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Virtual Teams Need Face Time Too

The February issue of Harvard Business Review includes a “breakthrough idea” from Sandy Pentland of MIT, How Social Networks Work Best, that confirms what we have learned in years of managing virtual innovation teams: Web 2.0 tools are very useful when teams are gathering ideas and information but when the time comes to synthesize that information and decide where and how to proceed, teams benefit tremendously from face-to-face interaction.

The article describes the decision process of bees in determining where to locate a new hive. More…

Denny Crane and the Influence of Networks

Okay, enough about SharePoint, here’s something more thought provoking about networks.

Earlier this season on Boston Legal, Denny fired an associate because she was fat and got sued for wrongful termination…

Nancy: But I wasn’t too fat for you to hit on?
Denny: Well no, because I like chubby sex but I never asked you to dinner.
Emma: Did you hear that?
Nancy: I only heard ca-ching, ca-ching.

Alan successfully defended Denny on the grounds that he was simply protecting himself from “catching” obesity, citing research…

Experiences with SharePoint

We are using SharePoint (MOSS 2007) as the collaborative platform for our professional development / innovation programs. Getting permission to use a platform outside the corporate firewall just isn’t realistic in this context where teams are developing new products, services and lines of business. And our clients are invested in SharePoint and want to see it successfully used. Often they see our programs as an opportunity to demonstrate the value of a collaborative platform and a way to test adoption strategies.

Last year we used SharePoint 2003 with a main…

Social Network Analysis

In the innovation programs I have run for large financial services companies, a primary objective is to get the participants to build strong networks as they collaborate with their peers and seek assistance from seniors, vendors and clients. Participants regularly report that working with others outside their area and learning about other parts of the business made the experience worthwhile. While everyone recognizes the value of these networks, measuring their value is rarely a priority.  Innovation initiatives, especially in financial services, are judged by the revenue generated by the resulting…