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Articles
Unleash the Creative Potential of E-Collaboration
by Dave Brookmire
October 2006
A solo graphic artist based in Atlanta has clients in
Denver and Virginia.
A national law firm announces a new strategic
alliance with a boutique practice in Minnesota.
A private equity firm completes a roll-up of
manufacturers in three different cities.
A software development team is comprised of home-
based, telecommuting IT professionals and office-
based team leaders.
What do these scenarios have in common? Each one
features a work team that relies on electronic
collaboration to get the job done. Let me offer yet
another scenario, a testament to the potential for e-
collaboration not only to work, but also to work well:
e-coaching. Executive coaching is one of the most
interpersonal, communication-intensive and
collaborative exercises. Yet it is being conducted in
virtual environments with remarkable success.
In this dispersed, flat world in which we live,
electronic collaboration has evolved as a necessary
tool for achieving cost-effective, time-efficient
results. We can set goals, establish teams, monitor
progress and measure results without regard for
geographic obstacles.
About ten years ago, coaching professionals like us
began using the simplest electronic collaboration
tool, the telephone, to augment traditional coaching
arrangements. Today, e-coaching runs along a
continuum of sophistication ranging from remote
coaching via telephone to web-applications that
support the entire coaching process.
As technology becomes more elegant and more
people become accustomed to video conferencing
and web-enabled communication, our profession has
joined others in adopting collaborative technologies.
Technology allows us to achieve rapid performance
improvements in measurable ways, no matter what
our client’s organizational structure looks like.
The ten-year learning curve that has taken us from
face-to-face coaching to e-collaboration has yielded
valuable lessons that can be applied to any
electronically linked work team. Whether you are a
service provider working with a client team in another
state, or a project-centric work team spanning the
globe, the basic tenets of interpersonal
communication hold true. And it all begins with trust.
“Trust is an underlying condition for successful
collaborative teams. Trust is difficult to achieve in
the traditional face-to-face environment. It does not
become easier in the virtual world,” says Canadian
collaborative technologies consultant Francine Gignac
in her book, Building Successful Virtual
Teams. “Collaboration cannot be forced on
people. It can only be facilitated.”
Gignac offers five facilitation strategies for virtual
teams:
- Clarifying the purpose, direction, and behavioral
models of the virtual team;
- Rewarding results, not compliance;
- Encouraging initiatives and risks;
- Emphasizing professionalism, information sharing,
and self-reflection;
- Integrating notions of:
- Dependability, that is, how people behave,
respect deadlines and appointments;
- Consistency, that is, respect of individuals,
applications of standards;
- Congruency, or perception matching reality;
and
- Mutuality and reciprocity, that is, “all for one and
one for all.”
In developing a model for electronic or virtual
collaboration, success depends on the application of
a structured methodology. If we can achieve e-
collaborative success in the very interpersonal realm
of coaching high-potential executives – even at-risk
professionals – then I believe any work team can
overcome the challenges of electronic communication
to discover the unbounded creative potential of e-
collaboration.
Links:
Blog: Collaboration Loop -
Collaborative Technologies in the
Enterprise
CIO Insight -
Karen Lojeski: The New Rules of the Virtual
Workplace
Entrepreneur magazine - Fantastic Forum:
To keep the floor open for your
team's innovative ideas at any time of the day or
night, bring your brainstorming online.
CIO Insight -
Measuring Virtual Distance
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