Communities of Practice connect and engage employees
20/02/2020
Open to all employees at Cargotec, Communities of Practice are made up of people who share a passion for something they do and interact regularly to learn to do it better.
This text is an extract from the Cargotec Annual review 2019. Links to the 2019 annual report documents can be found from this same page.
Some Cargotec communities refer to themselves as Tribes. About 800 members currently belong to ten active communities, and more are being started.
Communities of Practice meet primarily online, for instance, in virtual meetings and workshops, and by using the community channels of Connect, Cargotec’s new social intranet. They also organise activities to create a shared body of knowledge. Employees can seek help with challenges and access expertise, while also benefitting from opportunities to network, boost their personal development, and make work more meaningful. For the organisation, advantages include closer alignment in ways of working, shared problem solving, and finding synergies across business areas – not to mention the development of competencies and better talent retention.
Furthermore, many of the communities – like the Lean, Change Management, Data Enthusiasts, and Software Robotics communities – are closely linked to Cargotec’s vision to become the leader in intelligent cargo handling, particularly the organisation’s must-win battles of productivity and digitalisation. In this way, their activities support and contribute to Cargotec’s strategic ambitions.
“Communities distribute learnings throughout the organisation, as we want to break down silos and get people to share success stories as well as hear about failures and what we’ve learned from them. Secondly, people can share experiences and talk to each other. A third advantage we’ve gained is solving problems together. For instance, if anyone has a challenge, we can collaborate and find answers together. Lastly, we benefit from the joy and advantage of learning,” says Alisa Knuutinen, Digital Transformation Specialist at Cargotec.
“A Community of Practice is a great catalyst to connect colleagues from different parts of the organisation. It helps build a culture of mutual support. It’s also a way to create a movement from within the company, where enthusiastic people bring topics forward. I receive many messages on how the Lean Community’s webinars have inspired changes in ways of working, and how we helped people to connect and start collaborating around an issue. Many people ask for further hands-on lean support – feedback that shows we’re on the right track, and there is potential for more!” enthuses Brigitte Guttenberger,Programme manager, Cargotec Lean initiative and MacGregor Strategy PMO.