ACT - Co-creation toolkit - Communities of Practice Lifecycle Phases

As proposed by McDermott (2002, cited in Cambridge et al., 2005) CoPs have lifecycles and they begin, grow, and have life spans. Specific design, facilitation, and support strategies exist to help reach the goals of the CoP during each lifecycle phase and elevate it into the next stage of development. If the CoP is successful, the energy, commitment, and visibility of the CoP will grow until the CoP becomes institutionalized as a core value-added capability of the sponsoring organization (Cambridge et al., 2005: 2). The different development stages are inquire, design, prototype, launch, grow and sustain. They will be briefly described in turn (see the figure below).