Engaging People

 

Collaboration: Know Your Enthusiasts and Laggards.  In one of the first comprehensive studies, according to Cisco, it found that personal attitudes towards collaboration and company collaborative culture are as important as collaborative tools. Four collaboration segments, based on habits and beliefs, are identified as: Enthusiasts, Comfortable, Reluctant and Laggards. Also see our related posts: Enthusiasts to Laggards, Measuring Collaboration, and The ALL ONE (TAO) of Collaboration.

Eight ways to build a great team (collaboration in large work teams).  Research into team behavior at 15 multinational companies discovered that teams that are large, virtual, diverse and made up of highly educated specialists are increasingly crucial. Yet, those same four characteristics make it hard for teams to get anything done. The article proposes eight factors that lead to success: 1. Investing in signature relationship practices, 2. Modelling collaborative behaviour, 3. Creating a “gift culture,” 4. Ensuring the requisite skills, 5. Supporting a strong sense of community, 6. Assigning team leaders that are both task and relationship-oriented, 7. Building on heritage relationships, and 8. Understanding role clarity and task ambiguity. This article is based on Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J Erickson published in the Harvard Business Review.

Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams.  Key ideas from the Harvard Business Review article by Lynda Gratton, Tamara J. Erickson, categorized by: What Executives Can Do, What HR Can Do, and What Team Leaders Can Do.

How to Manage Virtual Teams by Frank Siebdrat, Martin Hoegl and Holger Ernst in MIT Sloan Review. Virtual teams can outperform co-located teams, provided the end-to-end collaboration process – from selecting team members to delivering results – is carefully managed. The key findings of their study are: i) Virtual nature of the team is not necessarily detrimental to its performance; rather, the performance depends on team’s task-related processes, ii) Any level of “dispersion – even small levels – impacts team performance, and iii) Social skills and self-sufficiency of potential members are the key ingredients for assembling effective virtual teams. The authors outline the benefits and challenges of virtual teams. Recommendation of the paper are: i) Emphasize teamwork skills, ii) Promote self-leadership across the team, iii) Provide face-to-face meetings, and iv) Foster a global culture.

Six Strategies for Managing Telecommuters by Carl Eidson, Ph.D., Vice President and Wilson Learning. With the right skills and tools, virtual teams can be as effective as any traditional co-located teams, and in some cases, can be even more productive and efficient. The article is based on How to Manage Virtual Teams by Frank Siebdrat, Martin Hoegl and Holger Ernst in MIT Sloan Review.

Real-Time Collaboration Has Stalled...for Now.  Alex Williams offers an insightful editorial on a study by Forrester on The State of Technology Adoption. The post includes two charts that highlight survey findings. Key points are: i) Dominant use of email is the biggest challenge to real-time collaboration. ii) Information workers do not really use tools such as web-conferencing, instant messaging and video-conferencing. iii) Innate needs for collaboration are present. Also see our related post: Despite Innate Needs, Real-Time Collaboration Stalling. 

Change your world or the world will change you: The future of collaborative government and Web 2.0.  Paper outlines the future of relationship between government and its citizens, due to emerging possibilities for collaboration. It also offers ideas on how changes will occur and the benefits they would provide. A good bit of the substance is applicable to for-profit enterprises as well.

Using technology to improve workforce collaboration by James Manyika, Kara Sprague and Lareina Yee. Increasing number of knowledge workers and associated wage premium amplifies the significance of collaboration. The article provides statics to this effect, followed by recommendations on improving collaboration. Included are interesting findings on waste in collaboration.

How to Handle the Pessimist on Your Team by Amy Gallo in Management Essentials, Harvard Business Press. The author offers: i) approaches to handle negative behavior, ii) principles to remember (the do and don’t),  and iii) two case study.

Collaboration 2.0.  Oliver Marks offers a frequently updated blog on points-of-view, interviews with insiders, and technologies and tools.

What factors determine the quality of collaborative processes? by Joseph P McMahon.  From definition to assessing collaborative processes, for the following collaborative factors: Competent representation, Diversity, Collaborative attitude, Effective communication, Collaborative structure, and Collaborative context.

What It Takes To Foster A Culture Of Collaboration by Gil Yehuda.  Author’s advice and insights: 1. Implementing tools does not change collaborative behaviors 2. New organizational realities drive collaboration 3. Cultural barriers tap the breaks 4. Addressing corporate culture enables collaboration 5. Get support from all stakeholders 6. Think marathon, not sprint 7. Pick technology that addresses the problem.  by Steve Pavlina. The author outlines benefits and drawback of social networking, from personal research and experiences. He also provides recommendations on how to use social networking productively.

