Chapter 30
Teams and Technology
A dozen years ago team processes
were slow but simple. People worked together, met together, spent Miller Time
together -- they virtually lived together, in one place. The team was likely
all male, all white, and all of them -- Bob, Tom, Al and Dave -- all drove to
the same bedroom community when the working day was done.
Not no more. A handful of mighty
forces have broken up the old gang. Some companies have gone global, spreading
teams across a score or more time zones, and three or four continents. Telecommuting
has undermined the sense of home office solidarity. Corporate alliances with
strategic partners mean that team members may not even be working for the same
company.
The move toward workplace
diversity has further stirred the stew. A team today is about as mixed up as a
team could be. And the most obvious victim of this mix-up is the Monday morning
meeting. Bob is still on the team, but he is joined by Christine, Dewayne,
Abdul and Xiaoping, plus a subteam in Sweden, plus auxiliary members at a dozen
partner organizations, three of them in Singapore.
Instead of being all together in
one place, the new team is scattered across the face of the globe. English is
not the first language for the majority of team members. They come from
different cultures, with different assumptions. They live in different time
zones. They are paid in different money.
Go, team.
Technology is what made this kind
of global teamwork possible. With luck, technology just might help it all work.
Few pieces of techno-babble are as
misunderstood as the word groupware.
Groupware is a kind of
contradiction -- personal software that is for groups. In the beginning,
groupware products addressed two main problems, controlling workflow (process)
and regulating work content (substance). But now, with the Internet and
wireless communications, groupware functions are all over the place.
We describe four different
classifications of groupware, according to when each is used, and where. They
are:
Same Time/Same Place. The conventional meeting -- team members
sitting together in a room and talking -- is the ultimate and the archetypal
Same Time/Same Place technology. For vividness, clarity, and social strokes,
nothing will ever take its place.
But meetings have their own
tyranny, wasting time and team energy. And people simply can't meet Wednesdays
at 2 PM in the conference room like they used to. So conventional meetings are
giving way, thanks to technology, to new ways of meeting, in different places
and different times.
One of the most interesting Same
Time/Same Place applications is electronic voting systems, such as
OptionFinder. OptionFinder is a handheld remote hooked up via wires or wireless
to a PC. Team members use the remote to vote on issues that arise, and the
software displays the votes immediately, prompting discussion on why the team
differed. The conversation leads the team to the next level, beyond politeness
to true inquiry.
We have seen teams that thought
they were in perfect agreement (but weren't getting anything done) use a tool
like OptionFinder to flush out their deeper opinions. Suddenly they have to
confront resistance, disparagement, dismissiveness, or genuinely good reasons
why they disagree.
Same Time/Different Place. This is technology that allows people to
communicate simultaneously across distance -- but not across so much that one
party is likely to be asleep while the other is awake. It was the miracle of
the ages once -- the telegraph, the telephone, ham radio. Before that, we relied
on smoke signals and drums. More recent developments: two-way video, screen
sharing, live on-line chat boards, teleconferencing, FAX on demand.
Different Time/Same Place. Think of the 100-year team that built
the cathedrals in Rouen and Chartres -- multiple-lifetime projects occurring on
a single site.
These are programs that team
members can plug into on-site, at a time of their choosing -- any
multiple-input, round-the-clock system. A Post-It note tabbed to the chair of
the worker sitting at your desk during the shift after yours. The office
itself, with all its books, tools, and support systems, is a
"technology" meeting this definition.
One of the first electronic steps
away from Same Time/Same Place team action was also one of the most significant
-- single-site networking, such as at a plant where three shifts of workers
must somehow be in constant communication, around the clock. That solution,
first implemented back in the 1960s, was the beginning of e-mail.
Different Time/Different Place. E-mail and networking quickly moved
beyond a single site. In so doing it paved the way for the development of
workgroup computing systems like Lotus Notes, a powerful messaging, planning
and organizing tool. Notes is the avatar of a whole new era of groupware
products that will link networked teams together across time and space. But
Notes, while flexible and easy to use, still represents the tip of the iceberg
of the new meeting technologies.
