The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• 10 Commandments of Distributed Teams … (1) recruit the right people, (2) establish clear goals, (4) build an environment of trust and openness, (8) cultivate passion for the goal, among others. Vagrant Muse
• Telework: Yes But … Tim likes the theory of telecommuting, but not its practice at his company. “In this company we like to have our people on our team together during the day, in our one location, mostly a bunch of cubes. We like the instant communication involved, the immediate contact, the sense of team. Programmers talk to other programmers, and marketers talk to other marketers.” Tim Berry (see also his follow-up … “In this case, the issue of how and where people do things, we probably end up distinguishing between different jobs. We go from one extreme, let’s say the proofreader or data entry person who can do the work alone, from anywhere, at any time; to the programming team member who needs to be close to the others, in on impromptu meetings, etc.“)
• Conflict in Collaboration: From Getting Along to Getting things Accomplished … Free webinar on September 20 on handling conflict in collaboration … “Conflict is inherent in many collaborative processes. What kind of conflict is productive in collaborative efforts—and what kind of conflict obstructs progress toward collaborative outcomes? How can you tell the difference and what can you do about it? These are some of the questions we’ll explore from both theoretical and practical perspectives in this webinar.” Registration required. TrainersPod

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Treo 500v … Palm and Vodafone released the Treo 500v in Europe. It is powered by Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Available October 1. Palm Blog
• WebEx Update … WebEx released the Fall update of its web conferencing service, with meeting recording and playback capabilities added, and easier access to meetings for regular attendees. Available immediately. eWeek, CNNMoney
• Wiki at Law … Jon links to a case study on the adoption of a wiki at a law firm. “As we started looking at new technologies, the flexibility and ease of use of wikis immediately caught our eye. A wiki would provide the kind of flexibility we needed for our documentation and allow us to create pages that were easily interlinked. Unfortunately, the pure wiki software we evaluated was, in many respects, too flexible… What we really needed was something in between a document management system, with its isolated and highly organized documents, and a wiki, with its ability to create and edit information easily in an ad hoc and unstructured manner.” Atlassian
• Technology: Focus on the Efficiency Ratio … Extrapolating from his recent golf experiences, Jeff writes: “The same thing is true for technology in business. It can’t make a poor business model work, or an incompetent manager any better. But the right technology in the right hands can improve productivity and performance. It makes you more efficient.” Jeff Cornwall
• Zoho Business … Zoho introduced a free and for-fee Business edition of its online application suite. It is currently in beta. There’s a lot on offer. Zoho

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Motivated to Work Harder … Four ideas to call out your best: (1) recognize benefits of hard work, (2) reward yourself when you work harder, (3) set goals that require harder work, and (4) post reminders for yourself. “If you want to get motivated to work hard you just need to follow the above steps and you will find that it is easier to work harder because you are working harder for a good reason. So, enjoy working hard and enjoy the results that come from working hard.” Improving Your World
• Infomania … Nathan, David and Sigal outline five areas that are impacted as a result of email overload and constant interruptions: (1) direct loss of productive time, (2) reduced mental capacity (“Endless distractions and the stress of information overload combine to perceptibly degrade the mental acuity of knowledge workers [12]. People are less capable of thinking, generating creative ideas, and effectively solving problems.“), (3) disappearance of thinking time, (4) breakdown of organizational processes, and (5) reduced quality of life. Conclusion: “The bottom line: Infomania causes a damage of about US$1 billion per annum for a knowledge–intensive company of 50,000 employees. As usual with such calculations, this value is conservative, representing only more direct aspects of the problem. Additional, harder to measure damages exist but are not included.” First Monday
• Slog It Out … “I had a friend who used to say “90% of success is just showing up.” This is a lot like that. Buy the stuff, put it on the shelves, price it fairly, and stay open on a reliable schedule. Give people value.” Tim Berry

Other Noteworthy Insights

• MindManager on PDA … Pocket Mindmap offers a Windows Mobile add-on for MindManager. Mindjet
• Effective Email … Free ebook: “This easy-to-read, in-depth book contains comprehensive information and expert advice on communicating effectively and responsibly through e-mail. It provides readers with learning activities, tools, and tips to help them actually change behaviors and learn this critical workplace skill.” Interview Hack