Chapter 3. DRIVING BUSINESS RESULTS THROUGH NETWORKED COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Rob Cross and Guillermo Velasquez

Most executives, especially those in knowledge-based organizations, would say that they heartily support the creation of Communities of Practice (CoPs), which can enhance information sharing and best practice transfer across an organization. But ask those same executives to invest organizational resources in the establishment and maintenance of CoPs, and they might well demand something in return. In an environment of tight budgets and tough competition, CoPs must be more than ad hoc groups of people who happen to share expertise or work in the same area; they need to create tangible, measurable business value. We have found that CoPs can do that if they are carefully designed and continually refined through the use of network analysis tools.

In this chapter, we explore how companies can use a network perspective to design CoPs that contribute to business performance, using as an example Halliburton, one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries and an industry leader in the knowledge management realm.^[]