Discovering The Value Of Social Networks and Communities of Practice

Editor's Notes

• #2: Social networks and communities of practice are becoming ubiquitous in our increasingly connected world, and many people are generally involved in a number of them - whether that is at work, school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests. Many managers and organisations remain sceptical about the value that is being created by such networks and communities. How do we value shared knowledge? What is the ROI for a collaborative network? This presentation draws on the practical experience of communities of practice working in UK local government and will aim to answer the elusive ‘value’ question.
• #4: This presentation draws on the practical experience of communities of practice working in UK local government and will aim to answer the elusive ‘value’ question.
• #5: What do we mean by the ‘value’ of something? Nutmeg. Weight for weight more valuable than gold in 17 th century Europe. A spice held to have powerful medicinal properties. It rocketed in price when physicians in Elizabethan London claimed that their nutmeg pomanders were the only certain cure for the plague. Do you think it was successful in curing the plague? Quote: I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things. Benjamin F ranklin 1706-1790 It does not necessarily follow that something with a high cost (expensive) has a high value, and conversely, something which may have a low cost (i.e. cheap) could have a high value. So we need to treat ‘cost’ and ‘value’ as two entirely different things.
• #6: And the need for CoPs that join up LA's
• #7: IDeA Services Local partnerships leading communities Children’s adult social care and public health Efficiency and vfm Workforce development Equalities and cohesion Direct support to councils Peer working Online support Leadership programmes Beacons and innovation
• #9: There is a growing recognition but not yet a consensus about integrating Community of Practice (CoP)-style working in the everyday practice of public sector programmes and services. The IDeA CoP platform has gone some way to legitimising this new way of working, with over 35,000 registered users collaborating and sharing knowledge in more than 820 CoPs. This remains unchartered territory for the majority of staff working in central and local government, and much work remains to be done in addressing the cultural and behavioural barriers that prevent more effective knowledge sharing and practice development
• #10: The Community Hub page – aggregation of content from the other 900+ communities
• #11: The major part of this presentation is focused on Communities of Practice (CoPs) – but what are the distinguishing characteristics of a CoP? Arguably the most important characteristic is that members are self-selected, i.e. they are there because they perceive there is some value in being a member of the CoP. They are there because they WANT to be there.
• #13: Professional networks (Communities of Practice) have been around for hundreds of years. It’s only recently that we have rediscovered how they can support knowledge sharing in virtual environments.
• #14: Over 800 Worshipful Companies (networks of professional artisans) - currently active in London.
• #21: Creativity and original thinking will drive change. But remember, not all change is good!
• #23: And there are now more opportunities to have conversations than ever before!
• #28: Value to the organisation will probably be different to value to the individual (the latter is far harder to measure).
• #29: So, if one wants to think of ‘value’ solely in terms of hard cash savings – then online conferences have saved IDeA over £80,000 in 2009 (10 conferences x £8000). But, as mentioned previously, it is wrong to confuse ‘costs’ with ‘value’. The real value comes from the learning and sharing opportunities provided by the on-line conference. There are also far more effective networking opportunities provided in a virtual (on-line) environment, where posted comments (in forums, blogs etc.) can reach a far wider audience.
• #35: How much simpler and efficient is it to have one copy of a document that everyone can view and edit than having multiple copies of a document which someone must then manually reconcile into one master version? Wikis were designed with collaboration in mind.
• #38: YouTube 0.07% of the membership contribute Wikipedia 0.8% of the membership contribute Yahoo groups 1% of the membership contribute
• #40: Know who your contributors are – and look after them! Observers (some call them ‘lurkers’) are still valuable members of the community. The fact that they accessing and reading content contributes to the overall dynamics of the community. Inactive users (those who have registered but have not contributed or accessed any content) should be removed. It is necessary to ‘feed’ and weed’ a community in order for it to flourish and grow.
• #41: Knowledge flows along existing pathways in organizations. To understand the knowledge flow, find out what the patterns are. Create interventions to create, reinforce, or change the patterns to improve the knowledge flow.
• #42: It is also noted that aggregating quantitative metrics does not provide evidence of either success or failure of a CoP. For example, we need to understand: The original purpose and intended outcomes of the community . Some will be light on discussion and strong on shared document building and vice versa. Others will be ‘one-shot’ supporting a single challenge. 2. The rhythm or cycle of the community . Not all communities will be a hive of activity, some will support its participants at a low level of interaction over a long period, others for short bursts around face-to-face-meetings or events. 3. The quality of the interactions and/or the viewings it attracts. An online community may be composed of lengthy, high quality, position statements or case-studies with relatively little discussion. Others, equally valid, may be filled with chit-chat and gossip, sharing experience in a way that provides moral support for isolated individuals. So any measure of success is likely to be a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. But managers want to know if these communities are successful, or are they just an excuse to waste time chatting (and this is where bad press on social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo or Facebook doesn’t help). We have tried to avoid interfering with the way that the CoPs are being run, particularly in the sense of setting targets and timescales. The more informed managers are aware that traditional command and control processes do not work for CoPs, and that instilling corporate processes on largely free-wheeling communities is likely to stifle and inhibit innovation and learning. However, there is a cost in keeping this technology and support infrastructure going, and it is reasonable to expect questions from senior managers on what the benefits are and what the ROI is. It remains something of a conundrum on how best to respond to these questions in a way that will give senior managers the confidence to maintain investment.
• #45: Member agreement on knowledge needs is key to stimulating participation. The community must have a shared understanding about what knowledge it needs in the community of practice. Although the proceeding analyses identified needed knowledge, skills, and information , it is wise to build consensus around which KSIs are most critical to community members. The community should prioritise its knowledge needs.
• #46: Being a member of a community doesn’t have to take up lots of time. Facilitating/moderating a community does require some dedicated effort – half a day per week or more, depending on the size and type of community.
• #48: Targets such as a 40% contribution rate
• #49: Know when to relinquish control – let the community find its own direction and set it’s own objectives.
• #51: Mention handouts (IDeA cards).