#Successful Corporate Learning tweet Book07: Everything You Need to Know about Communities of Practice

The phrase communities of practice is relatively new; the concept and its utility is not. Simply put, a community of practice is a learning community. When people realize that they can benefit from sharing their knowledge, experience and insights with like-minded and similarly-motivated people, the seed for a community of practice gets planted. E-learning communities, continuing education groups, cooperative education groups and apprenticeship programs are all, in some form or fashion, communities of practice.

In a few rare instances, a community of practice will build and nurture itself, with little apparent or active management. Much more common is the case whereby a community of practice needs conscious and thoughtful input to be conceived, nurtured and brought to flourish. When a community of practice is implemented correctly, it becomes a powerful and enabling tool for improving productivity, encouraging professional development and creating a culture of continuous learning in an organization.

Expert knowledge disseminators and learning facilitators, two communities experts--Mike Hower and Michael Prevou--work with corporate learning expert Mitchell Levy to show you, in their very actionable new book, how to get a community of practice initiative off the ground and drive adoption in your organization. In their last several years of work in this pathbreaking area, both authors have repeatedly been asked how to get a community defined, how to measure its value and how to keep a valuable community successful. Their book is a direct result of such questioning; indeed the authors demonstrate how communities of practice are the killer app of knowledge management. This is a practical and implementable volume that provides vital tips for knowledge leaders, managers and facilitators who support these communities in such a way that they make a positive contribution to creating and sharing organizational knowledge--a contribution that engages people and leads to a competitive advantage in today's business environment.

#SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book07 is part of the THiNKaha series whose slim and handy books contain 140 well-thought-out quotes (tweets/ahas).

About the Authors

Mike Hower is the chief learning officer of Strategic Knowledge Solutions, Inc. He focuses on communities of practice, instructional systems technology and design, and leadership development. Involved in education and training for most of a 20-year career in the US Air Force, his experience includes designing and effectively facilitating communities of practice to foster organizational learning; building blended, hybrid, and classical learning environments to improve knowledge transfer; and developing full-range leadership attributes through academic and experiential learning. He is a certified character coach and master facilitator with a penchant for integrating technology into daily work-life events and improving the bottom line.

Dr. Michael (Mike) Prevou is the president and co-founder of Strategic Knowledge Solutions, Inc. He was a charter member of the US Army's initial knowledge management (KM) program team and remains involved in KM consultation and education. He was directly responsible for creating the Army network of online communities. Mike is an adjunct professor teaching KM graduate programs and frequently publishes and speaks at KM and learning events. He is the co-author of #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book 05: Everything You Need to Know about Knowledge Management in Practice in 140 Characters or Less and has written over 25 articles on learning and knowledge management.

Mitchell Levy is the CEO and Thought Leader Architect at THiNKaha who has created and operated 15 firms and partnerships since 1997. He and his team are brought into corporations to turn their experts into recognized thought leaders. Mitchell is an Amazon bestselling author with 21 business books; he has provided strategic consulting to over one hundred companies, has advised over five hundred CEOs on critical business issues through the CEO networking groups he's run, and has been chairman of the board of a NASDAQ-listed company. Get a free copy of the eBook Mitchell Levy on Creating Thought Leaders at the Aha Amplifier, read about thought leadership best practices on the LinkedIn group, or watch a new thought leader each week on Thought Leader Life).