Enterprise 2.0: How a Connected Workforce Innovates. An Interview with Andrew P. McAfee by Anand Raman in Harvard Business Review. The article addresses two issues: i) How do the new social technologies transform innovation efforts?, and ii) Does the use of Enterprise 2.0 technologies yield better ideas? Won’t a company simply drown in bad ideas?

Social Networking: Rethinking Productivity. The author outlines benefits and drawback of social networking, from personal research and experiences. He also provides recommendations on how to use social networking productively.

Leading Effectively from a Distance: Six Strategies Managers Need to Know by Carl Eidson. The articles outlines benefits and liabilities of virtual teams, six leadership strategies for virtual team high performance, and questions to ask if you are managing a virtual team.

Collaborative Authoring Decreases Time to Market. The BT Group’s strategy is a combination of outsourcing content production and having the capability to continue to produce local content. The local training has to be produced rapidly and inexpensively, meet certain standards, and load easily onto BT’s learning management system, which is called Route2Learn (SumTotal). Recently, after assessing requirements and capabilities, the group decided to implement a collaborative system for authoring, managing and deploying learning content. The article outlines the process – Defining Requirements, Selecting a Solution, Extending the Scope – followed by lessons learned.

Collaboration and Community -- Promoting Collaboration for a Sustainable Community: A Critical Examination of Education, Immigration and the Local Economy in Santa Fe.  The paper addresses: 1. What is Collaboration? 2. Collaboration vs. Other Models of Cooperation 3. Principles of Collaboration 4. Dynamics of Collaboration 5. Collaborative Leadership 6. Limitations of Collaboration 7. Building Collaborative Communities.

Strategy + Business: The Promise (and Perils) of Open Collaboration by Andrea Gabor.  Author proposes: 1. Craft leadership message 2. Collaborate with customers 3. Build a culture of trust and open communication 4. Cultivate open communication 5. Build a flexible innovation structure 6. Prepare your organization for the new skill set 7. Align evaluation and rewards.

The Alternatives to Collaboration by Andrew Gent.  The post challenges conventional wisdom and outlines problems with collaboration. The author presents alternatives to collaboration and suggests that behaviors such as conspiring and competing in fact may be more productive. Eventual recommendation is to understand and bridge different styles of interaction.

The Collaborative Organization by Rachel Conerly, Tim Kelley and John Mitchell.  Authors define collaboration and outline how it works, followed by prescription for collaboration in practice: 1. Identify problem, 2. Involve all relevant stakeholders, 3. Create a collaborative plan, and 4. Design and facilitate collaborative meeting.

Collaboration and Community by Scott London.  Author addresses: What is Collaboration?, Collaboration vs. Other Models of Cooperation, The Principles of Collaboration, The Dynamics of Collaboration, Collaborative Leadership, The Limitations of Collaboration, and Building Collaborative Communities.

The latest tech tool? People power. by Alan S. Cohen. How social networking can transform the CIO into a superhero! To be sure, for social networks to become the next great tool in the CIO’s daring arsenal, they need to evolve. They need to be secure. They need to integrate into corporate information systems. They need to support work processes that deliver business results.

What is Collaboration?  Article outlines “Collaboration Life-Cycle” at a conceptual level. The proposed model suggests the following stages: Awareness, Motivation, Self-synchronization, Participation, Mediation, Reciprocity, Reflection and Engagement.

Top Ten Tips for Web-based Collaboration in SMBs.  A short article offering tips for encouraging collaboration in SMB environments.

Defining Common Collaboration Tensions by Harvard Business Publishing.  This short article addresses inherent tensions in “scalable” collaboration: Transactional versus Relational Collaboration, Loosely versus Tightly Coupled, and Static versus Dynamic.

Define Collaboration Before Planning a Strategy by T. Austin, B. Burton.  Authors of Gartner Research say: “Companies generally focus too much on "buying" collaboration rather than on the behaviors it enhances. Focus on augmenting specific behaviors, not on generalized support for collaboration.”

Collaboration Strategy: Strategic Framework.  Collaboration as People, Process/Tools, and Shared Bounded Goals within a Context for Goal-Specific Work and Knowledge work. The article has useful links to other research.