Community of Practice – Complex Systems Frameworks Collection

The term community of practice (CoP) is understood and used here to refer to a group of people who come together because they share a common interest, related goals, or passion for a topic, and they learn from each other through ongoing interactions.

Lave & Wenger (1991) developed the concept while studying apprenticeship as a learning model that highlighted learning as embedded in social interaction and cultural norms. Experiential learning, systems convening, and dialogical pedagogy are also built on this notion of learning through social mediation.

In the Two Loop Model, Wheatley and Frieze describe CoPs as a step along the way to becoming a “system of influence”— able to influence and create significant change. With inspiration from Giulia Forsythe, the Community of Practice framework unpacks the second loop of the Two Loop Model.

CoPs don’t all aspire to become systems of influence. Many CoPs exist just for the purpose of sharing knowledge and information. The Strength of Ties may be weak in these CoPs, but that is optimal for broadening one’s knowledge base.

Knowledge Weavers prioritize the exchange of explicit and tacit knowledge. By cultivating a supportive atmosphere that holds space for diverse perspectives, CoPs help create relationships that allow exchange of experiential knowledge. Repeated engagement enables strengthening of ties and building trust.

Collaborative Learners harness tacit knowledge and the collective understanding of their participants to catalyze small scale experimentation and iterative learning. Building trust and strengthening ties also helps to reduce the complexity of systems transformation.

Systems of Influence aim to extend their influence beyond the immediate CoP by advocating and supporting systemic change in response to complex challenges. Wheatley and Frieze suggest that Systems of Influence “can never be predicted” (p. 6). Instead, they tend to “appear suddenly” where “pioneering efforts that hovered at the periphery suddenly become the norm.”

This image illustrates a Community of Practice starting with individuals coming together to build trust and share tacit knowledge. This collaborative learning process progresses through Shared Practice, creating Collective Intelligence, which ultimately influences implicitly held knowledge and enables a System of Influence.

Same as the first image but includes a ribbon along the bottom to define three types of communities labelled Knowledge Weavers (up to sharing tacit knowledge), Collaborative Learners (through shared practice towards collective intelligence and Systems of Influence (the full process).

Deeper Dive

Wheatley, M, and D Frieze. Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale, The Berkana Institute.
Wenger-Trayner, E, and B Wenger-Trayner. An introduction to communities of practice: a brief overview of the concept and its uses, 2015.
Lave, J, & E Wenger. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral. Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Related Frameworks

Alignment to Coherence: coherence can be strengthened through CoP steps
Collective Impact: building shared agendas and measurement require CoP steps
Knowledge Cycle: shared practice helps build collective intelligence through knowledge cycles
Process of Building Trust: more detail on what’s needed to build trust
Strength of Ties: CoPs can build both strong and weak ties depending on need
Transactional to RelationalTransactional to Relational: CoPs can help with this shift
Two-Loop Model: CoP image developed from bottom loop