How Is Work Team Skill Different From a Community of Practice?

In general, people know a lot about teams and communities. Whether the team is related to sports or working on a content writing project, the main goal is to achieve one thing together.The communities of practice describe people who have passion and slightly variable concerns. Yet both the terms are discussed as if they are same. Within an organization, you will often hear people talking about teams. Take Human Resources as an example for instance. People say Human Resources team but in reality, the term should be Human Resources Community of Practice.

When you look online on Joblang for jobs in UK, USA, Canada, Australia, or any other developed country, you will come around these terms. As both the concepts are quite different, you will need core knowledge of the difference and similarity in the terms...

What is the Community of Practice?

According to the educational theorist Etienne Wenger, the community of practice describes a group of people with similar concerns and passion. The concept consists of three key elements which are described below:

TheDomain: In the domain, members are brought together by their learning need. Whether shared learning is an explicit need or it is a result of motivation, they work together to learn new things and create something better.

TheCommunity: The collective learning of various members result in a sharing bond that they share while working together. Hence, they become a community through experience.

ThePractice: The interaction of these members in the community produces some resources that affect their practice whether they are working collectively or separately.

What is a Team Work?

You must have read somewhere in a job description on Joblang.com that teamwork is a vital skill required for a job. There are many jobs in the USAthat mention the teamwork as an essentialneed for working in the Multi-National Companies. Thus, you need to know the clear-cut definition of a team. A business team definition comes from Sports terms. Take the example of a Football team. Every single player has the same goal- to score. But while they are working as a team, every single one of them has a different responsibility. A group which has the same responsibility is unlikely to accomplish anything together.

So, when a team is built, the people who have different roles and skills are brought together to work towards a common goal. Therefore, in business, you might be in a group that is working to sell widgets or another group who is working on a different goal. Each team has designers, manufacturers, sales people, and experts of the field who knows all about the field. Bringing all these different people with a variety of roles together makes the team.

How Communities of Practice is different from Team?

When people hunt for jobs in Canada, they will be asked the most basic questions related to the field. And these terms are widespread and applicable in every field, thus, knowing the difference is a crucial thing. You can find lots of jobs on Joblang but as you go for an interview, you need to prepare yourself for it.

A team is held together by tasks. When the task is accomplished, the team gets dispersed and work as a single unit. The team is formed so that the individuals would learn some new things while working with lots of people. As the team moves forward with the task they improve their personal skills too. It is the task that keeps the team together. It is their respective commitment and contribution to the task which is the main source of trust and cohesion among the members of the team.

A community is held together by the learning values each individual find in the interaction with other members. The community performs several tasks togetherbut the tasks don’t define the purpose of the community. It is a mutual commitment that sustains ongoing learning. The members from different organization and have different perspectives engage in the task and try to do their best individually. The trust between the members is developed as they improve the ability to learn. They care about the domain, respect the practitioners, and gain practical experiences.

How Communities of Practice are Important to Help the Business?

Take the example of jobs in Australia available in various fields. Suppose you are in the business of operating in the chain of grocery stores, each store has a general manager, a production manager, dairy manager, and an HR Manager. The members of community work like a team and have separate small goals to accomplish. And every single one of them has the main purpose of making the store successful. The team works for high sales, happy employees, and a good working environment.

All managers support each other to perform better. Even though the managers can’t help the other managers in significant tasks yet they need contact and support from their community of practice. Thus, the dairy manager from store A will help the dairy manager from store B. The HR managers at all stores help each other on a quarterly basis to help one another in developing the best practices.

Being a part of a team or a community of practice, both are super beneficial for individuals at certain levels. These communities of practice make sure that a strong bond is formed across the organizations while the individual strengthens their teams.

It is vital that you have a strong team which works for a common goal. Common understanding and taking advantage of the community of practice can help the employees to succeed in their own spheres. A community of practice provides solid support hence it is vital that you develop overall skills altogether. So, start looking for a job on Joblang in any corner of the world and find the best job for yourself. As long as you know what you want to achieve in life, it will be easy for you to focus yourself towards working on being successful.