selecting the most appropriate technology to support the goals of the pilot
community.
• Designing the community environment and have a group test the
functionality through case scenarios.
• Implementing the pilot community and giving access to the core team and
pilot audience.
• Seeding the community with content.
• Facilitating events and activities to exercise the prototype, focusing on
achieving short-term, value-added goals.
• Ensuring that roles are clear and that support structures are in place.
• Measuring success and reporting on the results of the prototype to
sponsors and stakeholders.

3.2.4. Phase 4: Launch

Phase 4 is the launch stage where the community is rolled out to a broader
audience over a period of time in ways that engage new members and deliver
immediate benefits. In other words, the community members are ready to
recruit new members to the community.

In this phase, the community members will use the experience and results
from the prototype phase to improve and promote the community environment
to wider audience. Community charter, which includes the mission, vision,
goals, and member norms and agreements, are clearly established and
articulated among the new recruits. Not to mention, an orientation will be
provided to briefly educate the new recruits about communities of practice
(CoP).

3.2.5. Phase 5: Grow and Sustain

The final phase focuses more on growing and sustaining the community. The
grow phase involves strategies in engaging members in collaborative learning
and knowledge sharing activities, group projects, and networking events that
meet individual, group, and organizational goals while creating an increasing
cycle of participation and contribution. On the other hand, the sustain phase
involves strategies in cultivating and assessing performance of the community
in order to plan new strategies, goals, activities, roles, technologies, and
business models for the future.

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4. COMMUNITY INQUIRY PHASE
4.1. Needs Assessment

A needs assessment was first conducted, in the form of a face-to-face and
email interviews, with the employees and management of TEACH Me
Services. The main objective of the needs assessment is to evaluate the
viability of implementing the community of practice within the division. To
achieve the objective, the following areas are explored:
• What are the issues or challenges that are currently facing in TEACH Me
Services?
• What does the employees think or feel about establishing a community of
practice?
• What do the employees wish to see in the community of practice?

The results have highlighted that TEACH Me Services manages a lot of tacit
knowledge. However, the division is currently facing with three major
challenges.

The first challenge is the lack in implementation of organisational practices of
capturing tacit knowledge. Despite the division managing tacit knowledge
through formal meetings and informal conversations, there are currently no
defined or standardized procedures/systems that allows valuable tacit
knowledge to be converted explicitly, captured and stored for future use.
Hence, it is difficult for practitioners to work effectively and efficiently as
knowledge needed tend to be lost within TEACH Me Services.

The second challenge is with regards to knowledge sharing among
employees. As mentioned earlier, TEACH Me Services has recently adopted
an evidence-based practice (EBP) culture, which promotes the value of
collaboration, continuous learning and knowledge sharing among its
employees – by encouraging practitioners to incorporate their respective
knowledge and/or expertise area with existing best (or effective) scientific
evidences (e.g. therapy and/or assessment methods) in order to resolve the
unique problem faced by each case. Despite the employees being receptive
of the idea, most find it very difficult to share knowledge as the division has
yet to implement an appropriate time and space for them to do so. Due to the
implementation of the mobile service, practitioners (especially the therapists
from TDTS department) are constantly visiting their clients in their schools or
homes for therapy or follow-up sessions. Hence, they are rarely seen in the
office and have little time to converse with other practitioners except for during
formal weekly and semi-annual departmental meetings.

The third challenge is the high employee turnover rate in TEACH Me
Services. High employee turnover is an organisational problem as it
associated with high organisational memory loss – i.e. when employees
leave, valuable knowledge will leave as well. However, this posed to be a very
serious issue for TEACH Me Services especially since the division does not
practice much in capturing tacit knowledge.

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Based on the results from the needs assessment, it is hoped that the
community of practice (CoP) will be able to benefit the members, as well as,
TEACH Me Services as a whole by:
• Having formal systems of capturing tacit knowledge,
• Creating the appropriate time and space for community members to share
knowledge, and
• Retaining current employees (in term of their knowledge), as well as,
motivating newcomers (in terms of coping with work performance).

In addition, the community identity is defined.

