So, how can CoPs ‘operationalize’ applying the virtues to make it a terrific habit? Well, here are some examples:

Courage – it’s all about managing risk, perhaps even how one defines risk so, practical tools include

• Look at the challenge and opportunity – identify what the real risks are, their impact and probability, consequences if the risks materialize, ways to mitigate those risks and how the CoP can do some small experiments to start creating solutions with lower risk and higher learning!
• Make sure CoP members are encouraged and supported to take risk and learn.  Don’t condemn them for failing but encourage sharing what has been learned.
• Work with another CoP of a similar or complementary purpose so you can share the risk and perhaps learn faster (e.g., Open Innovation)
• Be willing to look at opportunities differently so the CoP could create a solution that solves multiple problems instead of just the one before you (e.g., InBev in Russia needed clean water for brewing beer so they build a water treatment facility near their plant that gave them clean water and also just happened to provide clean water for the community while also creating jobs)
• Encourage differing points of view from all levels of the organization.

Faith

• Imagine the ideal solution – how the CoP would really like to see things be and work back from there.  Do this by really understanding who will benefit from the solution (e.g., Voice of the Customer).  So, when you reach for the electric drill do you want a drill? No! You want a hole! That’s the real goal – so what are the best ways, given whatever the circumstances are, to create a hole?   Could you have dreamed up the iPad 4 years ago?
• Faith is based on experience.  Sometimes, if there isn’t a ‘track record’ of positive experience you may have to take a leap of faith.  To a degree, that’s what CoP members do with each other if they don’t know each other.  For most people, if someone has Faith in them, they want to do well, confirm that Faith was wisely placed.  This reinforces Faith which reinforces passion and engagement which reinforces the chances for success!

Hope

• Hope is based on reality, not fantasy, on knowing that failure happens, that success isn’t guaranteed.  It’s not that miracles or amazing discoveries don’t happen, but usually, the laws of physics don’t change.
• Hope is related to Courage as well – to allow CoPs the freedom to try, to fail, to try again, iteratively.  Hope encourages and sustains a CoP to keep persevering towards a solution while also knowing when it’s hit a brick wall and it’s time to take an alternative path

Justice

• If you look at many reward and compensation programs, they are based more on equality than on fairness – on really holding people accountable.  Within your CoP, members are probably at different levels of engagement, commitment and passion.  How does the group recognize this?
• Triple bottom line gets to the heart of Justice as well.  As the CoP looks at various solutions to the challenges facing them, can they create a solution that provides significant value to the ‘customer’ while being a steward of the earth’s resources (including its inhabitants) and create profits that allow the CoP to be sustained to keep delivering value?

Love. 

• This is the foundation of passion.  So, as a CoP, what is the focus of the passion? Perhaps it’s all 3 types – Eros, Philos and Agape.  
• Apply Eros (passion, devotion, drive) to really delight the customer!  Understand what their needs really are – watch them, observe them, put yourself in their shoes, see their world from their perspective, see and hear their challenges and obstacles and figure out how you can create a truly valuable solution that will make it easier and more convenient for them and perhaps free up their time for other things as well!  Think of Zappos’s customer service
• Apply Philos (friendship) to how to treat employees – to create an environment that encourages innovation, supports risks, is honest and open, listens, is respectful of each other regardless of hierarchy, and is also just plain fun!
• Apply Agape (sacrifice, servant leadership) to the CoP itself as well as the communities in which it interacts – involving all stakeholders.

Prudence

• It’s always about people – no matter what the issue facing a CoP, at some point it always boils down to human beings.  Most of a company’s total expenses are related to compensation, yet study after study reveals that fewer than one-third of employees are actively engaged (work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company) (See reference #2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement …that’s leaving a lot of money on the table.  Developing your people – training them, encouraging learning, serious professional development plans – can help your people become more engaged, more empowered.  

• Within your CoP, identify the barriers that are holding people back and remove them.  Some of these can be plain old ‘office politics’ – apply these virtues to get rid of that harmful distraction.
• Apply Prudence to play up members’ strengths with each other instead of their weaknesses.  Create teams with complementary strengths and talents.  Provide mentors within the CoP to grow and develop each other and create trust and Faith.  Provide people with challenges that stretch them, teach them new things and provide new experiences.

Temperance

• Temperance is Greek for the ‘middle way’ – for moderation – for balance.  Apply Temperance to balance competing interests within the CoP.  Balance can help get the most from different perspectives by giving them time to be heard and adapted.  Temperance will help the CoP know when to act and when to reflect.
• Balanced Scorecard is a mindset for applying Temperance, not just a tool.  It is a framework for viewing all the aspects together and making sure they are taken into account.
• Moderation is how the CoP keeps things in perspective, keeps one viewpoint from dominating.

• Not taken this seriously because it is “too hard”, “too soft” and too often taken for granted as a given
• Denial, blind spots, rationalization and pride
• Not giving it enough time to become habitualized
• Approached from too philosophical a perspective instead of being concretely built in to core business processes and systems  and grounded in a specific projects or tasks at hand
• Try to take all the virtues on at once instead of just a few at a time and/or “checking the box” by merely paying lip service to them (e.g., one PowerPoint slide during employee orientation or an annual HR class)
• Use the virtues to personalize issues vs. applying to roles & responsibilities for a specific project – e.g., you need to be more just vs. this project needs to encompass justice/triple bottom line
• Don’t walk the talk
• Use virtues to ‘lord it over’ each other
• Lack of social capital, experience, education, funding