The Web keeps getting better and better. If only we humans could keep up with it! People, not technology, keep us from making our relationships at work more productive and fulfilling.
This month I’m researching what makes for successful online collaboration. Share your experience, and I’ll send you my findings in about a month.
I am focusing on the human aspects of successful online collaboration: social success factors, life cycles, corporate culture, politics, common roadblocks, results, tips, and war stories.
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>I am focusing on the human aspects of successful online
>collaboration: social success factors, life cycles,
>corporate culture, politics, common roadblocks, results,
>tips, and war stories.
I’ve been developing tools for online collaboration since the early 90s. 10 years ago, I tested my toolset by moving to a farm 90 miles from my metropolitan center.
Based on my experiences, online teams require face-to-face processes at the team’s core. Peripheral members of the team may never participate in these face-to-face events, but the core relies on them. Competent online teams emerge as supports to the core face-to-face processes.
Competent online teams multiply the effect and power of the core. This multiplier effect is the source of much joy. It is also the source of much anxiety.
Mark, I’d love to hear more.
I’ve seen teams work when they meet f2f to begin with and then go virtual. Somehow the “met her once” is more powerful than the “only know her online.” But after rapport is established, it can be migrated to the network. Do you agree? I’d love to see some research on this.
Principles are principles, but hasn’t the online environment changed since the early 90s in terms of processing power, bandwidth, tools, attitudes toward computers, etc., enough so that 10 year-old experiments need a re-test?
Jay,
>I’ve seen teams work when they meet f2f to begin…
There are a lot of ways to start, the key issue is how trust and team competency grows. Text has extremely limited bandwidth. All teams encounter stress. Stressed individuals have a very difficult time getting their emotional cues down that a text based pipeline. At the same time, stressed individuals find it hard to switch communication modes (going from text to phone, etc.) Thus, online collaboration rarely gets past abstract commentary (low emotional content) without a host of alternative communication channels.
Teams that achieve competence tend to forget the technology they use. For example, a modern fighting team in the US Army or Al-Qaeda uses ‘online collaboration’, but the term doesn’t quite describe their capabilities. The thousands of married couples who met online use(d) ‘online collaboration’, but they would probably laugh if you suggested it remained critical to the relationship.
Despite the various examples of successful teams with ‘online collaboration’ in their toolkit, there seems to be surprisingly little published on ‘building teamwork with online tools’. For example, I’ve been looking for something on ‘building teams’ using ‘SharePoint’. The books I’ve found on SharePoint are written for network administrators, not team members. The literature on ‘wikis’ is lacking much practical advice on how they can build teamwork. At a practical level, it seems that those who implement collaboration systems generally invent their own practices on the fly, one team member at a time. Putting these practices into text seems a useful goal.
Mark,
I would love to hear more about your research around building teamwork using SharePoint or any resources you may know about.
Mark,
“At a practical level, it seems that those who implement collaboration systems generally invent their own practices on the fly, one team member at a time.”
That’s precisely why I’m doing this.
jay
In my experience, online collaboration works when everyone involved agrees upon the ground-rules for the interaction. An early discussion (in the trust building phase of team building) where everyone shares their expectations and foibles goes a long way to making the team work. If I know what annoys my co-workers and how they prefer to interact, then I can try not to set off any hot buttons.
Using intentional community building tools, like covenanting, goes along way to creating successful online collaboration.
Check out places like SourceForge.net… surely they have projects where people never meet, but still good teamwork? (Actually, I have a project there but I’m the only developer for now ;) )
[...] Making online collaboration work [...]
Yes ~ emails, ims and other traditional communication systems have grown obsolete. There are needs for applications that can accommodate and consolidate all the different functionalities of different communication enable all individuals to communicate on a common real time platform. Personally I prefer CommuniClique’s web-based application because web-based apps enables any team member to change any exisiting information virtually from any computer.
Projjex.com is a great new site that does a fabulous job of collaboration. It’s completely browser-based, really easy to use, and has a free version. Cool videos too - I love it!
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