Transforming organisations through agile methods: a community of practice makes the difference

At Materna, regular forums and formats for exchange have long been in place to present and discuss expert knowledge, including the ‘Community of Practice’ (CoP) concept. This collaborative concept was first coined back in 1991 by Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger. Today, as agility becomes more firmly embedded within organisations, it is becoming increasingly important for utilising expert knowledge (‘who does what and how’) more effectively and for fostering a more open culture of exchange (‘learning from one another’). Communities have now established themselves as a means of driving the agile transformation of organisations, for example through the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

To achieve the necessary breadth and depth in exchanges amongst members, it is important to identify a clearly defined area of expertise. In the next step, a community of practice sets out a clear objective and specific outcomes, ensuring that the benefits remain ‘valuable’ not only for the experts but also for their company. To ensure the bar is not set too high, any participant can independently launch a discussion group on a specific topic (‘informal community’). Particularly at the outset, it is helpful to do a little internal promotion and actively reach out to recognised experts and their contacts.

As the topic of the informal community develops, it can take the next step towards becoming an ‘organised community’ or bring together similar informal communities under one umbrella. An organised community has clear objectives and guidelines for effective collaboration. In addition to a lead and their deputy acting as points of contact, the permanent members, the community’s objective and the nature and frequency of meetings are jointly set out in a charter. To remain effective, it is important that members participate regularly and that the group size remains manageable. As the topic and the group grow, they should be reorganised into specific sub-communities.

To ensure that an organised community remains vibrant in the long term, its ‘health’ is reviewed annually. It may therefore be important to change the point of contact regularly in order to provide fresh and varied impetus. It may also be sensible to revert an organised community to an informal group if its specific topics have been sufficiently covered or if the number of members and their level of participation has declined. A central point of contact for all communities can support this transformation process as an external coach and facilitator in both directions (back and forth). In addition to various retrospective approaches, the LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP for short) method has proven effective in supporting this process.

A suitable platform for exchange facilitates networking and makes it easier to find experts, whilst enabling remote, asynchronous collaboration between face-to-face meetings. As well as the enormous growth in practice-oriented solutions, ideas and offerings for the organisation, communities are equally attractive to the experts involved, enabling them to exchange ideas easily beyond hierarchical structures, learn from one another and improve together.

Unlike purely discussion-based groups, a Community of Practice focuses on the targeted sharing of knowledge and experience. It is therefore a key building block in the organisation’s agile transformation towards greater participation and interaction on an equal footing.