A NewApproach to

TeamworkDan Bena

www.danbena.com

www.sustainableshaman.com

Why ants? What can we learn?

• Each member of the team gives his/her best effort

• They know how to collaborate

• Together, they can outperform much larger competitors

"Ants certainly communicate information to each other, and several unite for the same work, or for games of play. They recognize their fellow-ants after months of absence, and feel sympathy for each other. They build great edifices, keep them clean, close the doors in the evening, and post sentries. They make roads as well as tunnels under rivers, and temporary bridges over them, by clinging together. They collect food for the community, and when an object, too large for entrance, is brought to the nest, they enlarge the door, and afterwards build it up again.…They emigrate according to a pre-concerted plan…and endless similar facts could be given.”

--Charles Darwin

"The Descent of Man“

1871

Communication

Unity toward a goal

Recognition

Enjoyment

Sympathy

Collective impact

Strategy & Planning

So, the ants provide good advice for teamwork, in general, but we have the added challenge of being a new virtual team…

Teams have evolved

FROM•Fixed team membership

•All members from within the organization

•Members dedicated 100% to the team

•Co-located organizationally and geographically•Fixed start and end point•Managed by a single manager

TO•Shifting team membership

•Members can be outside the organization

•Most are members of multiple teams

•Highly distributed

•Teams form and reform frequently•Multiple reporting relationships—different functions and at different times

Source: Keynote speech, Lisa Kimball, Executive Producer, GroupJazz.com

And this evolution requires a new management mindset…

From“Face-to-face is the best environment for interaction, and anything else is a compromise.”

To

“Different kinds of environments can support high-quality interaction. What matters is how you use them.”

From

“Collaboration is what happens when teams interact at a fixed time and space.”

To

“Collaboration happens in an on-going, boundary-less way.”

From

To

“Using technology in a people-

oriented way is possible and desirable.”

“Being people-oriented is incompatible with using technology.”

From

“Learning how to manage virtual teams is about learning how to use the technology.”

To

“Learning how to manage virtual teams is about learning more about teams and the collaboration process.”

Even if all this happens, there are still challenges to face

• 1600 respondents• 77 countries• Multinational

corporations

Virtual teams can be successful, but it takes work

Managing conflict and making decisions top the list of the biggest differences for the virtual team

Time zones and language rank among the top general challenges

On a more individual level, a

variety of personal

challenges must be recognized.

Not having enough time to build relationships is by far the biggest challenge on an individual level

So, what do we know works in a virtual team?

We’ve come full circle and are back to Darwin’s observations of the ants!

CommunicationUnity toward a goal

Collective impactStrategy & Planning

EnjoymentRecognition

Sympathy

Closing thought: Virtual teams are really all about collective impact

Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review, Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work, Jan 26, 2012

Within Global Operations, we continue to develop and deploy the tools necessary to have collective impact as a virtual team!