As this would be the first time TEACH Me Services is being introduced to the
CoP concept, the team would like to start the initiative by implementing the
community to practitioners in the TDTS department. Compared to the two
departments (i.e. ESBS, SWCES, the practitioners from TDTS department
seems to be experiencing these challenges the most.

4.2. Community Identity

The identity of the community of practice (CoP) consists of three key
elements: domain (i.e. what is the community about), community (i.e. who
should be involved in the community), and practice (i.e. what knowledge is to
be shared, developed and documented).

4.2.1. Domain

The community aims to build up the capabilities and establish a network
among the practitioners in TEACH Me Services, who are involved in dealing
with existing and new cases.

4.2.2. Community
The community primarily targeted at practitioners in the TDTS department (i.e.
psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech-language
therapists), who are involved in designing effective and appropriate solutions
for each case’s problem, which are seen through and evaluated through
several follow-ups.

4.2.3. Practice

The various case studies and issues that are currently facing or discussing at
local and international context, with a particular focus on enhancing welfare
and success of clients in TEACH Me Services.

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4.3. Organizational Strategy and Value

Apart from sharing knowledge and learning, the essence of communities of
practice (CoPs) is to build the strategic capabilities within the organisation. In
order to institutionalise the community’s existence and sustain its lifecycle, the
community must strategically be well positioned and integrated within TEACH
Me Services by ensuring that:
• The community of practice is aligned with knowledge management and/or
business strategies,
• The community of practice is linked to other key initiatives within TEACH
Me Services,
• The community of practice is used as a central feature of knowledge
management, and
• The community of practice is selected on the basis of business opportunity
and is constantly linked to TEACH Me Services strategies.

4.3.1. Vision and Expected Outcomes

In the short-run, the community aims to help helping with current challenges
faced and providing expertise to fellow practitioners in TEACH Me Services.
This can achieve by attempting to integrate the community into the division’s
key initiatives (e.g. major projects). As illustrated in Figure 3 below, the
community members can act as advisors and assist project teams in solving
various issues and challenges. At the end of the project, the project teams will
share their outcomes and learning points with the community. Knowledge
dynamics (i.e. sharing and exchanging knowledge) as very strong as there
are two-ways learning. Hence, community members will be able to enhance
the necessary skills, which will be beneficial at work.

Figure 3: Integration of community of practice (CoP) to business projects.

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Envisioning that the community members have strongly build up their
capabilities and expertise during the short-run, the community will then aim to
develop innovative solutions to address upcoming or new cases’ problems in
the mid-run.

Further ahead in the long term, the body of knowledge accumulated from the
mid-run can build TEACH Me Service’s capabilities to becoming a leading
research centre that specialises in major disabilities areas (e.g. Cerebral
Palsy, Autism). Such an established body of knowledge can also help to
create a better identity for the non-profit (NP) industry in Singapore.

4.3.2. Sponsorship and Organizational Issues
• Sponsorship

The Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will provide
sponsorship to support TEACH Me Services and the community. This
commitment to sponsorship is very strong, as MCYS is a constant grantor for
AWWA.

• Budget

The budget for the community will directly come from the management, which
is provided annually by MCYS.

• Support

Employees and management in TEACH Me Services will provide the
manpower support for running the community. Employees in TEACH Me
Services can support the community by either being community members,
guest speakers on transactional basis and/or project teams that requires
assistance or advices. The management, on the other hand, can provide both
financial (i.e. through budgeting) and non-financial (i.e. meeting logistics)
support to the community.

• Technology

Apart from its corporate website, TEACH Me Service has an Intranet, which
employees usually used in their day-to-day work routine. However, TEACH
Me Services does not employ sophisticated enterprise platforms and
technologies (i.e. synchronous and asynchronous) such as SharePoint or
online community. Thus, the community members need to conduct a review to
evaluate the current technological needs for both the community and TEACH
Me Services.

• Organisational Enabler or Barrier

In this case, the community itself is an enabler for community members to
handle cases effectively and efficiently. This, in turn, will boost the overall

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performance and strategic capabilities of TEACH Me Services and AWWA as
the whole.

There are currently no major barriers identified. With respect to technological
issues, the community needs to conduct a needs assessment to review its
current technologies.

