Wikipedia, via cognitive anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger defines a Community of Practice (CoP) as “a term that describes a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. The group can evolve naturally because of the member's common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created specifically with the goal of gaining knowledge related to their field. It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the group that the members learn from each other, and have an opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally (Lave & Wenger 1991). CoPs can exist online, such as within discussion boards and newsgroups, or in real life, such as in a lunchroom at work, in a field setting, on a factory floor, or elsewhere in the environment. While Lave and Wenger coined the term in the 1990s, this type of learning practice has existed for as long as people have been learning and sharing their experiences through storytelling.”

“How do I get lawyers to share what they know?” is a question many managing partners ask themselves. Law firms are knowledge driven organizations. Many law firms have made investments to capture that knowledge. Under various guises of “KM”, they have made investments in explicit knowledge capture. Document management systems are one of the major examples of this. But the tracking of work product, e-mails and such is only a piece of knowledge tracking and only as small portion of creating a community. The original model of record - recover - reuse, while a good start, needs to expand. Contribute - communicate - collaborate are the next phase. But how do you accomplish this?

True knowledge sharing occurs when trusting relationships are formed and tacit knowledge is exchanged. Creating trusting communities inside law firms can sometimes difficult, running afoul of various cultural impediments. But as law firms get larger or attempt to go “virtual”, they struggle with connecting geographically disburse legal teams. The pressure from clients to improve efficiencies and provide greater connectivity/transparency puts even more strain on them. There has never been a greater need for a robust and thriving communities of practice. They provide a critical resource to lawyers who want and need recommendations, advice, tips and tricks, best practices, insights and innovations.

The advent of web 2.0, social media and social networking tools and their ease of use, adaptability make creating of virtual communities easier then ever before. Hyperion Global Partners blends together the disciplines of knowledge management, business process definition and social media enhance practices at your firm.

-- Use the latest in social media tools to create new or augment your existing CoPs

-- Augmenting existing explicit or formal knowledge with the more difficult to capture, tacit knowledge

-- Get the right information to the right people in a timely fashion

-- Use CoPs to build relationships and promote trust and enhance knowledge sharing

-- Track expertise real-time

-- Extend and enhance learning, mentoring and collaboration