Penny for your thoughts…

Betsy blogged on an article she read on the social effects of sharing “tidbits” of information via collaborative tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  I love the blog and the content from the article in the NY Times that she refers to by Clive Thompson.  I have previously blogged on the importance of allowing this type of information exchange and display.  Remote teams need to feel connected and need to know something about each other to feel loyal to one another and to begin to truly collaborate.  You probably chat with people you see day to day in the office, why not have some repor with those that are across the country and around the globe.  The summary is what I love; it states in conclusion that:

Clive Thompson’s article illustrates that ambient awareness can be achieved by frequent electronic contact, and can have positive effects on relationships.  This is especially relevant to virtual teams, who often struggle to enable personal contact among members.  But that contact is crucial for team building, trust, and cohesion.  We suggest moving away from the matter-of-fact, directive email that may be the typical communication between team members.  See if your team can gain a better, deeper connection among team members by developing communication in this new way.

Thanks to Betsy for the blog and thanks to Michael Sampson for directing me to this blog from his blog today!  Happy Collaborating

Team Work

I am currently on a team of business owners that is assisting a national chain on the challenge of pulling in more women and women business owners into their store.  It is a fascinating team to be on.  There are 50 or so of us broken up into a few teams focusing on different areas–small business, financing, home products, green products, etc.  Our team is on small business solutions.  I always feel after a meeting like we are truly collaborating and moving forward.  Since we did not know each other, we did not know what to expect from one another, but we have all been open to the fact that each of us has something to offer.  AND we have been right.  It is incredible to watch action items being taken and completed, ideas built upon and some awesome ideas are now being presented to this company.  All of the team came together recently and we all presented what our ideas were.  One idea was better than then one prior but not as good as the next. It just kept getting better and better.  Then energy and intelligence of the women is amazing.  BUT what this is truly showing me, again is that sharing ideas is ALWAYS the best.  No one is hoarding an idea, but all “think out loud” and then we all build on it.  The ideas just keep getting better and better and more fine tuned.  By the end of October we will have our product lines in place; I cannot wait to see what is the final product. I guarentee it will be on time and on scope.  Collaboration in action going on here!!!!

Introducing Social Networking at work

Social Media in promoting product is something that company after company is starting to implement.  Yesterday at a TAG (Technology Across Georgia) event, the panelists talked on this subject- the why should you’s, the how to’s and the gotchas.  I was happy to see such a panel brought together for our session. I learned alot and it was all relevent in today’s market.

Implementing Social Media inhouse is a hot topic as well. How can you broach this subject and how can it succeed and not seen as frivilous, silly stuff?  Before IT is engaged, do a little ground work; start here:

1. Have a clear understanding of the current business process in team collaboration and dynamics.

2. Where are the holes in this?  Examples -Team is remote and disconnected, mulitple copies of documents all over the place, lots and lots of email back and forth, no place to search for knowledge experts, no one place to find information on a topic, etc.

3. Engage a professional facilitator to work with information workers, managers, etc on brainstorming ideas on a better way.  Grassroots buy in is important!

4. Engage remote workers in these sessions to gage their feelings on being connected to the company and team?  What would help?

5. Engage managment to see the win win in doing things in a new and better way.  Put the WHY’s before the HOW’s.

Start here and as you can see engaging the right people early on is important.  This will begin to lay out the business case.  See what ideas start bubbling up here!  More next time.  Happy Collaborating!

Work yourself out of a job

Many of us have had the pleasure of working in an environment that has the “work yourself out of a job” mantra.  Years ago I had that experience and so have others I know.  We did not have blogs or wikis or even the internet then (I am dating myself). BUT what we did have was a spirit of collaboration and sharing.  Fear had not set in and we did not feel like the act of hoarding information made our job secured.  We did not want to hear that we could never leave because no one else would know what to do.  We wanted to prep the next person in behind us so that we could KEEP MOVING FORWARD also.  Hoarding information is a sure fire way to keep yourself stagnit in the workplace.  Collaborating, sharing, training is the way to be known as the “expert”, the ”go to person”,  the “team player” and the person most likely to keep moving on up!  Today we have blogs, wikis, and all kinds of tools that help us to collaborate.  BUT we first have to embrace the feeling of collaboration, the appreciation for what it can to for us and for others before we can ever tackle the tools that are out there.  What comes first the chicken or the egg?  What comes first a spirit of wanting to collaborate or the tool?  I say the spirit of collaboration makes the tool work; it is not the other way around.  Happy Collaborating!