Communities of practice are people connected by their shared passion and active practice who collaborate, create, and grow through regular interactions.
They help organisations thrive by
Supporting people
through peer-to-peer connections, giving them the confidence and motivation to succeed.
Growing capability
by accelerating individual learning and raising collective organisational skills.
Bridging knowledge
by joining up people, ideas, knowledge and related work to reduce gaps and silos.
Scaling approaches
allowing the sharing and spreading of good practices across the organisation to create consistency.
Improving practices
facilitating collaboration opportunities that raise the standard and quality of your delivery.
Supercharging your communities of practice
This website combines writing, public speaking, approaches, models and tools related to communities of practice from expert Emily Webber in one handy place.
Learn from articles that explain more about communities of practice.
Find out about the book that Emily wrote on Building Successful Communities of Practice.
Discuss consultancy and how it can help you embed communities of practice in your organisation.
Book Training that strengthens your communities of practice and upskill your community leads.
Download Tools that help you get going with your communities of practice.
Get in touch to discuss your community of practice needs.
Helpful articles about communities of practice
A blog post talking about the model, introducing the three nested layers of connected groups that communities of practice fit into.
A 30-minute introductory talk on the benefits of Communities of Practice given at the Mind the Product conference in 2017
A video and write-up of a talk given at the Fast Flow Conference in 2025, showing how Communities of Practice increase knowledge, ideas, and learning in organisations.
A post explaining the differences, overlaps and complements of (formal) professions and (informal) communities of practice.
A post that breaks down how to understand the success of your communities of practice through the lenses of engagement, effectiveness, and effect.
A peer-reviewed paper written with evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar, exploring the correlation between communities of practice and natural human communities.
A blog post explaining why serendipity is essential for the flow of ideas and how we can create opportunities for it to happen, both in the workplace and while distributed.
An article describing the benefits of communities of practice, some tips to get started and a high-level view of community maturity.
Read more relevant posts on Emily’s blog >
The Building Successful Communities of Practice Book
In this revised and expanded second edition, Emily Webber draws on her experience building successful communities of practice within organisations. Along with practical guidance to help you identify, form, grow, measure, and supercharge your own, she covers the conditions needed for success, how to navigate common pitfalls, and introduces new models and strategies to help you along the way.
“Whether you are launching a brand-new community, reigniting a stalling one, or embedding mature communities into the fabric of your organisational strategy, this is the book you need.”
Available globally as a paperback and on Kindle, and on Audible in the US.
Available globally with ISBN 978-1-7393643-1-1.
Consultancy to accelerate your communities of practice
Consultancy with communities of practice expert Emily Webber of Tacit accelerates your community of practice initiatives by providing expertise and approaches gained from years of experience working in the field across many organisations.
Emily has helped organisations define their communities of practice strategies, put them into practice, create clear guidelines, gain buy-in from senior leaders, design and deliver training programmes, review community effectiveness, and identify opportunities to improve, reinvigorate, and supercharge them.
To discuss your needs, please get in touch >
Some of the many organisations that have benefited from this consultancy include:
“I worked with Emily multiple times at the BBC. She received reams of positive feedback from teams who attended the training. Furthermore, the consultation we did together around communities was invaluable and enabled us to relaunch communities across the organisation.“
“Emily’s deep understanding of the field and having worked in and with various government departments and clients really came through in her ability to immediately pinpoint the good and bad. Coming up with rock solid coaching, consultancy and recommendations to help us unlock greater value from our communities of practice.”
Bring communities of practice to life with tailored training
Emily also provides public, tailored and bespoke training on all aspects of communities of practice. Including leaders curious about the benefits, people leading initiatives, those leading communities and practices and community members.
She draws on her experience, tools and approaches and works with internal stakeholders to create relatable and appropriate content that participants can immediately put into action.
“Loads of experience that clearly came through, lots of practical advice and information. Emily ran sessions confidently and encouraged debate and sharing at all times. Brilliant.“
The Tacit community of practice tools
Over the years, Emily has created tools that help communities of practice through their phases of potential, forming, maturity and self-sustaining and made these ones available for you to use, too.
Community of Practice Canvas
Start by setting up your community right with engaged members.
Community of Practice Maturity Model
Identify areas for improvement by understanding community of practice maturity.
Community of Practice Effectiveness Review
Learn how well your community meets your members’ needs. (opens on an external website)
Organisational Conditions for Communities of Practice Maturity Model
Assess whether your organisation has the right conditions in place for communities of practice to thrive.
