The People Part of Working with People You Can’t Be With

• Linne sets out the twelve conditions for success with collaborative work: (1) clear, real and compelling goals or tasks, (2) collaboration is really required, (3) individuals commit to collaboration, (4) organizational support for collaboration, and more. “Collaboration asks of us much discipline and commitment, but only this level of collaboration can meet the huge demands of complexity in the global market. This high level of collaboration requires extensive positive leadership power and skills.” Seems to be oriented to in-person collaboration; no mention of other keys when distance and technology is involved.

The Technology Trends of Working with People You Can’t Be With

• PostPath announced full support for iPhone 3G in PostPath, its email and calendaring server for the enterprise that provides a Linux alternative to Exchange Server with full Exchange Server functionality. “PostPath is the only non-Microsoft server that provides native ActiveSync support with no plug-in or middleware enabling users to take full advantage of the iPhone’s intuitive UI and the productivity benefits of mobile access to email, collaboration and shared calendaring. The iPhone’s Mail and Calendar applications are also supported with no plug-in, nothing to download and no modification to the device configuration.” Good move, and nice timing!
• Apptix was similarly quick off the mark, announcing iPhone 3G support for its hosted Exchange Server 2007 customers. “This new mobile email service enables iPhone users to take full advantage of the power of Apptix hosted Microsoft Exchange email and collaboration services, elevating the iPhone to a true business communications tool–for any size company.“
• Colligo Networks released a case study of how The Learning Trust is using SharePoint for email management (PDF), in combination with the Colligo add-in for Outlook. “After conducting a trial, The Learning Trust selected Contributor for deployment to their staff. Contributor Add-In increases user adoption of SharePoint for email and attachment management. It provides full read and write access to SharePoint document libraries and lists within the Outlook interface. Users are able to easily move or copy emails and attachments to document libraries with a simple drag-and-drop, while automatically capturing message fields (like To, From, Subject, and Date). Custom metadata can be instantly applied at the time of drag-and-drop or automatically set at the folder-level.” I am a great fan of the Colligo products for SharePoint — definitely worth investigating.
• Microsoft is readying a 2009 update of Office Communications Server, for release in the May 2009 timeframe … apparently. It is unclear at this point what it might include … perhaps Parlano integration?
• SharePoint Solutions is holding a 3 day workshop on branding and customization of SharePoint, in Dallas TX on July 15-17. “The course will focus on branding SharePoint sites and portals. You will also learn how to create custom themes, custom site templates and custom site definitions. You will learn how to use XSLT to customize the search results and the results returned by the content query web part. Student learning will be facilitated through a combination of instructor presentations and hands-on lab exercises. A sample company will be used in the labs to teach students how to apply SharePoint 2007 branding from concept to implementation in a typical environment.” If I could teleport there and survive without sleep so I could attend, I’d be in. But other matters call … such as getting Seamless Teamwork done!

Insights on Being Productive and Effective

• Being present is more about engagement than particles, and this is a particular concern for people that work from home. “Your family doesn’t want your body to be home – they want your heart and mind to be there. Given the choice between you being gone for 8-10 hours but home for 4 and you working from home but never being there, I’d bet most would choose the former over the latter. Don’t make them make this choice mentally or otherwise.” Solution: (a) save energy for “being” at home, and (b) set boundaries in time and space for what is work and what is home.
• Five steps to achieving your goals: (1) visualize life on the other side, (2) get commitment, (3) break it into bits / smaller actions, (4) start now and make constant progress, and (5) celebrate success. The vision you create in Step 1 is particularly influential in what happens.
• HP is offering a set of 6 online classes on managing time, space and paper, including (1) Clutter 101: basic organizing rules and secrets, (3) focus on time: derailing distractions, procrastinations and lateness, and (6) focus on maintenance. “This hands-on course is a practical guide to managing your schedule and your stuff so you can get the most out of every aspect of your life. You’ll learn to respond actively to life’s clutter, rather than react negatively without solving the problem. We’ll begin with some basic rules of organizing, then explore strategies for managing paper and time, organizing your home and family and techniques and routines to keep your life more organized. Podcast version of this class available.“