Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP)

Implementation Guideline

May, 2021
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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DOCUMENT CONTROL

Document Name CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Implementation Guideline

Review and Authorization

Role Name Role Signature Date
Author Knowledge Management
(KM) Technical Team
Review and Advisor Director Learning &
Development
Reviewer and First Knowledge Management
approval Steering Committee (KMSC)
Final Approver CBE President

Version History
Version Date Author Changes and reasons for
change
V 1.0 April KM Technical Team Zero draft
20,2021
V 1.1 May KM Technical Team Reviewed based on comments
12,2021 provided by KMSC members.
V1.2 May KM Technical Team Reviewed based on comments
25,2021 provided by KMSC members.
V1.3 Aug 5, 2021 KM Technical Team Reviewed based on comments
provided by Legal Compliance
Unit

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DOCUMENT CONTROL ................................................................................................................................ i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ ii

ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................................ iii

1. Preamble .............................................................................................................................................. 1

2. Short Title ............................................................................................................................................ 2

3. Definition of Terms ............................................................................................................................. 2

4. Objectives of the Guideline ............................................................................................................... 3

5. Scope of the Guideline ....................................................................................................................... 3

6. Governing Rules .................................................................................................................................. 3

7. Objectives of the Community of Practice ........................................................................................ 3

8. Expected Outcomes of the Initiative................................................................................................ 4

9. CBE’s Community Practice Membership .......................................................................................... 4

10. Key Roles and Responsibilities ...................................................................................................... 5

11. Tools ................................................................................................................................................. 9

12. Operating Principles/Norms .......................................................................................................... 9

13. Evaluation and Measurement...................................................................................................... 10

14. Key performance indicators ........................................................................................................ 10

15. Duration of CoPs ........................................................................................................................... 11

16. Revision of the Guideline ............................................................................................................. 11

17. Effective Date ................................................................................................................................ 11

Annex 1: CoP Performance EvaluationForm ......................................................................................... 12

Annex 2: Category of Assessment ......................................................................................................... 13

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

ABBREVIATIONS

CoP Community of Practice

CBE Commercial Bank of Ethiopia
EMC Executive Management Committee
ICD IBM Control Desk
KM Knowledge Management
KMS Knowledge Management System
KMSC Knowledge Management Steering Committee
LMS Learning Management System
HR Human Resources
IT Information Technology

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1. Preamble

Whereas, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is launching Knowledge Management (KM)

initiatives and has a desire to establish Communities of Practice (CoP) as one of the main
building blocks of a KM to speed up the transfer and sharing of knowledge;

Whereas, CoP has been identified as one form where members teach and learn from
each other;

Whereas, it is required to have a framework to establish and implement CoP across the
bank;

Whereas, it is required to state roles and responsibilities across different bank organs
regarding CoP Activities;

Whereas, it is essential to provide framework to understand the membership criteria,

composition and roles and responsibilities of the practitioners of CoPs to be established
in the Bank;

Whereas, it needs to explain the tool choices, setup and development of the CoPs
knowledge sharing platform, and describes the evaluation and measurement approaches
of CoPs activities and key performance indicators;

Now, therefore, it becomes important to develop and introduce the new CoPs guideline
in the manner described herein.

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

2. Short Title
This Guideline can be cited as “Community of Practice Implementation Guideline of the
Bank”.

3. Definition of Terms
For the purpose of this guideline the terms and concepts shall be defined as follows:
 Administrator: shall mean any line managers who Manage the technical and
administrative aspects of the community
 Community of Practice (CoP): shall mean learning forums of organized group
of people who have a common interest in a specific technical or business domain
to deepen their knowledge and expertise in the area by interacting on an ongoing
base.
 Contributors: shall mean any subject matter experts who add contents in the
form of discussions and materials that advance the mission of the CoPs.
 Facilitator: shall mean anyone who stimulates participations and value for
members.
 Knowledge Management: shall mean the process of creating, sharing, utilizing
and managing the knowledge and information in an organization by drawing
lessons learned and best practices to foster continued organization learning.
 Lurkers’/Users: shall mean any individuals in the organization who view, use,
disseminate contents beyond the CoPs but do not contribute content.
 Membership: shall mean any participant who plays a role as a contributor,
facilitator, administrator and user in the CoPs within the organization.
 Steering Committee: shall mean a form of corporate governance made up of
high-level executives, authorities, or stakeholders who provides strategic oversight
and guidance.
 Tools: those Information Technology (IT)/ and Non- IT tools which are applied in the
CoPs Practice.
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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

4. Objectives of the Guideline

The primary objectives of this guideline are to:
i. Ensure standardization in establishment and operation CoPs across the Bank;
ii. Determine the role and responsibilities of the different Bank organ regarding
CoPs ;

iii. Establish the role and responsibilities of the CoPs members;

iv. Ensure standardization in the evaluation and monitoring of CoPs progress.

5. Scope of the Guideline

This guideline shall cover and govern the establishment and operational activities of CoPs
across the Bank.