4.3.3. Current Success Factors and Risks
• Current Success Factors

There is a common interest, passion and commitment among the practitioners
in TEACH Me Services in the welfare and success of each case. Hence, there
is a genuine need for an appropriate time and space for practitioners to
converse, share their problems, and find/accumulate resources to solve these
issues.

High level of collaboration among practitioners are also seen in weekly and
semi-annual departmental meetings, which are currently used as a common
ground and space to discuss about problems and exchange ideas and
possible solutions to address them.

In addition, the recent adoption of evidence-based practice (EBP) culture has
further encourages knowledge sharing and continuous learning among
practitioners.

• Risks/Failure Factors

Even though employees are open to the proposal, issues such as having
little/no formal practices in capturing tacit knowledge as well as the tight
schedules of practitioners may be challenging when starting a community.
Hence, community members must consider these challenges when designing,
launching and implementing learning activities and technologies within the
community.

Success will require a long-term commitment as well, which may be a
problem at the organizational level without the support from the management.
In addition, quick wins are not easy to find or demonstrate. However, if the
community is successfully designed to promote integration with key initiatives
(e.g. projects), this will provide community members an opportunity and drive
to collaborate and deal with real-time business challenges/issues. Not only
the skills of community members will be enhanced, the community itself will
ultimately evolved to become a knowledge hub. Such success stories can be
used to boost the community’s value, as well as, to institutionalise its
existence within TEACH Me Services.

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5. COMMUNITY DESIGN PHASE
5.1. Community Cultivation

There are several elements that community members need to consider in
order to cultivate a community of practice within an organisation: forms of
participation, orientation profile, learning activities, community roles, and
technology.

5.1.1. Forms of Participation

Figure 4: Forms of participation

• Core Group

The core group consists of a community leader, a technology steward, and
other core team members.

• Active Group
In the active group, there will be experts and active members. Experts are
usually experienced practitioners who have longed stay or work in TEACH Me
Services. Active members are members who actively participated in the
community activities and meetings. Apart from the active members, some
core members may drift to the active group.

• Occasional Group

The occasional group consists of newcomers, be it new or existing employee,
who have just joined the community.

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• Peripheral Group

Some of the newcomers may drop to the peripheral group if they find the
community not beneficial to them or doe not addressing the issues that
relevant to their work.

• Transactional Group

Non-TDTS employees and other voluntary welfare organisations (e.g. MINDS,
Autism Association) can be considered in the transactional groups – i.e. non-
community members who are invited to the community as guest speakers on
a transactional basis.

5.1.2. Orientation Profile
• Meetings

Community meetings will be held every second Saturdays of each month in
AWWA Headquarters (Singapore). These meetings will be conducted in a
form of face-to-face, which is an effective approach in learning and sharing
knowledge. In typical meetings, community members will share and discuss
current issues and case studies around a particular topic or theme. Meeting
minutes will be documented and published on the Intranet for online
asynchronous exchanges between community members.

• Projects

Community members feel the need to collaborate and “do” things together in
order to learn and benefit from the community. Hence, strong interest, passion
and commitment are needed to support these collaborative activities. Projects
undertaken during meetings are normally in the form of discussion of case
studies and issues faced at local and/or international contexts. At times, the
community members may also act as advisors and assist project teams in
case’s problems. As community members are becoming more
familiar/confident with their roles and capabilities, they will be motivated to
take undertake challenging projects such as creating outputs for members
and other employees in TEACH Me Services to help make better decisions
(e.g. newsletters, publications, etc.).

• Access to Expertise

As the employees in TEACH Me Services are constantly dealing with the
welfare of the clients (i.e. cases), the community members are in need to get
rapid access to information and advice. After several meetings, community
members will be able to identify and declare their expertise. In addition, the
community will sometimes invite outside experts, from non-TDTS departments
in TEACH Me Services and/or other voluntary welfare organisations (e.g.
MINDS, The Spastic Children's Association of Singapore, Autism Association,
etc.) on a transactional basis. These outside experts have existing and close

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networks with TEACH Me Services and thus, will be familiar with the
community.

