Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (November 13, 2007)

The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

“Teams of Practice” … Jessica and Jeff advocate for the recognition of a new organizational form … the “team of practice”. “ … perhaps the era of the community of practice needs to morph a bit. Aren’t we now in the time when teams, not just amorphous communities or lone-ranger individuals, need to share practices? And isn’t the technology up to the task, what with virtual (or, if you prefer, global) teams exploding everywhere and wikis for teams going up on the web faster than their IT departments can track them? Teams, we think, are the way to work (without diminishing the genius and creativity of the individual), the hope for solving the seemingly intractable problems that sometimes make it hard to get up in the morning.” Jessica Lipnack

Knowledge Worker Productivity … Eric posts the notes from the session he and Steve Barth presented at KMWorld 2007 last week. “The workshop focused on Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), which explores how expertise and effectiveness scale up to organizational value with a focus on the capabilities and contributions of each and every knowledge worker. PKM starts with individual priorities and processes that lead to self-organization in the workplace with values, skills, and tools to build stronger teams and networks from the ground up.” Eric Mack

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

Chevron SharePoint Rollout … Chevron is rolling out SharePoint to its 56,000 employees around the world. “The energy company is spending 10% of its information management budget from 2007 to 2010 on its three-stage Global Information Link (GIL) project. The project is expected to save the company about £20m a year in system management costs through standardisation. The latest phase, GIL3, focuses on collaboration and information sharing. With the firm’s electronic information growing by 60% a year, GIL3 is aimed at managing the terabytes of content being created. As well as Microsoft Sharepoint, GIL3 will introduce software from Schemalogic to standardise the way files are labelled and make company information easier to find across the global network.” ComputerWeekly

“Notes is Dead” … Eric reports and ponders a conversation he had at KMWorld last week, about the deadness or otherwise of Lotus Notes. Notes on Productivity

LiveScribe Cometh … The new Livescribe pen is nearing its release date. If you order now, shipping within the US is free. “At Livescribe, we’ve combined the four basic modes of human communication – reading, writing, speaking and listening – into a device the form and function of a pen. By connecting the digital world with a simple piece of paper, this smartpen allows you to better capture, access, and share information and ideas in a totally new way.” Livescribe

Kroll Ontrack Shareview … Kroll Ontrack released Ontrack Shareview, a case management portal for legal professionals. “Providing seamless linkages among documents and individuals, Ontrack Shareview reduces the time spent locating legal documents, coordinating calendars and tasks, and managing key case contacts. The release of this tool marks a distinct foray into new legal technologies outside of Kroll Ontrack’s traditional suite of electronic discovery and computer forensics products and services.” Built on top of SharePoint 2007. Kroll Ontrack

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

Embrace the Big Goal … Big goals scare or exhilarate. Nick has some questions to help with momentum toward big goal accomplishment, and a series of ideas around goal roadblocks. Fast Company

Focus on One Thing … at a time, and get more done. “While there’s something to be said for multitasking, a serial workflow—completing one task after another in order of priority—can be much more conducive to getting your work done. Splitting your attention between several tasks at once can slow you down compared to knocking off one focused task after another on an ordered list. Today I’m going to show you how to create a serial workflow platform with just a few simple tools that you probably already use: plain text, a couple handy extensions, and browser tabs.” Lifehacker

Michael Sampson