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Best Practices

Best practices are techniques or approaches, which, by virtue of research and experience, represent an efficient or prudent course of action. They are guidelines which have effectively led to a desired result. Approaches of best practice create opportunity for win/win outcomes, as well as consider the sustainability and ongoing development of those approaches.

It is the intention of the Communities of Practice at Cañada College to create consistency and quality, while respecting all involved stakeholders and showing empathy for their various situations. The goal of the Communities of Practice is to use best practices to constantly seek the most efficient and effective ways to create consistency and ensure success, among and between each other, as well as the communities they serve.

To that end, the Communities of Practice have adopted “10 commandments of C.o.P. governance” Taken from a Gilbert Probst and Stefano Borzillo, (2008) article, the "10 commandments" explain that communities of practice succeed when the members:

  1. Stick to strategic objectives
  2. Divide objectives into sub-topics
  3. Form governance committees with sponsors and COP leaders
  4. Have a sponsor and a COP leader who are ‘‘best practice control agents”
  5. Regularly feed the COP with external expertise
  6. Promote access to other intra- and interorganizational networks
  7. The COP leader must have a driver and promoter role
  8. Overcome hierarchy-related pressures
  9. Provide the sponsor with measurable performance
  10. Illustrate results for COP members

Communities of Practice have proven to be successful and beneficial to the members who participate, as well as to the communities they serve. Despite their best intentions, however, communities of practice can also fail. Probst and Borzillo (2008) discuss five reasons for failure:

  1. Lack of a core group
  2. Low level of one-to-one interaction between members
  3. Rigidity of competences
  4. Lack of identification with the COP
  5. Practice intangibility

The Communities of Practice at Cañada College will work to maintain the integrity and the principles of the assemblage,  to recognize and learn from what works and what doesn't work, to remain objective and stay focused, all of which will allow for the success of the members and the communities they serve.

For more detailed information on the Probst and Borzillo (2008) article, please Follow This Link.