6. Governing Rules
This guideline shall be governed by:
i. Human Resource policy and procedure of the Bank.
ii. Corporate governance of framework of the Bank;
iii. Internal control framework of the Bank;
iv. Information Systems policy and procedures of the Bank;
v. Compliance policy of the bank; and
vi. Collective agreement of the Bank.
vii. The commercial code of Ethiopia and other related laws and regulations of the
country.

7. Objectives of the Community of Practice

The general objective of Community of Practice (CoP) initiative is to bridge the knowledge
gap within the bank, by capitalizing on experience in order to maintain high quality of

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

service and enhance efficiency through existing knowledge and leveraging on expertise
across the bank.
In addition, it includes the following specific objectives;
i. To enable the CBE’s staff to learn from each other, work together to solve
problems, share knowledge, cultivate best practice and foster innovation.
ii. To generate tangible, measurable, value-added benefits to the bank and to
improve business excellence;
iii. To continuously improve CBE professional capabilities;
iv. To retain expertise and knowhow of separating/retiring staff.

8. Expected Outcomes of the Initiative

The CBE’s CoPs initiative shall have the following outcomes;
i. Solve Problems and enhance decision making;
ii. Accelerate professional development across the Bank;
iii. Stimulate interaction among bank’s divisions/department/units;
iv. Identify and share best practices across the bank;
v. Build capability and enable innovation;
vi. Reduce time/cost to retrieve information;
vii. Improve knowledge sharing and distribution;
viii. Enhance coordination, standardization, and synergies across organizational
initiatives;
ix. Reduce rework and reinvention; and
x. Build alliances and Strengthen organizational relationships.

9. CBE’s Community Practice Membership

The CBE’s CoPs shall be formal/structured group with defined leaders and community
membership. And also, the CoPs shall be established at the division’s level facilitated by

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

Division Owners and Corporate Knowledge Management Unit and each division shall
select core communities’ members by assigning leadership and securing resources. Each
Bank’s KM CoPs shall have administrator, facilitators, contributors and lurkers/users. The
following criteria shall be used to select members for the CoPs:
i. Rich experience/expertise
ii. Good communication skill;
iii. Ability to demonstrate and elaborate issues;
iv. Self-motivated, resourceful, energetic, flexible and adaptable;
v. Creative and problem solver; and
vi. Ability to Work with minimal supervision.

10. Key Roles and Responsibilities

10.1 The President
The bank president shall;
i. oversee the proper implementation of this guideline;
ii. oversees the current state of CoPs throughout the Bank and;
iii. provide direction/approve solutions provided by KMSC.

10.2 Knowledge Management Steering Committee (KMSC)

The KMSC shall;
i. promote CoPs initiatives in the bank;
ii. overseethe establishment of the CoPs across the Bank;
iii. ensure resources are available to established CoPs;
iv. ensure support at the highest level, communicate the purpose, promote the
community and make sure impact;
v. communicate direction given by the President regarding CoPs.
vi. escalate CoPs issues beyond its mandate to the President/ Board of Directors;

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

vii. ensure performance activities as plan, and Evaluate, Prioritize, and

Communicate CoPs practice improvements and outcomes; and
viii. report the CoPs progress to the President and/or to Executive Management
Committee (EMC).

10.3 Division Owners

The Division Owners shall:
i. ensure the proper implementation of this Guideline;
ii. oversee how CoPs’ perform throughout their Division;
iii. promote CoPs initiatives in the bank;
iv. identify and approve potential members;
v. assign CoPs administrator;
vi. identify key content issues (strategic/critical knowledge areas)
vii. follow up the CoPs overall activities;
viii. forward CoP final outcomes to the respective organ; and
ix. implement direction given by the President regarding CoPs.

10.4 Director-Learning and Development

The Director learning and Development shall;
i. promote CoPs initiatives in the bank;
ii. supervise and provide directions on the implementation of the CoP’s guideline;
iii. facilitate the establishment of CoPs throughout the bank;
iv. ensure that critical issues are periodically collected, identified and addressed to
CoPs;
v. facilitate awareness creation and role specific training for CoPs members;
vi. ensure the required facilities and resources provided to CoPs throughout the
bank;
vii. ensure timely feedback to incorporate into planning cycle; and

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viii. ensure the preparation and submission of periodic report and forward to
respective bank organs.
10.5 Manager Knowledge Management Unit
The Manager Knowledge Management shall;
i. ensure the potential members are selected as per the stated criteria and assist the
division owners on issues raised regarding CoPs;
ii. facilitate the establishment of CoPs throughout the bank;
iii. collect, identify and address critical issues to CoPs;
iv. facilitate and avail resources for CoPs throughout the bank;
v. prepare periodic report and forward to respective bank organs;
vi. codify and maintain CoP’s members profile databases; and
vii. follow up and evaluate overall CoPs activities.

