From: General practice training and virtual communities of practice - a review of the literature
Probst’s business CoP framework | Proposed health VCoP framework |
---|---|
Leadership | Facilitation |
The organisation can designate leadership roles to motivate community members to collaborate | Facilitators promote engagement and maintain community standards |
Sponsorship | Champion and Support |
Senior executives need to provide sponsorship to help communities reach their full potential | The network needs to have an initial stakeholder champion, with stakeholder support |
Objectives and Goals | Objectives and Goals |
Clear objectives provide members with responsibilities and motivates them to contribute more actively | Clear objectives provide members with responsibilities and motivates them to contribute more actively |
Boundary Spanning | A Broad Church |
Boundary spanning enables members to engage in internal and external benchmarking practices | Consider involving different, overlapping but not competing, professional groups, different organisations and external experts. However make sure the church is not too broad.... |
Risk-free environment | Supportive environment |
COPs should be used as an especially valuable opportunity to express and test ideas in an informal and risk-free environment, thus requiring a strong degree of safety and ntimacy between members | Health VCOPs should promote a supportive and positive culture that is both safe for members, and encouraging of participation |
Measurements | Measurement, Benchmarking and Feedback |
Empirical evidence suggests the use of measurements to assess the value of communities of practice | Health VCoPs should consider measurement as a factor in their design, including benchmarking and feedback |
Technology and Community | |
Online CoPs should ensure ease of use and access, along with asynchronous communication. Other options including chat and meetings can also be considered, along with the need for training. | |
Communities are more likely to share knowledge when there is a mixture of online and face-to-face meetings, members self select, and both passive and active users are encouraged. |