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Re: Formalizing an SME Network #CoP #expertise-location

Arthur Shelley
 

Hello David,

Creating knowledge networks is a terrific way to stimulate knowledge flows and create value. We set up a three tier structure of “Networks”, Communities and Projects in the early 2000’s at Cadbury and much of this is still running today, despite several mergers and significant changeover of community manages and employees.

There are many different ways of achieving these, but the culture of the organisation and the passion of the community facilitators/leaders are in my experience the most significant success factor for sustainability of value creation. The key thing is to facilitate vibrant engagement between the members around real initiatives that add value and are directly relevant to the members work.

I can provide more details if you would like to discuss further, but it is great that others are also providing examples as there is no one right way forward.

Arthur Shelley
Founder, Intelligent Answers
Producer Creative Melbourne
www.OrganizationalZoo.com
@Metaphorage
+61 413 047 408
https://au.linkedin.com/pub/arthur-shelley/1/4bb/528 

On 10 Oct 2019, at 04:04, davidgraffagna@... [sikmleaders] wrote:

  

Hello All,


I would be very interested in hearing this group's insight, perspective and suggestions around effective ways to develop and establish a formalized SME network in an environment of disparate and informal expertise identification and networking. 


In my current (and evolving) new role, my organization has many long-tenured employees with deep knowledge and expertise. Some of the challenges are: not everyone knows who those experts are or how to connect with them (it's all about who you know); specific, critical topics/areas for expertise are not identified; relating specific, key skills and competencies to individual SMEs is not part of broader development plan; and acting/contributing as an SME is not a formally acknowledged or encouraged activity. 


I'm in the very early stages of this process, and in the current environment even a small win would demonstrate real value.


Would love to hear your thoughts! 


Best,


David
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