“In the past few weeks I have received a number of requests for communities of practice based on the job level of the intended members.  For example, consultant, senior consultant, and so on.

I am interested in your thoughts and experiences with communities of this type.  What are some possible benefits of a community based on the level of the members (e.g., senior consultant), as opposed to one based on a topic of interest to people of multiple levels (e.g., cloud computing)?”

Way back in 1987, before anyone ever talked about KM or communities, I started a financial analysis supervisors network. Why? Because I wanted to know what other supervisors were doing to perform the same work. We were all the same level, located across the US and reported up to different managers and were matrixed to different functional areas. And yes, it was within the practice of financial analysis, however, this “level” of responsibility had its own demands, practices and involvement in the organization. The sharing of the practice of financial analysis supervision was very helpful….

Move to 2010 and I would create a Finance Community of Practice and have a special interest group for the supervisor level.  So in your situation, it could be a “Consulting” community of practice – the domain of knowledge being consulting and the purpose would be building the capacity of your consultants to perform the job of consulting. You might say… isn’t that what training & development is for? Yes, it is. That is why I would place these level or role based communities under the sponsorship of this functional area. The value to the organization would be to ensure the training of consultants continues to build the knowledge and skills of that role. And, that the training continues to reflect the real practical experience of what is happening out in the field. It also becomes the place where you can create the coaching and mentoring opportunities in order to move individuals from one level of that role to the next. Or in the case of retention of knowledge, the sharing of knowledge and experience from senior levels to the newbies coming on board. The strategic purpose of these types of communities is to constantly raise the bar of knowledge, skills and performance levels of your organization.

So my opinion would be absolutely level-based communities can be of value.  Communities or networks are always of value when you bring together people  who are either cross-organizational, cross-client, or cross-geographical.