What are Communities of Practice?
Communities of Practice (CoP) are made up of people who practice and share an interest in a major function or business line. The members come from the Corps, academia, private practice, or other agencies.
CoP develop and maintain policy and doctrine, and facilitate the transfer of lessons learned. They ensure that we continue to retain and grow our valuable technical expertise. These offices are relatively small, but when they need to develop new policy or work on a special initiative, they can form a team from the best expertise available. Each organizational level relies on all others for support, and all actions require partnering with other organizations.
Resources and organizational energy are refocused to support the Regional Business Centers. Members of CoP are resident throughout the organization, and will be used at the right time and place to accomplish the USACE missions. Recreation is considered a sub-COP of the Operations COP, and Environmental Stewardship is considered a sub-COP of the Environment COP.
Intent
The intent of a CoP is to capture and share information and knowledge within a network of an organization [in this case the USACE network] to solve or serve a common interest, problem, or task. (90% knowledge of people in the Corps and 10% tools). Corps is implementing a structured type of CoP that will have resources assigned to it. HQ and MSC will have dedicated assets.
Myth: CoP is just another name for a stovepipe
Truth: CoP is part of a new paradigm
- Structure: Organizational hierarchy vs. virtual networked cross-functional teams
- System: Functional Approach vs. Business/Skill/Function Formula
Style: Direction and Control vs. Collaborative, Empowerment
Timeline
Initial CoP deployment in January 2004, full deployment by end of the year.
Examples
Examples of CoP networks that currently exist in the Corps include: Natural Resources Gateway with 20 years of information, OMBIL, Office of Counsel, USACE Specification Committee, and USACE Emergency Management (ENG-LINK). There are twenty-four USACE 2012 functional area CoP that are corporately sponsored.
| COP |
COP Leader |
| Planning |
Chief Planning |
| PM/PgM |
Chief PID and Chief PM |
| Engineering & Construction |
Chief Engineering & Construction |
| Operations & Regulatory |
Chief Operations & Regulatory |
| Environmental |
Chief Environmental |
| Installation Support |
Chief Installation Support & Chief Engineering & Construction |
| Interagency & International Support (I&IS) |
Chief Interagency & International Support |
| Real Estate (RE) |
Chief Real Estate |
| Research & Development |
Chief Research & Development |
| Counsel |
Chief Counsel |
| Contracting |
PARC |
| Human Resources |
Chief Human Resources |
| Corporate Information |
Chief Corporate Information |
| Resource Management |
Chief Resource Management |
| Safety |
Chief Safety |
| Logistics |
Chief Logistics |
| PAO |
Chief PAO |
| SADBU |
Chief SADBU |
| Strategic Planning |
Chief CID |
| Security & Law Enforcement |
Chief Security & Law Enforcement |
| EEO |
Chief EEO |
| EIG |
Chief USACE IG |
| Internal Review |
Chief Internal Review |
| Emergency Operations |
Chief OHS |
Adapted from "USACE 2012 and Communities of Practice" white paper prepared by CEPG
