“At one point in my keynote presentation, I asked how many in the audience had blogs. Of the 250+ attendees, only three of us blogged!

Lilia Efimova, a Muscovite now with Telematica Instituut in The Netherlands, is a fellow believer in blogging. We had a tough time understanding why others just don’t get it. People asked, “Isn’t blogging sort of the same as SMS messaging?”

People said they didn’t have time to blog, but it’s not as if blogging crowds out other activities like, say, parasailing or watching television would. Blogging is part of my work routine; it makes public what I used to do just for myself. ”

Check this out: http://bit.ly/bLA6cD

You are oh so welcome back !

Jon, fully agree with “go slow to go fast”, but, still, what are the specific arguments that one results in another? Of, course, ideally I would deal with those who are convinced about it and then we just work together on “how-tos”, but in practice there is a lot of attitude change around those issues.

Jay, a nice overview! I think most of experienced (project) managers know and do those things, intuitively or explicitly. That’s said, it’s somehow much more difficult to “drink coffee” and “have chats” when you are in the same space compared to making time for social/”unproductive”/informal things online (well, talking about more traditional orgs here and not those who live and work online

(And so nice to see all of you guys – I’ve been lurking on the periphery for too long

Here’s a useful quote and a pointer to his thinking:

http://hypergogue.posterous.com/back-to-basics-nonaka-and-tacit-knowledge

“The fundamental principle of organizational design at the Japanese companies I have studied is redundancy — the conscious overlapping of company information, business activities, and managerial responsibilities. …

Redundancy is important because it encourages frequent dialogue and communication. This helps create a “common cognitive ground” among employees and thus facilitates the transfer of tacit knowledge. Since members of the organization share overlapping information, they can sense what others are struggling to articulate. Redundancy also spreads new explicit knowledge through the organization so it can be internalized by employees.”

I think (I may be wrong) that much of what we understand about communication and socialising is that we meet to exchange news and that these meetings are powered by difference.

It’s counter-intuitive for most people that we meet to go over common ground. The news is incidental.

Commitment by team members

It’s great to begin a long-term collaboration with a face-to-face meeting. Either in person or virtual, social bonding comes before business, for that’s the platform on which the work will be built. Begin with games and getting-to-know-you exercises. Give people time to talk and become familiar with one another.

Social connections remain vital throughout the collaboration. People work best with people they know. Encourage people to share information about themselves. Post photographs of participants. Pinpoint their locations on a map..

It’s important that collaborators are working under the same set of assumptions. Discuss each of these areas and ask for individual commitment to them.

• Respect the team, and do what is best to accomplish the objective. Be selfless, not selfish.
• Members will be active. If a member spots something to improve the collaboration, she volunteers to do it.
• Members freely share ideas and suggestions. They do not hoard information or keep secrets.
• Members treat each other with respect. The team is committed to continuous improvement.
• Members care for one another emotionally, helping one another over rough spots and fears.
• Use whatever tools are appropriate to advance the project: phone calls, on-line meetings.
• Members trust one another. They “make this marriage work.”

Be prepared for push-back. Workers who see collaboration as hindering their work rather than supporting it will be reluctant to join the effort. Organizations that are accustomed to a single viewpoint (usually top management’s) can become rattled as other voices begin to speak. It’s useful to recruit a band of early supporters to help sell the value of the project.

In my mind it’s related to a phrase I use pretty often .. “Go slow to go fast” .. all the talking, interaction, questions, playful double entendres,, jokes, etc. .. help clarify issues, build trust, seek out areas of disagreement and agreement, etc.

I often find it challenging to explain to people who have a business problem (~communication breakdowns around getting things done) that spending time doing fun and not directly productive things will actually help them with being more productive at the end. Wondering if you have any experiences/ideas on how to do it…