Originally established on the basis of European Commission funding, Beep is collaborating with a large number of organisations, at international, national and regional levels, to further develop the services of the Beep Knowledge System.
Recent experience has shown that sole reliance on benchmarking tools (where cases are compared on the basis of their scores on a series of quantitative or qualitative indicators) is useful but limited. On their own, benchmarks and their concomitant identification of ‘best practices’ (i.e. those cases with the highest scores) can only take users so far. They do not easily take account of the different contexts and needs of users, not to mention the very different notions of ‘best’ and ‘success’ which different stakeholders may have.
Hence, Beep’s promotion of what it terms ‘learning practice’. This focuses on ‘good practice’, loosely defined as ‘practices which are good for learning’, i.e. practices which either achieve their own objectives and/or have a beneficial impact on their environment, or (and more important) provide useful learning experiences which are likely to stimulate creativity, ingenuity and self reflexivity on the part of the user of the case. Thus, good practice in Beep can include cases which made mistakes, and do not score high on conventional benchmarks, as long as the case has learnt useful lessons which are carefully described and presented so that others can learn from their experiences. Valuable learning also depends upon a clear understanding of the context and assumptions surrounding a particular case, as well as a clear description of what happened and the results obtained. All these are standard elements in Beep case reports.
Learning practice also comprises a broader sequence of structured learning activities undertaken, for example, by a Community of Practice (CoP)1, i.e. a strong (or potentially strong) community of individuals or organisations who wish to cooperate to mutually develop their knowledge and exploitation of good practice. Learning practice has some elements in common with benchlearning2, but is focused more around the symbiotic interplay between on-line knowledge systems (like Beep) with face-to-face workshops and peer dialogue techniques.
Both learning practice and CoPs build on the fact that whenever people, as part of organisations, communities or networks, accumulate collective and organisational learning into social practices of any kind, the benefits are far greater than when undertaken individually. Organisations, to compete and meet rising demands for quality and innovation, must today become more intentional and systematic about ‘managing’ knowledge in a context in which effective learning has become a key issue for success, however the latter is defined. A focus on CoPs has been shown to be a useful basis for the systematic redesign of activities, strategies and knowledge management skills.
If you would like to participate in Beep’s learning practice activities, or would like to work with Beep as part of your own organisational learning programme, please contact us.
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