• Relationships

The community members will be drawn to the community due to the
opportunities provided – i.e. the opportunity for members to learn from and
connect with other experienced practitioners. It also seems that the
practitioners in TEACH Me Services have a relatively close relationship
among each other due to the common interest, passion and commitment in
the welfare and success of the cases. Hence, these elements will positively
impact on the level of trust and collaboration in the community.

• Individual Participation

Since the idea of implementing the community is relatively new in TEACH Me
Services, the expectations in individual participation among community
members is low. For now, the community is created to be as open as possible
in order for community members to be familiar with how it is run. However, the
expectation of individual participation (i.e. participating in meetings and/or
online discussions) among community members will increase over time.

• Context

As mentioned earlier, the goal of the community is to build up the capabilities
and establish a network among the practitioners in TEACH Me Services in
order to solve each case’s problem successfully. With that in mind, the
community is created to facilitate openness in learning and sharing knowledge
among community members. Community activities will be designed to
integrate, as closely as possible, with practitioners’ work. In addition, the
activities and initiatives undertaken are considered to help promote the
community’s visibility within TEACH Me Services.

• Community Cultivation

There is an important need to constantly track the health of the community in
order to increase its cultivation and sustainability within TEACH Me Services.
Formal feedback systems and After-Action Reviews (AARs) are good
approaches implemented, at the end of the meeting sessions and/or
significant events, by the community to keep track of the community’s health
performance, as well as, the usefulness of content shared. Data gathered
from these approaches will be used in renewing the community’s activities,
technologies and strategies.

• Content Publishing

Content (e.g. documents, journals, case studies, etc.) shared and discussed
among the community members will be frequently published in the corporate
Intranet. This will allow the community members to constantly be kept
updated about the community at any time and space. Non-members will also

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be able to see the brief summaries of the meetings (along with the owners of
the documents), which will help to promote the community’s existence in
TEACH Me Services. However, there may be a need to apply levels of access
control between the core team, community members and non-members.

• Open-Ended Conversation

The themes are designed/selected to be very broad in order to encourage
ongoing open-ended conversations among community members. Interesting
learning points or quotes from these conversations will be captured in a
summarized format and shared via the Intranet. However, a formal repository
is needed to archive these conversations to ensure that community members
will be able to access it at any time and place.

5.1.3. Learning Activities

There are many learning activities that the community can choose to
implement during meetings and carries different purposes: exchanges,
productive inquiries, building shared understanding, producing assets,
creating standards, formal access to knowledge and visits.

The community can first start implementing informal learning activities to
create a sense of openness and familiarity among the community members.
Firstly, community members can build a shared understanding by
implementing hot topics discussions. Every meeting, community members will
contribute topics they think would be interesting or important to discuss in the
community and write them in post-it. At the end of the session, the community
members will share and vote for the hot topics to discuss. Community
members can also share case studies, news and personal stories to facilitate
ongoing exchanges of knowledge within the community. In addition,
community members can apply After-Action Reviews (AARs) at the end of the
meeting sessions and/or significant events to keep track of the community’s
health performance.

The community can also implement formal learning activities to recognize the
members’ contribution, and ultimately increase the community’s existence in
TEACH Me Services. Community members can act as advisor and undertake
learning projects by working together with projects teams in solving real-time
issues. This will further enhanced the members’ capabilities, which will
positively impacted their work performances.

As the community members becomes familiar and comfortable in the
community, they will be able to organise trainings and workshops, invite guest
speakers and other initiatives that enables formal access to knowledge within
TEACH Me Services. In addition, they will undertake projects – i.e. producing
outputs (e.g. newsletters, publications, etc.) – for members and other
employees in TEACH Me Services to help make better decisions.

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5.1.4. Community Roles
• Community Leader

The community leader is a person who intentionally leads in the cultivation
and sustainability of the community. Apart from having great passion, the
community leader should be a practitioner with a very good reputation in the
community and has great interpersonal skills. The roles of the community
leader involve organizing and structuring community learning activities,
energising participation among members, maintaining the rhythm of
community, as well as, bridging connections with the sponsors, management
and the community.

• Technology Steward

The technology steward is a person who bridges the technical aspects of
online platforms and the needs of the community. Apart from having adequate
experience in the workings of the community, the technology steward should
has a good understanding and interest of technologies. He also need to work
need to work alongside with the IT experts to implement appropriate
technologies/platforms according to the needs of the community.

