The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Not for Everyone … What exactly do you want your “telecommuters” to be able to do, and as a consequence, what does that mean for your systems and network? There needs to be a meeting of the minds regarding intent and outcomes. And for some, telecommuting won’t fit with their personality type. “There are personality types that tend to thrive when allowed to work away from the office, while others are better suited for a more formal work environment.” post-gazette.com
• Virtual Work = Higher Engagement … Flexibility for remote / distributed work can have positive impacts on worker engagement. “KRI examined the impact of an employee’s office location on their pride in the organization, confidence in its future, willingness to recommend their organization as a place to work and overall satisfaction. Employees who work remotely or from their homes outscored those who work within the bricks and mortar on each of these key indicators. In addition, employees who work remotely or from home are more likely to say they intend to stay with their organization.” CNNMoney
• Loner vs. Teams … Some job tasks are better achieved through a lone worker than via a team. “In some cases team building can be a waste of time. There are many types of repetitive operations, unskilled work and specialist activities best performed by loners. Rounding up such people and making them members of a team simply causes trouble. The individual’s privacy is invaded. His personal productivity falls. The object of team building is undermined.” When teams are required, answer these questions: (1) what are the task demands?, (2) what are their structural characteristics?, (3) are responsibilities shared?, (4) which responsibilities are subject to personal accountability?, and (5) which tasks are critical in their timing and approach? telegraph.co.uk
• Creativity in Virtual Teams … A recently released book, Higher Creativity for Virtual Teams: Developing Platforms for Co-Creation, presents a summary of scholarly papers on virtual teams engaged in creative work. Robert thinks it misses the mark for those on virtual teams for design purposes. “So while the need for books like Higher Creativity for Virtual Teams is very clear, the text would be far more useful if it offered a panacea where it does not. Instead it remains a compendium of difficult or insoluble problems, presented in exactly the sort of way that provides business-types an advantage over designers.” Core77
• Teleworkers Are Happier … Employees who can work from home some days of the week are happier than those who have to go to an office every day. Globe and Mail

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Zoho Offline Support … Zoho introduced offline support in Zoho Writer, its Web-based word processing service. “Note that it is read-only for now, but Zoho plans to make it ‘read/write’ in 3-4 weeks. Interestingly, it was built using Google Gears. Users have to install Google Gears to use the offline functionality – it works on Firefox (Windows and Mac) and IE.” Zoho also added commenting functionality to Zoho Writer. Read/Write Web
• New CalConnect Members … Microsoft and Sony Ericcson have joined CalConnect, the Calendaring & Scheduling Consortium. “During the past couple of years of work on interoperable calendaring has been making headway within CalConnect, Microsoft has been the elephant in the room – Exchange and Outlook have huge market share and any meaningful attempt at calendaring interoperability has to claim some level of working with Microsoft’s products. So having the folks from Redmond in the room with the rest of the CalConnect membership will be a welcome addition to the discussions. The Sony Ericsson membership is meaningful as calendaring on mobile devices continues to become more important. Sony Ericsson joins Symbian in the consortium as major voices of the mobile industry.” Oren Sreebny
• WebEx for Web Conferencing … WebEx has a recorded webinar available on using Web conferencing for sales, training, marketing and support functions. WebEx (hat tip, Jason)
• Email Used More Than Phones … A recent study found that 100% of respondents use email, whereas only 80% use the phone. The research leader notes: the growing reliance on email raises questions about how effective and meaningful such communication is when discussing complex issues. vnunet.com
• Swarmteams … Swarmteams offers a number of services designed to connect people and teams for personal or business purposes via the Web, mobile phones, and instant messaging. Eg, Swarm-pro! is designed for creating closed communities for communication and interaction. Swarmteams

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Small Adjustments, Big Results … Small changes and adjustments in work practices can lead to staggering results over time. “A small adjustment could be learning about a new tool or service, or discovering a feature of a program or device you are already using. Or it might be implementing a new collaboration strategy, or evolving a conference call into virtual meetings. It’s not just about saving time – it’s about embracing the tools and technologies available and letting them work FOR you, it’s about achieving better results from your efforts and reassessing the value of your time.” The Anywhere Office
• Meet Deadlines … 14 tips for meeting deadlines: (1) care about them, (2) keep a list of projects and deadlines, (3) communicate a clear deadline, (4) build in a cushion, (5) have a clear outcome, (6) break down the project, (7) focus on the first step, (8) block off adequate time, (9) have a start and complete date for each step, (10) communicate with each step, (11) don’t overcommit, (12) learn from mistakes, (13) stay up late, and (14) negotiate and meet a second deadline. FreelanceSwitch
• Doing Impacts Time Management … Jason argues that “It is what you DO with your time that impacts your time management“, not “It is time management that impacts what you DO with your time.” Key skills: (1) focus on something important, (2) refocus on interruptions as they come up, (3) handle volumes of unclarity, (4) reprioritize based on changing data, and (5) stay sane at the same time. Jason Womack
• Get Better … 5 steps to getting better at anything: (1) define where you are now, (2) determine where you want to be, (3) break down the difference into thinks to achieve, (4) take a step towards your goal every day, and (5) check your progress, and then go back to step 1. “The only crucial ingredient that’s not included as one of the steps is hard work. If you really want to get better at something, it’s going to take some time and some effort. But don’t get too serious about it, have some fun! Enjoy taking each easy step towards your goal, and savor the difficult ones. Before long, you’ll really start to see some progress.” SmallFuel
• Stop Digging, Start Climbing … Are you making the most of your talents and abilities? “I’d suggest sitting down and mapping out your 20k level, especially if you’ve been wanting more clarity on your priorities. Make two columns: Work and Personal. What areas are you measured by in your job? What are the roles you play personally? That’s the kind of stuff that makes up your 20k level. See if that makes a difference in some of the things on your Projects and Action lists. Would you choose anything different? Would you let go of anything?” Kelly Forrister

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Three Monitors, One Computer … Try the TripleHead2Go as a way of powering three monitors off one computer. Coding Horror
• TVs Cost $1 million … The opportunity cost of owning a TV is over $1 million. Think what you could do instead! SavingAdvice