Teamwork

Articles about team work and virtual teams.

manage temporal diversity

How Important Is It To Manage Temporal Diversity in Virtual Teams?

  During the last weekend, I had a chance to observe a couple of workers who were installing new backsplash in my kitchen. One of them was setting the tiles as quickly as he could. It was clear that he wanted to finish his task and get out as quickly as possible. The other went about his work patiently. He… Read more →

Facebook & Twitter Talk Not Empathy-Evoking

Facebook & Twitter Talk Not Empathy-Evoking

  Some months back, Betsy had blogged about a New York Times article by Clive Thompson on how technologies such as Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter lead to ambient awareness. She wrote: “These technologies make it convenient to quickly and easily give or get updates with a number of other people.  Although each individual message might have little meaning as a stand-alone,… Read more →

Preventing Poor Performance in Teams

Preventing Poor Performance in Teams

According to Harvard’s Richard Hackman, a leading expert on teams, there is a widespread belief that teams make us more productive and creative and that they are the best way to get a job done. In a May 2009 Harvard Business Review interview, Professor Hackman cautions us that problems with coordination, motivation, and competition often cause a team to perform… Read more →

The Under-Estimated Importance of Friendships

We have said often and heard from others that maintaining positive social communication and relationships and creating opportunities for socialization are important for effective and satisfying work in virtual teams (e.g. see New Year Resolution: Be Happy ; Spread Your Virtual Smile, Really). Even though team members are often communicating over geographical distances, personal interaction and forming bonds with distant… Read more →

What Leads to Effective Virtual Teamwork?

What Leads to Effective Virtual Teamwork?

The April 2009 issue of the Communications of the ACM, a highly respected journal, published an article by Jay F. Nunanamker, Bruce A. Reining, and Robert O. Briggs on ‘Principles for Effective Virtual Teamwork.’ The authors derived these principles from their decade long experience of working with hundreds of virtual teams. I present these principles and also provide links to… Read more →

The Implications of Cloud Computing for Business Leaders and Teams

The Implications of Cloud Computing for Business Leaders and Teams

  It’s both good and bad that I can’t take my work home.  These days my biggest limitation is technology. The work I do depends heavily on several expensive software packages.  My employer has a policy disallowing the organization from paying for software for home computers, and these applications are too expensive for me to buy on my own dime. … Read more →