Often they do not share the same status in the organisational pecking order. Yet they exchange ideas and generally pick each others brains day in and day out. Welcome to the world of Communities of Practice. But it largely goes unrecognised and unheralded. Organisations tend to lay emphasis on explicit knowledge that can be easily captured in documents and databases and ignore informal interactions at which a considerable amount of tacit knowledge is shared and new knowledge generated.
Organisations are quick to state that people are their most valuable resource.
But they often fail to recognise that it is in communities that individuals develop the capacity to create, refine, share and eventually apply knowledge - knowledge that makes an individual a valuable organisational resource. Some of the world's leading corporations have now come to recognise CoP as being important to maintaining their leadership as knowledge-driven companies. Xerox, IBM, Exxon are among a growing list of corporations that have set in place mechanisms to encourage the growth of CoP in the work environment. It is an informal, self organising group that can be found anywhere - at work, at school, even at home. Most people belong to more than one CoP, even in a work situation.