• Core Group Members

The core group members are the ones who care about the community and
are willing to help the community leader in cultivating the community. They
help to sustain the community by actively organizing and/or participating in the
community activities, and contributing to build the knowledge base by
providing subject matter expertise. Core group members are also considered
to be the community’s champions as they help newcomers in familiarising with
the workings of the community, as well as, promote the community to the non-
members in TEACH Me Services. Hence, they are the best people to create
stronger sense of personal ownership and belongingness among the
community members.

• Subject Matter Experts

Subject matter experts are experienced practitioners who are very
knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. Apart from being domain experts,
they should be highly respected among peers in TEACH Me Services and are
prepared to invest more time and efforts in the community. Their primary role
would be to act as advisers to the community members.

• Facilitator

The facilitator should possess excellent facilitating skills and has a natural
ability to facilitate dynamic dialogues and interactions face-to-face and/or
virtually. Apart from having good interpersonal skills, he or she must be
enthusiastic, as well as have a positive sense of humor and a “can do”
attitude. The facilitator must also have an ability to manage group conflicts.

! 18

• Broker

The broker, who has memberships from multiple communities, helps to bridge
knowledge from other communities to the community in TEACH Me Services.
Apart from being the community’s representative, the broker should have an
open and sociable personality and is keen to meet/network with members
from multiple communities. In addition, he or she should be comfortable
sharing his perspectives learned from other communities.

5.1.5. Technology

Emails and phones are commonly used as individual tools and group tools for
collaboration and communication purposes. The corporate Intranet is used to
asynchronously update both members and non-members about the
community. However, there are currently no tools for reification and
synchronous purposes.

6. COMMUNITY PROTOTYPE PHASE
6.1. Discovery and Preparation
6.1.1. Setting Pre-launch Committee

The core team aims to initiate the pilot community to the practitioners from the
TDTS department in TEACH Me Services (i.e. the same group of people that
the actual community wishes to build around, as mentioned in the community
identity). In this case, the community members are considered as central to
the pilot community while the employees and experienced therapists are
considered as supporting members.

The network will gradually expand to the rest of departments in TEACH Me
Services as the community grows over time. Practitioners from various fields
within the TDTS department – i.e. physiotherapy, occupational therapy and
speech-language therapy and psychology – are encouraged to be involved.
Considering the mobile nature of the practitioners, it would be convenient to
conduct the community meetings and launch events in the AWWA
Headquarters. Ideally, at least two or three representatives from each field in
the TDTS department should be present.

Senior doctors and other employees in TEACH Me Services are invited for the
pre-launch meeting. Members from the Ministry of Community, Youth and
Sports (MCYS) will also be invited for the launch, as it has been a major
support for both AWWA and the community.

6.1.2. Overall Approach to the Launch Event

The core team will opt for a whole community launch based on two reasons:

! 19

• There is a strong identity associated with the community domain, and
• The community membership is clearly defined – i.e. practitioners from the
TDTS department are eligible to join.

The only obstacle is trying to reach out to connect as many targeted
practitioners as possible for the launch. The community is projected to cover
the entire organisation as time progresses. To begin, the community will
conduct regular meetings on the second Saturday in each month. During
meetings, all community members should get equal opportunities to freely
discuss and solve problems among one another, as well as, learning from
each other. In addition, the community is intended to enhance members’
networks by connecting with other experienced practitioners within TEACH
Me Services and/or the non-profit industry.

6.1.3. Preliminary Assessment of Participants

Having a clear understanding on the profile of the prospective community
members is needed beforehand in order to reach out to them more effectively,
and ultimately helps in acknowledging the potential of the collaboration and
community.

Some education is necessary as the prospective community members are
very unfamiliar with in the concept of communities of practice (CoPs). So, the
opening speech should address the importance of community and their
burning issues at hand, preferably by the core team leader.

The problems and issues that the sectors point out are as follows:
• Lack of collaboration
• No proper document maintained
In addition, the community leader will have to be identified. The Ministry of
Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will also be taking on the role of
sponsor with the higher management from TEACH Me Services and AWWA
as the advisory board.

