Community of practice (CoP) toolkit | Resource Details | National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools

Community of practice (CoP) toolkit

Lusk, E. & Harris, M. (2010). SHRTN Collaborative Community of Practice Orientation Guide. SHRTN Collaborative (a partnership between the Senior's Health Research Transfer Network, the Alzheimer Knowledge Exchange and the Ontario Research Coalition). Canada. Retrieved from http://www.srpc.ca/ess2016/summit/CoP_guide_FINAL.pdf.

Description

This toolkit was developed to help people start or maintain a Community of Practice (CoP) with the Seniors Health Research Transfer Network (SHRTN). A CoP is a key strategy to facilitate knowledge exchange among practitioners, researchers, decision makers, and the community. The SHRTN Collaborative CoP Orientation Guide is a user-friendly toolkit that includes resources, an evaluation checklist, and a workplan to help people operate a CoP. A CoP is a group of people who share a common goal or issue and have a desire to learn through regular exchange. A clear comparison of a CoP with a work group, project team, or informal network is provided. Knowledge exchange recognizes that knowledge is transferred from one context to another through social relationships and interactions. The Promotion Action on Research in Health Services (PARiHS) theory is based on the notion that knowledge is embedded in practice and social contexts. The PARiHS framework suggests that knowledge exchange is mediated by three factors: the evidence, the context for exchange, and the facilitation process for exchanging knowledge. This toolkit includes: an overview of CoPs, the life cycle of CoPs, quick tips, recommended resources, evaluation tools, and a CoP workplan template.

Steps for Using Method/Tool

This toolkit suggests that leadership and knowledge brokers of the CoP need to identify their group's progression through the stages of the CoP to support the collective. The life cycle of a CoP includes four stages, each positioned in a different context of desire and commitment. The steps of the CoP are:

1. Starting up: Vision/environmental scan, frame the purpose, engage key people/organizations/sectors, define the scope and prioritize.

2. Operating: Hold initial in-person meetings to establish or strengthen relationships between group members, identify action items and opportunities for collaborative leverage, negotiate roles and responsibilities, capture and share knowledge from the CoP to advance thinking and practice in the broader community.

3. Winding down: Examine the value of membership to self and organization, engage in reflective practice, consider factors in deciding what priorities are still relevant for the CoP.

4. Refresh/renew: Conduct a gap analysis, build a stakeholder map, bring in new potential members.

These summaries are written by the NCCMT to condense and to provide an overview of the resources listed in the Registry of Methods and Tools and to give suggestions for their use in a public health context. For more information on individual methods and tools included in the review, please consult the authors/developers of the original resources.

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