Cultivating Communities of Practice

In this summary you will learn

• What “communities of practice” are
• How these communities work
• Why they are crucial to contemporary knowledge management

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Why you should read Cultivating Communities of Practice

Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott and William M. Snyder have written an exceptionally clear and honest book. While they obviously are deeply committed to communities of practice and exuberant in embracing the concept – particularly in the realm of knowledge management – they also have observed enough of these communities to see how they can fail to crystallize, can go bad or can survive but never gain recognition. This gives a distinctly realistic edge to their methodical book. The authors work through the definitions, core components and guiding principles of these communities, and describe how they fit within existing formal structures. They illustrate their claims with numerous examples. getAbstract advocates this solid introduction to communities of practice to two groups of readers: anyone interested in knowledge management and anyone interested in community development, including organizational culture.

About the Authors

Etienne Wenger and Richard McDermott consult on knowledge management. McDermott also consults on organizations. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of the Social Capital Group.