The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Stop Trying to “Control” Teams … Ken urges a less controlling approach to managing teams, for higher agility and collective intelligence in return. Key idea: leaders should send out timely information (“In all cases nature’s teams have evolved a simple approach to communicate urgent information widely and instantly without doing anything more than sending out just-in-time information messages and letting everyone take action in an independent fashion.“), not orders, because orders are more prone to error, suffer from increased information complexity, and more. Key idea #2: don’t wait for a confirmatory response from “information”; assume they’ll do it. Conclusion: “Set-up and encourage your team to expect and gather information and not wait for orders. Only use two-way messages where you absolutely need to have a clear-cut response, where there is unavoidable complexity or where you require a particular bit of info.” The Bumble Bee
• Silence Can Signal Pending Failure … Many projects fail because of silence–where people don’t have the conversations they should have when they should have them. “Project failures often have roots in two distinct, emergent and dysfunctional behaviors arising from the unwritten rules I just described. These are: 1. Silos and territorialism across the functions and business units; and 2. Unhealthy conflict avoidance within the project or organization. When participants feel safe in their environment, they tend to speak out and bring problems to the surface, allowing those issues to be managed. On the other hand, without a sense of trust and safety, participants are reluctant to voice concerns and risk conflict, which keeps problems hidden.” ZDNet
• Issue Analysis: Over and Below the Water Line … Projects have “above-the-water-line” attributes (eg, business strategy, organizational and project structure, management systems, business processes) and “below-the-water-line” attributes (eg, shared history of the organization, the economic climate, cultural values). Teams need skills in understanding and managing both. ZDNet
• Honeywell’s Use of eProject … Honeywell Specialty Materials uses eProject for project management. They liked its flexibility and versatility to support a diverse range of projects. “eProject is flexible in that it can be used for many types and kinds of projects, and across all levels of management including managers, project leaders and team members at Honeywell. One of its best features is its simplicity, ease of navigation and short learning curve. This eases user adoption, as oftentimes it requires little or no training.” eProject
• Bad Policy Kills Collaboration and Productivity … Eric shares a modified true story about how bad policy on limiting access to information kills collaboration and productivity. “In this case, the messenger is the collaborative tool or process and the shooting is done by creating policies counterproductive to knowledge work. I never cease to be amazed at the new and creative ways that management can find to kill collaboration or squash productivity by overreacting to a problem encountered.” Notes on Productivity
• Wikis in Financial Services … Stewart notes that financial services firms can gain significant benefits from wikis, in particular for keeping federal policy and rule documents up-to-date. “These kinds of documents are constantly changing as new laws take effect, rules are updated and changed, so the wiki is an ideal tool for housing this information and enabling it to be quickly changed and immediately accessible so thousands of employees who use it daily. That’s much more efficient than constantly printing and distributing addenda to policies and rules, and vastly more efficient than reprinting and distributing entire documents when enough changes have to be made.” Atlassian News

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Mobile Access to SharePoint … Users can access SharePoint sites from small form-factor mobile devices in two ways: (1) mobile document access (where Exchange 2007 passes a request through to SharePoint 2007), and (2) direct SharePoint access (where adding /m to any SharePoint site URL will give a mobile-friendly rendition). Peter de Haas
• Sony for Desktop Video Conferencing … Sony offers a range of video conferencing systems for desktop and room-based meetings. Sony Video Conferencing

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Plan in the Evening … If you can’t carve out a golden hour in the morning, find one in the evening instead. “I believe that spending a few minutes at the end of the work-day with planning out the next day, is the best way to hit the road running in the morning. After having walked to work, or having done some yoga or whatever else you suggested.” Jim Estill
• Personal Development List … Rob points to a long list of personal development oriented sites, and adds two more. 7Breaths
• Average Commute = 46 Minutes … Laura points to a recent Gallup survey on the average duration of people’s daily commute in the US: 46 minutes over the entire work age population. Key strategies to make effective use of this time: (1) use the phone, (2) clear your mind for the day ahead, (3) plan what you’re going to do, (4) on family trips, bond with your family, (5) shift your schedule so you can work off-normal hours, (6) use a voice recorder, (7) listen to books on tape, (8) carpool with your spouse, and (9) take the train instead. Laura Stack
• Accomplice for Time/Task/Project Management … Accomplice is a Windows-based software application for managing to-dos, goals, and notes. It integrates with Outlook for the display of email, and syncs with PDAs. “Accomplice’s patented desktop software provides an easy, portable Activity Management system that organizes all the things you need to get done, and synchronizes them with your team. The software features a “smart” task list and cross-linked notebook, plugged into a secure peer-to-peer network. Activities (goals and to-dos) can be sub-tasked, prioritized, scheduled, delegated, and tracked. Supporting information can be turned into notes and linked to activities. It can integrate with Outlook or other email systems if you want it to (e.g. turn emails into trackable activities), sync to your PDA cell phone, integrate with other software too.” Accomplice

Other Noteworthy Insights

• Windows Mobile 6 … Microsoft released a white paper on Windows Mobile 6. “With a host of new features and enhancements, Windows Mobile 6 helps your organization extend prior investments in Microsoft software, infrastructure, and training. Windows Mobile 6 provides enhanced value for IT professionals in several key areas, including messaging and collaboration, infrastructure interoperability, security features, and platform development.” Peter de Haas