Don't forget, we have reviewed DOZENS of books. See more reviews here.

All these books reflect our approach to issues of leadership and organizations. Go here to find out more about how we help organizations.

You can also learn more about Jamie Notter's thinking about these issues on the Get Me Jamie Notter blog.

And if you want to get on our mailing list (no more than four updates per year), sign up here.

We write books, as well as review them. Don't forget to check out the books that we have for sale.

Need more info? CALL JAMIE: (240) 603-7693 (or email).

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge

by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder
Harvard Business School Press, 2002

“Community of practice” is a term that emerged from the knowledge management field—a field that I found difficult to understand at first. I attended seminars on the topic, but I was put off by intense focus on databases and intricate, large-scale processes for capturing large amounts of information.

As I was introduced to the concept of communities of practice, however, I became more interested. It still had at its core the creation and dissemination of knowledge, but also talked about relationships, trust, and conflict—issues that are central to my ongoing work in organizations.

Through a project on “learning communities” at the Center for Association Leadership, I finally was given the opportunity to explore communities of practice more fully, and that is when I read Cultivating Communities of Practice by Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder. It is an outstanding book that clearly defines communities of practice (or learning communities, in the Center’s parlance) and serves as a guide for developing them. The book lays out the structure of communities as well as concrete guides to both starting them initially and sustaining them over time.

I recommend this book to clients because I think communities will increasingly gain favor as a vehicle for learning and sharing knowledge and information. Databases are wonderful, but our access to knowledge and information has become overwhelming of late. Communities offer the power of connection and relationship is gaining access to knowledge and learning. Embracing this will be critical to organizational success in the future.