Other examples: Voice Mail, online
services like America Online and Microsoft Network. Internet gateways. FAX.
This is the most-publicized
groupware grouping, and it will only become more dominant as the Web becomes
truly worldwide.
Deciding what
technology is best for your team is a big question, involving everything
currently on the market, but intuiting what is about to occur, and what the
next standards will be.
We can't go through
all that. But we can ask some diagnostic questions about the technology you
currently have in place, and whether it is helping the team be a team or
keeping it from being one.
The network is the
greatest team tool the world has ever seen. It allows people spread far apart
to be sharing information 24 hours a day. It frees individuals from numerous
rote tasks and allows them to use parts of the brain higher up the stem. Some
perfect combination of phones, faxes, computers, modems, and group software
products can lift your team to remarkable levels of achievement. But chances
are, you've got the wrong combination in place.
v
Does your team run your computer system, or does the
computer system run your team?
You want your
people to be functioning like adults, not reduced to tears by some idiot batch
command loop that they can't get out of. A great system is one which people can
log onto, access what they need, and change what needs changing, without having
to call in the system administrator. As your processes evolve, your system
should be able to evolve with it. Problem is, most networks are still much too
hard to use.
v
Is the team really more productive, or do they just
look busy?
This is the biggie.
Labor statistics say that office automation is leading a upsurge in
productivity. Downsizing, the shucking off of unneeded personnel, and teaming,
the elimination of the supervisory level, are offshoots of this surge. But not
every activity belongs on-screen. Lots of activities still work better the old
way -- paper calendars, yellow legal pads, and No. 2 pencils.
v
Are security concerns undoing the benefits of your
network?
Teams thrive on
trust. Your network is supposed to keep people in constant touch with another,
via e-mail, shared data, and computer conferencing. Too many levels of
passwords, or too obsessive an attitude about data security, can effectively
lock people away from one another -- putting your budding team right back on
square one.
v
Are teams properly trained, or are they put out there
to sink or swim?
Most team members
needs training, and not just on-the-job. Microsoft Excel, Lotus Notes and the
Internet are not intuitive ideas, no matter what your tech consultant told you.
Bad training begets inefficiency and error. Some organizations have been
successful by having workers who are already expert at key programs and
technologies take leadership in training the incoming.
v
Are team suggestions welcome, invited, rewarded?
It's to an
organization's advantage to make team members lightning rods for process
improvements, including technological processes. If team members come up with
tips on how to use the software more efficiently, or how to move data from
place to place with fewer problems, solicit them, and spread the word.
v
Is improved communications messing people up?
You can have too
much of a good thing. Many teams have exulted in their new internal bulletin
board system, or voicemail setup, only to be capsized by the torrent of
messages. New Internet subscribers often complain about logging in to perform a
task, but first having to wade through 100 e-mail messages.
Technology can also
undercut team feeling. Computers are a great help for teams scattered across a
wide area, but they can put a real dent in teams occupying the same quarters.
E-mail is great, but nothing beats good old face-to-face conversation. There is
no such thing (yet) as a virtual water cooler, or a digital bull session.
v
Has freedom led to chaos?
A team member turns
telecommuter, and now works from home. To some extent he now manages himself,
but not completely. How do you keep people you never break bread with connected
and in touch with team goals? Has your company devised a plan to keep all its
lone rangers from galloping off in a dozen different directions?
And how does a team
leader practice MBWA -- "managing by walking around" -- when
"around" is so far around?
What used to be a
team of people working 9 to 5 in the same shoebox is now a bewildering array of
all kinds of people working all sorts of crazy hours, reporting in a variety of
different ways. Workers in such conditions require more attention, not less.
v
Is your technology a substitute for real change?