7. COMMUNITY LAUNCH PHASE
7.1. Invitation to the Launch

Apart from members in the pre-launch committee and core team, the entire
TDTS department will receive an invitation for the community launch.
Invitation will be mailed to the sponsor (i.e. MCYS) and the advisory board
members (i.e. higher management from TEACH Me Services and AWWA).
The invitation will be also be pasted onto notice boards for non-members in
TEACH Me Services are welcome to come and participate in the launch
event.

! 20

7.2. Meeting Logistics

The core team will prepare the agenda of the launch event. There will also be
a facilitator and emcee of the event, as well. High management from TEACH
Me Services/AWWA and the Sponsor will be the honoured guest speakers for
the event. Core team leader will open the event with a brief general
introduction on the community. Facilitator will then share the idea of the
community and explain the plan to the team members. Time will be allocated
to the opening speaker and the guest speaker for their respective speeches.

The conference room in TEACH ME Services has been fixed as the official
venue for the event. The core team will arrange the refreshments.

7.3 Launch Workshop Design
7.3.1. Education and Context Setting

The education and context setting is devised to ensure that the community is
steered towards a focused purpose and ensuring that the members are
properly introduced.

In this case, the core team leader will provide a brief introduction on
communities of practice (CoPs) for the benefit of new members who may not
have the prior knowledge on the concept. Not only it creates a platform for
exchanging ideas, but it is also a platform for acquiring new knowledge.

• The Opening

Based on the launch workshop design stated earlier, one of the core
members will deliver a brief introduction to notable members and guests as a
precursor in setting to the tone of the meeting.

This will be follow by the core team leader, who will give a speech on how the
community will benefit the members and the reasons on the importance of
members’ participation. The history behind the formation of the community
and the main players of the core group will also be shared.

• Sharing on Communities of Practice (CoPs)

In terms of providing a common understanding on the community, the new
members and guests will be given a basic presentation on how the community
operates and the types of group rules that they need to adhere to. Information
shared would be brief; the sole purpose is to provide them a basic
understanding on community of practice (CoPs) without confusing them
further with complicated concepts.

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• Getting to Know Each Other

Once the introduction process is completed, members are given ample time to
get to know other members through the “Getting-To-Know-You” refreshment
session. A quick introduction of individuals will be given, with opportunities of
sharing each individual's personal projects and expertise.

7.3.2. Community Design and Organizational Context Sharing

A suggestion form will be collected at the end of the event in order to
understand the needs of the members and how the community can be further
improved. Questions, such as frequency of meetings and preferred
community activities, will be asked in the suggestion form. Members can also
provide valuable suggestions on how the community can be further improved.
Actions will be taken and follow in the subsequent meetings.

The practitioners from the TDTS department will form the core member group.
Experts (e.g. chief doctors) from the TDTS department, which may or may not
be a community member, will open each regular meeting with an inspiring
speech. The core group would enable a multi-faceted approach covering
areas from case studies to academic studies. The Ministry of Community,
Youth and Sports (MCYS) will provide sponsorship for the community.

• Overall Flow of the Community

The launch event will be conduct as a full day event. The session will begin
with a brief introduction of the community and refreshment session, followed
by talks from senior practitioners from the TDTS department who would
welcome and share with fellow members on the best practices.

There will be a “Getting-To-Know-You” refreshment session at the beginning,
as well as, dinner at the end. This social activity would allow fellow community
members, practitioners and experts to interact and network within the
community. The session will end by getting initial feedback form from all the
members of the day.

• Post Launch Follow-Up

Category Comments
Possible The meeting is will conduct on second Saturday of every month. As
activities space build up, the community can split into sub-groups within the
TDTS department.
Sponsorship The Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports (MCYS) will provide
sponsorship for the community.
Resources Core team will take care of refreshment during launch day.
However, sponsorship is needed for refreshment during community
meetings.

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Assessment Meeting minutes will be taken and follow-up actions to problems
faced would be noted.
Support Members’ participation, collaboration and commitment are need to
support the community growth.
Technology Technology steward will upload the summary of the event in
corporate Intranet website, for now. However, as the community
grows over time, As a separate website for the community will be
developed.