10.6 Community Practice Administrator

The assigned CoPs administrator shall;
i. manage the technical and administrative aspects of the community and might be
directors, managers and team leaders;
ii. perform the day-to-day management of the community and accountable for
managing the community tasks;
iii. avail the necessary resources required by the CoP’s;
iv. identify additional tasks that community members are likely to want to carry out
in the community;
v. conduct a need assessment through informal discussions, formal interviews,
surveys, and/or focus groups;
vi. manage or escalate issues raised by CoPs members;
vii. identify focus areas in collaboration with other CoP’s Members for
discussion/demonstration;

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

viii.create a directory or folder structure for organizing discussions, documents, and

resources;
ix. preserve the community (CoP’s) contents for all CoP’s future retrieval and use;
and
x. follow up and evaluate the group based on the preliminary objectives.
10.7 CoPs Facilitators
The assigned Cop facilitators shall;
i. organize, plan and facilitate discussions;
ii. check forums for new questions;
iii. work in collaboration with subject matter experts to get answers to open
questions;
iv. summarize discussions as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and document at
Knowledge Management System (KMS) for retrieval;
v. circulate/share discussion outputs;
x. follow up its Community of Practice members’ responsibilities and commitments;
xi. moderate and monitor discussions and keep discussions on topic;
xii. serve as source of information by providing information to community of practice
members and contact person for the CoPs; and
xiii. provide her/his active role to the community of practice.
10.8 Contributors/Subject Matter Experts (SME)
The CBE’s CoPs Contributors shall;
i. add content in the form of discussions and materials;
ii. take the responsibility to address work related knowledge requirement; and
iii. Serve as resource person in the area of expertise.

10.9 Lurkers/users
The CBE’s CoPs Users shall;
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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

i. participate in the CoPs by raising issues and questions;

ii. take tests or involve in interviews to assess the effectiveness of knowledge
transfer;
iii. view, use, and disseminate content beyond the CoPs;
iv. provide feedback on the knowledge transfer; and
v. identify and seek to fill their knowledge gap.

11. Tools
Members can use IT and non- IT technology supported tools. Thus from technology
supported tools, the CoPs can use Zoom meeting, internal portals, CBE Mail (outlook),
Intranet and IBM Control Desk (ICD), Learning Management System (LMS), E- Learning,
SharePoint, CBE Wikis and Blogs. In addition, members can also use non technology
supported tools such as face–to-face discussions, workshops, forums, brainstorming to
reflect idea transfer and share knowledge are among others.

From the above stated tools the technical team suggested the CoP’s to use IBM Control
Desk (ICD) Knowledge Management tools and Zoom for capturing, sharing/transferring
and retrieval of knowledge gained through CoPs activities.

12. Operating Principles/Norms

The Bank’s CoPs have the following operating principles/norms:

i. Members shall expect to encounter at least one new learning from each
encounter in the CoP;
ii. Members shall contribute regularly to the community;
iii. Privacy and confidentiality are maintained within the community; and
iv. Views expressed are those of individual practitioner member.

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13. Evaluation and Measurement

The bank’s CoPs shall be evaluated and measured quarterly from the feedback of
members and evaluating outcomes. The evaluation shall facilitate identification of
emerging issues. Evaluation will be timed to feed into planning cycles to ensure relevance
to members’ needs and the Bank’s priorities. The evaluation shall include the level of
participation, discussion, presentation and meeting, range of members involved,
attendance, output achieved (best practice, check list, tool kits) and awareness raising
and building skills.

14. Key performance indicators

i. Number of presentation and discussions;
ii. Number of issues solved;
iii. Number of participates in presentation and discussions; and
iv. Level/ degree of Successful knowledge transfer.
Weight assigned to the Performance Indicators
The following key performance indicators/parameters are provided with weights per
their significance.
Table 1: Weight assigned to Key Performance Indicators for CoP’s
No. Performance Indicator/Parameter Weight
1. Level/ degree of Successful knowledge 50%
transfer
2. Number of issue solved 20%
3. Number of discussion 20%
4. Number of participants 10%

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15. Duration of CoPs

The Pilot CoPs will run for consecutive two quarters, but after evaluation it will be ongoing
initiatives. During the time of the CoP’s activity schedules, the domain/ topics/titles
selected will be based on the areas chosen by the Divisions. Similarly it will be the
division’s responsibility to select topics/ issues used in each phase for their own purpose.

16. Revision of the Guideline

This guideline shall be revised every two years and subject to amendment requested by
respective bank organs.

17. Effective Date

The guideline will be effective upon approval of the President.

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 CBE’s Community of Practice (CoP) Guideline 2021

Annex 1: CoP Performance EvaluationForm

CoP Name.......................
Cop ID.............................
CoP code...............................

Table: 1 CoPs performance evaluation

No. Description Plan Performan weigh WXP Remar
ce t k
1. Level/degree of successful 0.5
knowledge transfer
2. No. of issue solved 0.2
3. No of discussion 0.2
4. No of participation 0.1
Note: Overall evaluation is determined based on the following proportions:

 Level/ degree of Successful knowledge transfer: 50%

 No. issue solved:20%
 No discussion: 20%
 No participants:10%

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Annex 2: Category of Assessment

In order to assess the effectiveness of CoPs the following evaluation category is

established:
Table: 2 tentative evaluation categories.

No. Category Percentage Remark

1. Exceptional 90% - 100%

2. Very good 80% - 89%

3. Good 70% - 79%

4. Fair 50% - 69%

5. Poor Below 50%

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