The blessing of computers and
networking is that they can cut employees loose from order-giving,
double-checking, top-down hierarchies: "Do this and don't ask
questions." But they work all right with old-style pre-team structures,
too. "Computer sweatshop" is not an oxymoron. Don't assume, just
because your team is wired and online that they understand it's OK now to
think. Let your computers be clones, and your people be people.
technology and
personality
Sometimes teams imagine that all
they have to do is select an appropriate technology, master it as a team, and
go forward. They forget that the team exists, that it is better than
disconnected individuals, because the differentness of its members deepens and
enriches performance.
We are not just different in and of
ourselves. We are also different in the way we approach and engage with
technology.
Sometimes the differentness
resolves itself neatly. Imagine there are only two "tech
personalities" – Power Users, who eat, drink, and breathe technology, and
Pluggers, who get it, but only eventually.
If a team is made of three Power
Users and five Pluggers, the Power
Users teach the Pluggers how to use the software or hardware, and all is well.
The teaching actually aids in team formation -- it cements a bond.
There are, however, more than just
those two personality types.
Yes, there are Power Users -- the
early adapters, the people technology is rolled out to first. They learn it,
and become teachers.
Pluggers are the earnest students
who pick up the lessons as quickly as they can. They are no great shakes at
using systems, but they give as good as they get, and don't complain.
The rest of the team could be all
over the place.
Some of us are People Persons. We
think in terms of feelings and organic relationships. Systematic thinking of
the sort you need to learn file transfer protocols isn't in our natures.
Those of us with Artistic
Dispositions never quite get with the program. We are self-directed, and can't
be bothered with the universe the software wants to superimpose over our own.
We use computers and software in a halting, unenthusiastic fashion.
Some are Worriers by nature. Their
fear that something will go wrong prevents them from ever exploring a system
the way a complex system like the Internet or Windows Registry needs to be
explored. But they keep great backups.
Some people are Overenthusiasts.
They get so immersed in the trivia of technology that they lose sight of the
big scheme. They decline to read manuals and help files, but cheerfully
badmouth the company in CompuServe forums. They buy too impulsively, with too
little research, and too late at night.
Others of are of the Executive
temperament, whether we rule from the penthouse or mop up the outhouse. We
aren't patient with steep learning curves. Net it out for us upfront or get out
of our sight. The worst people with technology are corporate (non-IT) bosses.
And you have your bona fide
Technophobe, rare but still out there and bemoaning the existence of anything
more advanced than a one-horse dray. To the true Technophobe, anything
electronic is the spawn of Satan, and all its promises are cruel lies. (He's
right, but does he have to be so cocksure about it?)
There are dozens of more types.
Dabblers, One-Note Johnnies, Sloths, Misers, Whiners -- you know them. The
point is that we are all different but we are all sold the same systems with
the same materials, aimed at only one or two types, the Power User and the
Plugger. The rest of us are left to scratch our heads and wonder what it's like
to be part of progress.
What this means is that not only
must a team battle itself to express and appreciater one another's ideas, but
it must battle the different levels of enthusiasm with which team members use
the tools of communication.
Have you ever sent a teammate a
time-bound message by e-mail, assuming she, like you, checks her e-mail box
every day? Maybe that message was important. Is she to blame because she
doesn't like e-mail? Or are you to blame for not knowing she doesn't read e-mail
faithfully?
Relationships -- and team successes
-- rise and on fall on such issues. So know your teammate's technological
tolerance levels. And if someone you must communicate with doesn't like e-mail
-- call her on the phone.
Remember that e-mail is not the
mission -- it is merely a means to achieving the mission.
Laurel and hardy
technologies
Technology can be a blessing or it
can, if relied on too heavily, become a dangerous trap. Not long ago we
received this e-mail description of a team blinded by technology:
"Our teams have retreated into
an e-mail world. We're not sure we can coax them out of the electronic burrow
and back to face-to-face communicating. People sitting ten feet apart are
writing notes to one another and then routing them through Bolivia."
We are passing through a phase
right now of intoxication with netted communications. While we play, and until
the fascination fades, on-site team communication is going to suffer. Teams in
thrall to their network never have the fresh, synergistic feeling of really
working together in real time. Their communications will be static and cold
because of the turn-taking that is part of today's posting technologies. Like
Hardy and Laurel passing trough a doorway, they bog down taking turns.