8. COMMUNITY GROW AND SUSTAIN PHASE
8.1. Types of Activities
• Open Conversations

The themes are selected to be very broad in order to encourage ongoing
open-ended conversations among community members. Interesting learning
points or quotes from these conversations will be capture in a summarized
format. However, all members who attended the community are free to voice
out their opinions and views on the matters being discussed with no
restrictions. In addition, a formal repository is need to archive these
conversations to ensure that community members will be able to access it at
any time and place.

• Motivation Speeches

In the launch event, the core team leader will give an inspiration speech about
the community. This will then be followed up in the regular community
meetings by inviting a guest speaker to come and encourage the prospective
members to participate and involve more in community. As TEACH Me
Services is part of a non-profit organisation, low employee turnover is
envisioned. To further reduce the division’s turnover, the community must
ensure that the wellness/needs of the prospective members are fulfilled. Not
to mention, continuous encouragement is needed.

• World Café

World Café is a good approach for producing multiple perspectives on a topic,
to support brainstorming and problem solving among the members. This
approach is very useful in finding the common ground or mediating
differences among the members, as well as, creating a common vision. It is
very ideal for idea generation and issue exploration, especially when the
community is actively helping the project teams in project-related issues. By
involving in the World Café, sense of collaboration among community
members (and project teams) will increase.

! 23

• Case Studies

The community can encourage knowledge sharing and learning by providing
an appropriate space for the members to share their case studies. Community
members can share both cases that are current and/or have been solved. Any
issues and suggestion in solving the following cases can be share during the
event. All members are expected to contribute by providing valuable ideas,
insights and suggestions during the community meetings.

• Fish Bowl Technique

The Fish Bowl technique is an excellent approach that facilitate knowledge
exchange among expert and novice practitioners in a form of dialogue. Each
group has an opportunity to discuss the issue while the other group observes,
much like looking at the fish in a fish bowl. The facilitator is responsible for
encouraging discussion during the small group discussion, keeping the
discussion only among the inner circle, and then drawing out individual and
group reactions during the combined discussion later.

The structure of the Fish Bowl technique helps to avoid tensions and conflicts
from constant direct confrontations between the experts and novices, which
can be very unhealthy for the community. If facilitated properly, the technique
will encourage ongoing participation, as well as, allow both groups (especially
the novice practitioners) to gather valuable insights and boost their problem-
solving capabilities.

8.2. Community Health Assessment:

In order to track the health of the community, the following events will take
place:
• Regular updates about meeting, workshops, events and addition of new
members will be mail and present to the community members as well as
the sponsors/high management.
• Opinions from the members will be collected at the end of every meetings,
to ensure community’s renewal (i.e. in this case, any improvements and
requests will be followed up in the next meeting).
• Conducting feedback session, in the form of surveys, will be helpful to
understand the member’s needs and work performance (i.e. how far has
these community meetings helped in their regular work).
• Shared contents, including the brief summaries of meetings, will be
recorded and documented properly for future use.

9. CONCLUSION

Knowledge only has true value when it is shared. A community of practice
(CoP) is the place where knowledge come as a bud to the needed person and

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gets blossom in right hand and gives fruitful result at right time. Organisations
are a good learning field for several reasons:
• They have motivation and resource to move up the learning curve quickly
• The experience of work-related communities of pratice will help the
members to take leadership in creating similar structures in others part of
their lives at work.

“Firms that understand how to translate the power of communities into
successful knowledge organisation will be the architects of tomorrow – not
only because they will be more successful in the market-place, but also
because they will serve as a learning laboratory for exploring how to design
the world as learning system” (Wenger et.al., 2002). In other words, the
authors addressed that communities of practice (CoPs) will help the
organisation adapt to emerging threats and opportunities of new economy in
several ways. The value of communities is not only to manage the knowledge
resource, but also to help organisation succeed in a highly competitive
economy.

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10. REFERENCES

AWWA. (2010). Asian Women’s Welfare Association: annual report 2010 –
2011. Singapore: AWWA.

Hubert et. al. (2001). Building effective communities. Henley Knowledge
Management Forum.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., and Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating
communities of practice, a guide to managing knowledge. Massachusetts:
Harvard Business Press.

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