How do I start a CoP- My experiment in HP

This is in response to the comments I received for my previous blog...I must tell you both that I am flattered and humbled that you chose to read and share your views inspite of challenges thrown at us by vagaries of life. I stand in debt. This blog is about what I think the role of the “gut “ is.

My career: A career spanning 13 years covering areas like IE, marketing, business development, quality, operations and training. In all these years the wisest thing I did was to choose to make a career in the field of people development. The last 6 years have been the best years of my professional life. The decision to take this plunge was a gut feeling…It just felt right. I must admit, I sincerely regret not doing things that I felt right in my life. So when I joined HP, I decided to do exactly what I thought was good / correct. My life taught me that its not going to be easy to convince people about my ideas especially when training is not considered as a cash register.

So I had to create a group of people who need to become ambassadors or evangelists of training. I had to create a powerful community that would swear by a team. Was fully aware that all the people would have different and divergent ideas and opinions.. different capabilities…different sensibilities..different ambitions. So I decided to create a core team ( about 5-6 people who have all become dear friends ) that I promised to work with to make them successful. And once they were successful they would get more people on to the community. People from my team therefore have left the shores of this country to the US, to Canada, Europe and Singapore… Moved to large multinationals like GE, IBM, Reuters & EMC…Moved to roles in operations, transitions , Analytics and Staffing to name a few. These people are the ambassadors of my community. Their success drives today’s team. Todays community is because of yesterdays community!
So this is what I did to build a flourishing community of Process training leads. You might want to look at it when you think of creating a CoP of your own

1. Build a shared vision…In this case, people wanted to feel important, recognized and rewarded. And I wanted to make the worlds best training team. The people in my community did not share my vision . So I decided to make them successful inch by inch and slowly inch towards my goal too. Many agonizing months and tough conversations later I had a community that’s flourishing and its on auto pilot. It needs no facilitator .

2. Identify your core team… They need to carry the message. They need to belive in you and they need to do what you want them to do. Each has his strengths but they will give their everything when they belive in you. Once you have this core group the rest of them fall in line. Get your core team to swear by you. At the same time don’t hesitate in removing your rotten apples. They can destroy your community faster than you can imagine!

3. You are not different from the community. You have to be a part of it. For example… If I wanted to build a community of people who cared for the Antarctic..It would be next to impossible…even if the idea is fabulous. Because I know a jack shit about Antartica. Two ways to go about it…1) Become an expert. That would take me a life time & 2) Influence an expert with significant influence in the organization to belive in your concept. He will do your job. You just need to provide the direction , the energy and the rewards

IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THE TOPIC IS … IT JUST MATTERS WHO IS LEADING THIS

4. Tangible benefits. There are no free lunches. So no one is going to share anything unless theres a return on investment. So I would recommend two kinds of people for your community
a. People who want to learn and will do anything to gain more knowledge, recognition etc
b. People who have ideas and knowledge but donot know or do not have the resourses or the capability to implement them

5. As a leader of the CoP learn from your people. I made it a point to learn from people. Would like to acknowledge that most of the ideas that I had especially in 2007-09 was run past a very bright ,intelligent and passionate friend who helped me not only in building this team but also shaped my life. Find a passionate friend to bounce your ideas off!!! I was lucky!

These are the things I would suggest to start a CoP in any field
Pl share your comments. In my next blog, I intent to share the Six Sigma community in GE

Creating a Community Of Practice: Easier Said than Done

Over the last few weeks, I have been reading a lot, discussing the subject and watching practitioners of Communities of practice. But what was interesting was a series of discussions that I had with a colleague of mine. While we debated ( she wouldn’t necessarily agree that it was a debate…it was a one way down load), we realized that creating a CoP is going to be really tough.
So as the conversation grew, we realized that inorder to make a successful CoP it needs to mirror existing communities. Here are a few ideas that came out
1. A singular purpose need to be established
2. Clear Roles and Responsibilities’ need to be defined
3. A sense of belonging needs to be created
4. Each role may have conflicting ways of doing things but the goal should remain the same
5. The community must have a strong leaders
6. The “WIIFM” needs to defined
7. Demonstrate use of knowledge and its benefits

What she has effectively done is try and copy existing community practices into one that can be replicated in a corporate environment. That’s not going to be easy. Some of the key questions therefore for my colleague will be
1. How do I get people for all of these roles?
2. How are we going to create roles and get people to agree?
3. How do we get people to talk?
4. How do document the knowledge?
5. Can we have a formal engagement model?
6. How can we make sure that there are clashes of interest?
7. How can we get technology to help?
8. Whats the role that my colleague as the facilitator needs to play?
As we get our grey cells to work over time, I realize, that the biggest issue here is to get people to believe in the power of collective wisdom. Will keep you all posted. Pl do help me create a CoP