One solution is to move the
furniture around -- to reengineer the workplace so that teaming comes
naturally. If it seems legitimate to talk to the fellow down the hall by way of
Bolivia, put everyone in one big room together. Dismantle the partitions. Some
groups need to really live together to become a team. But be careful with
togetherness; a little goes a long way.
Another enlivener is a virtual
chalkboard. Every system has a networked window, on which anyone can scrawl a
group message -- a deadline, a cartoon, a cherished saying, a reminder. The
window is always present in iconized form, and can be zapped to full size with
an ALT-SHIFT combination. It is an electronic commons, on which anyone can tell
everyone anything.
Before you build the perfect gilded
cage for your team, however, remember that only conventional workteams occupy a
single space. Most of the teams we are all on are short-term, ad-hoc teams. If
your team is the local PTA, that is a team which should not live together.
We know a product development team
that is headquartered locally, but with half of its members scattered from heck
to breakfast. Three designers are at divisional headquarters here. Four more
are employees of four different corporate partners: one is a manufacturer's rep
in Columbus; two are production subcontractors in Mexico City and the
Philippines; the fourth is a semi-retired engineer/telecommuter in Ketchikan,
Idaho. The team also claims, as adjunct members, another engineer in Paris, an
industrial sales whiz in New York, and the team's corporate sponsor in Osaka.
This is what teams are coming to,
and the technologies go way beyond the PBX. The Minnesota group formally
videoconferences with other members once a week. Because of time zone
differences, members draw straws to see who has to face the camera in the
middle of the night.
Videoconferencing used to be a big
deal -- everyone had to go to a private TV studio in the company
telecommunications center. Today it's a lot easier -- they all have little
video eyes mounted in the corners of their PCs. The image is a little stiff and
it flickers a bit, but they can now call one another at the drop of a hat and
have a conversation with live video of one another on their computer screens.
If that sounds extravagant, realize
that this is the closest these people ever get to one another. Seeing one
another's faces makes everyone seem less Darth Vaderesque. Having real faces to
connect with names and voices helped break the ice and help team formation.
Besides video, the team makes
hourly use of fax. This is especially useful to the people in Paris and Japan,
who like to not be conscious when the Minnesota members are. Faxing helps them
stay current with one another, within a few hours.
Online services are also important.
The Japan office subscribes to MCI Mail. Columbus is on America Online.
Minneapolis and Japan are hooked up to The Microsoft Network. The fellow in
Idaho uses a wireless faxmodem with his laptop up at his cabin in the
mountains, and it connects with an Internet gateway in Coeur d'Alene. Using
this motley assortment of online bulletin boards, the ten team members can send
one another daily memos on problems they are facing, edited versions of one
another's documents.
The headquarters half of the team
is the envy of the others because they enjoy broadband Internet transmission.
But the engineer in Idaho has the sweetest technology -- a wireless handheld
that can swap e-mail from his cabin atop a blue mountain. Remarkable freedom,
with no strings attached.
What's remarkable to us about this
team is that it is really doing all this right now. And the team isn't anything
exotic -- it designs highway construction equipment.
We asked one of the team, Kathy,
whether they felt that the technology was too much, whether they were in danger
of vanishing into it and never coming out, like the e-mail moles back in the
second paragraph.
"No, we all enjoy it,"
she said, "because you can see everything. It makes things that are
happening very far away seem real, and close by."
Bottom line: a team is still a
team, no matter how much hardware and software it drags behind it.
A computer will not impose
clarity on a fuzzy notion -- or vice versa. That is something only we can do.
If your globally networked team
is in trouble from too much technology, here's what you do. Make a point, maybe
twice a year, of buying plane tickets and flying to some agreed-upon location,
and get to know one another again, in the flesh.
Bring a swimsuit, and make it a
vacation.
![[IMAGE]](http://mfinley.com/gif/new-teams-cover.jpg)
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