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Roles in a Community of Practice

Created Mar 22 2021, 6:14 PM by Communities Reinvented
  • Fundamentals of CoPs

Summary

  • There are many different roles in a Community of Practice (CoP) including: Community Leader, Community Manager, Community Sponsor, Technical Expert,  Knowledge Management Advisor, Communications Advisor,  Administrative Support, and Members. 
  • Building a community is not a one-person job. No single person can do it alone. It is a group effort. Also, having several different assigned roles encourages greater buy-in and ownership of the success of the Community.
  • There does not have to be a separate person for every role. One person can take on several roles and roles can also be filled on an intermittent basis by advisors from different departments such as Knowledge Management or Communications.

Resources


What are the different roles in a Community of Practice?

There are many different roles in a Community of Practice, including: Community Leader, Community Manager, Community Sponsor, Technical/Subject Matter Expert,  Knowledge Management Advisor, Communications Advisor,  Administrative Support, and Members. 

Why is it important to have different roles in a Community of Practice?

Building a Community is not a one-person job, but rather a group effort. There are several roles that need to be filled for a Community to be successful. In addition, having members fulfill different roles encourages greater buy-in and ownership in the success of the Community thereby also increasing the chances of that success. For example, involving Knowledge Management Advisors and Communication Advisors who are often located in organizations external to the community domain can help spread the word about the work, impact, and value of the Community throughout the organization.

How do you assign the different roles in a Community of Practice?

Having several roles does not mean that there has to be a separate person for every single role. One person can take on several roles especially for very young communities. Roles can also be filled on an intermittent basis by advisors that in some respects are external to the Community. However,  the roles should be identified and defined clearly before those roles are assigned to members. 

The recommended roles to have include:

  • Community Manager: This is the person that will be dedicated to managing the Community. He or she does not have to be an expert in the domain because the focus of their work will be on relationship building and community development. The Community Manager should be skilled in community building, communications, knowledge management, and project management. Here are some areas of a Community Manager’s scope of work: community strategy, reporting and business integration, member experience, moderation, content management, relationships building, events & activities design and facilitation.  

  • Community Leader: A technical expert that acts as the Community Leader. A Community can have a co-leadership model with usually two, but sometimes three or four co-leaders. The Community Leader usually has a full-time job in his or her area of expertise and can dedicate only a small amount of time to the Community.  

  • Community Sponsor: A Community’s sponsor is the organizational manager who provides the budget for the community and to whom the Community Leader reports. While not expected to be very involved in the Community day-to-day, the more the sponsor is aware of and participates in the development of the Community, the more likely the community will be valued and supported. Therefore, it’s important to regularly report to a sponsor— possibly on a quarterly basis—and to ask for input.  

  • Technical Expert:  A Community of Practice often is hosted on a Collaboration Platform such as Collaboration4Development (C4D), Discourse, Lithium/Kharos and many others. It is very useful to have someone that is very skilled at working with the intricacies and details of the platform.

  • Knowledge Management Advisor: Some communities have a dedicated Knowledge Management Advisor. This is a knowledge management professional who might dedicate a percentage of his or her time—in agreement with his or her manager—to the support of the Community. Most knowledge management professionals are knowledgeable about Communities of Practice in general and they can bring additional expertise on how to capture, package, organize, and disseminate the knowledge— mostly tacit—that is shared in a Community.

  • Communications Advisor:  A professional from the organization’s communications department that can advise on how to better promote and position the Community to internal and external audiences. This professional can also integrate Community communications to the organization’s communications strategy and channels to increase the reach of Community initiatives. 

  • Admin Support: Communities host many events and activities to build member connections and drive results and it takes a lot of time and effort to organize and deliver these events. For this reason, communities can benefit from having technical support from the organization’s administration team to coordinate effective events.  

  • Members: This is the Community’s wider audience. You should take time to understand Member Needs to design content and programming that will drive member engagement and lead to community results.

In addition, communities should have as part of their structure two key groups:

  • Core Team: People who have a vested interest in the success of the Community. For most of them, working in the Community is part of their job description. Example: Sponsor, Leader, Community Manager.

  • Core Group: Potential members who are interested in, and often passionate about the community and will volunteer to make the community a success. Engage the Core Group to co-design the CoP and encourage them to regularly contribute content and help engage the wider membership. 


This article is part of the WBG Communities of Practice Toolkit licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The toolkit features practical resources to help you develop impactful Communities of Practice. 📖 Learn more about the Toolkit.  ▶ Access the Toolkit