What Makes a Thriving Community of Practice?

Communities of practice often start with simple goals: bring people together, share knowledge, build capability and learn from each other.

For community leads, creating the conditions for making that happen is both an art and a science. As a designer and co-manager of the ACT Government’s Business Analysis and Design Community of Practice, I’ve learnt that finding the right mix of activities needs experimentation. I was also curious how other leads approach the same challenge.

I recently interviewed four community leads whose experience spans UX research and design guilds, the APS Professions platform (for the Australian Public Service), startup and not-for-profit communities, and a large cross-government centre of excellence.

Across these conversations, five consistent themes emerged around what makes a thriving community. These also matched my own experience of understanding member needs, testing what resonates and adapting over time.

1. Start with a clear purpose

Community success starts with a question that might sound obvious: why have a community?

Since communities form around a shared goal, problem or interest, a clear purpose gathers members around that common ground, connecting the community’s objectives with their own interests and professional needs.

A clear purpose also helps leads spot activities likely to resonate with members. These activities can then be tested and adapted, keeping them aligned with the community’s objectives.

2. Tailor activities to your community

There’s no one-size-fits-all set of activities. What works depends on members’ preferences, needs and context. A geographically dispersed community, for example, might need a mix of in-person, online and asynchronous activities.

Regular feedback helps leads understand what members find useful. This might include quick post-activity check-ins, conversations about current interests and challenges or simply noticing what draws people in.

The leads I interviewed also mentioned watching industry trends and current affairs, since these often signal what members will want to explore next. Interests shift, so leads should revisit the community’s direction and activity mix to keep them current.

3. Design for different ways to participate

Members can participate in different ways beyond attending or presenting at scheduled meetings: sharing tips and resources, joining an online discussion, facilitating warm introductions, suggesting discussion topics or helping organise an activity.

It helps to make these participation options visible so members get a sense of what’s possible.

For my community, I created an engagement framework showing what participation can look like, while leaving members to choose what suits their interests, role and capacity.

Leads can also encourage members to include community-related activities in their professional development agreements, to discuss with their supervisors. This recognises participation as capability building and gives managers a clearer reason to support the time people spend contributing.

Participation will also ebb and flow, especially during busy periods, rather than holding steady all year.

4. Facilitate connection

Member interactions can feel like an empty dance floor where people wait for someone to go first.

Community leads can go first, with a well-timed prompt, an invitation to someone with relevant experience or a follow-up question in the chat. People often take their cues from others, so once a few members contribute, others feel more comfortable joining in.

Curating connections is a big part of it. A warm introduction between members with shared interests or complementary experience can lead to collaboration, since people are often working on similar problems without realising it.

A few keen members can also step up as ambassadors. They can help build energy around the community, invite contributions and keep things moving between formal sessions.

5. Start small, test and adapt

Community building is an ongoing experiment involving different activities and formats to understand what works, what could be better and where new interests are emerging.

Members can propose ideas, test activities and help shape the community. This keeps it responsive and spreads the effort beyond a small number of leads. As a community grows and members’ interests broaden, working groups can give different areas of interest their own focus.

This links back to the community’s purpose. A clear direction keeps things focused, while experimentation lets the community respond to what members find useful.

Takeaway

Across the conversations I had, there was a consistent message about what makes communities successful and sustainable. They have a clear purpose, activities that reflect member needs, several ways to participate and people willing to spark connections. They also balance enough structure to give direction with enough room to experiment and adapt to what members find useful.

These apply regardless of whether a community is in the public sector, or the startup or the not-for-profit sectors.

When members understand why the community exists, find real value in taking part and have realistic ways to contribute, the community has a good chance of lasting.