Cultivating Communities of Practice (Wenger, McDermott, Snyder)

Chapter 8: Measuring and Managing Value Creation

May 2, 2020

• Begins with case study of CoPs at McKinsey and Company
• (161) Definition of CoP: “Practices are self-governing groups of practitioners who dedicate part of their discretionary time to contribute to the stewardship of their shared area of expertise”
• CoPs for UX designers will be voluntary; outside of their job descriptions
• McKinsey and Co. is an example of an organization that’s aware of the value of CoPs, and therefore invests in the development of CoPs
• Their community members are incentivized with bonuses for contributing to their communities
• CoPs in larger organizations are regulated
• Effective CoPs should not be hard to regulate:
  • Less effective practices follow a vicious cycle
  • Effective practices follow a virtuous cycle

The Knowledge System

• You can’t measure knowledge resources because they’re tacit and subjective—you can measure “knowledge systems through which it flows and creates value”
• So, can the UX’s knowledge system be measured? Am I trying to measure it through my research?
• Definition of knowledge system: “inchoate knowledge assets (undeveloped ideas, latent skills, isolated techniques) are made into accessible knowledge resources”
• Managing knowledge = managing the knowledge production and application processes

Measuring Value Creation

• Systematic anecdotal evidence
  • Stories/narratives help describe / understand the causality between knowledge producing activities and applications that create value
  • “only practitioners can tell how the knowledge was put into action” (168)
  • “The best way to assess the value of community of practices, therefore, is by collecting stories”
  • Documenting the narratives makes the knowledge system measurable; you can identify the input and output
  • This is what I need to extract from my interviews
• Elements of the knowledge story:
  1. Initial knowledge development activity to innovate, learn a skill, or solve a problem
  2. The knowledge resource generated by this activity (ex. new insights, methods, relationships)
  3. How this resource was applied to create value
  4. What would’ve happened without the community?
• What kind of issues / challenges do you think the organization / UX design team would face without you? What kind of skill gap do you fill? What kind of challenges have you solved in the way your UX team operates?
• Narratives should be collected systematically:
  • Top-down: identify communities that meet business strategy objectives
  • Bottom-up: follow the communities and all of their activities
  • This can be a method of data collection in GTM
  • It will be interesting to apply this approach to collect narratives on KM of UX designers
  • TD: What kind of UX knowledge do leaders in the organization value? What are their ideas on how UX information should be shared in the organization?
  • BU: What aspects of UX information do the designers value? What are their ideals on how it should be shared?
• Can NARRATIVES become the outcome of my GT? (Instead of a conceptual model?)
• “stories must be collected systematically because one story may not be representative of all activities or all possible outcomes” (171) — this is relevant for GTM research
• Interview techniques for collecting stories
  • Community members will at first find it difficult to identify value created from their community
  • Ask them to describe how they solved an internal problem / client project with others
  • Ask them to talk about a time when they shared an idea or taught how to use a tool, and how the person accomplished something with that new idea / skill
  • What would the team do if you never provided them with an idea / information?
  • Before asking any questions, establish a good background understanding of how the community, organization, and team operates (ex. history, conflicts, goals, etc.)
  • These can all be overarching categories of other questions

Managing the Knowledge System

• How do your information sharing practices align to the business strategy / mission / goals? (This may be something to ask to one with leadership)
• Ways organizations support their knowledge system management:
  1. Community (host activities, provide space)
  2. Knowledge resources (develop knowledge database, provide tools)
  3. Business value (establish value creation goals)
• How does your organization support your “knowledge system management” (will have to reword) (ex. hosting lunch ‘n learn, database, blogs, mentorship programs, etc.)
• How does your organization recognize (UX) your achievements and contributions? — this signals what the organization values
• Recognition is not necessarily monetary. It can impact your reputation, visibility to seniors, greater publicity, etc.
• What motivates UX designers to share knowledge? Is it for personal reputation, is it to support their team members (altruism)?

Chapter 8 Notes