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Summary: "The scores of successful virtual teams the authors examined didn't have many of the psychological and practical obstacles that plagued their more traditional, face-to-face counterparts. Team members felt freer to contribute--especially outside their established areas of expertise. The fact that such groups could not assemble easily actually made their projects go faster, as people did not wait for meetings to make decisions, and individuals, in the comfort of their own offices, had full access to their files and the complementary knowledge of their local colleagues. Reaping those advantages, though, demanded shrewd management of a virtual team's work processes and social dynamics. Rather than depend on videoconferencing or e-mail, which could be unwieldy or exclusionary, successful virtual teams made extensive use of sophisticated online team rooms, where everyone could easily see the state of the work in progress, talk about the work in ongoing threaded discussions, and be reminded of decisions, rationales, and commitments. Differences were most effectively hashed out in teleconferences, which team leaders also used to foster group identity and solidarity."

Global virtual teams are internationally distributed groups of people with an organizational mandate to make or implement decisions with international components and implications. They are typically assigned tasks that are strategically important and highly complex. They rarely meet in person, conducting almost all of their interaction and decision making using communications technology. Although they play an increasingly important role in multinational organizations, little systematic is known about their dynamics or effectiveness. This study built a grounded theory of global virtual team processes and performance over time. We built a template based on Adaptive Structuration Theory (DeSanctis and Poole 1994) to guide our research, and we conducted a case study, observing three global virtual teams over a period of 21 months. Data were gathered using multiple methods, and qualitative methods were used to analyze them and generate a theory of global virtual team dynamics and effectiveness. First, we propose that effective global virtual team interaction comprises a series of communication incidents, each configured by aspects of the team's structural and process elements. Effective outcomes were associated with a fit among an interaction incident's form, decision process, and complexity. Second, effective global virtual teams sequence these incidents to generate a deep rhythm of regular face-to-face incidents interspersed with less intensive, shorter incidents using various media. These two insights are discussed with respect to other literature and are elaborated upon in several propositions. Implications for research and practice are also outlined.

Participating in social media has become a business imperative. More than 70 percent of organizations operating around the world are now active on social media. Many are finding significant benefits and unexpected risks along the way.  KPMG surveyed more than 1,800 managers and 2,000 employees at organizations in ten major markets and found that - in many cases - there remains a significant gap between expectation and reality when it comes to social media. 

Here is one approach to dealing with cloud computing security risks. This is a system promoted by the US government. 

Study from Com Team: Leading virtually still lacks broad acceptance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. While most managers and staff accept cost reduction as a major benefit, the "always on" consequence and increased pressure result in a negative assessment.

As the global economy emerges from the Great Recession, many organizations continue to experience its far-reaching effects, but it is not the only force at play as organizations continue to evolve. Technology, demographics, shifts in work relationships, regulatory environments, and globalization exert themselves to reshape work.  And many uncertainties remain about the future of the work that  will affect the structure and practices of the work experience.

it seems like the matrix form is alive and well in today's organizations - albeit having evolved from its early days. Why? Perhaps there is no bigger driver for the re-emergence of the matrix than organizations' increasing use of teams - virtual, project, cross-functional and global - to improve speed of delivery, customer responsiveness, cost concerns and productivity.

It wasn't that long ago-in the memory of most workers today-that people "went" to work. The work place was actually a "place" and people went there to earn a living. Some people still do. If you assemble circuit boards for Intel or automobiles for BMW, you will go to the place where the tools you need to do your job are kept. For the rest of us, a change has taken place that has fundamentally altered the way that work gets done. A typical project, for example, is planned in a series of meetings, launched in a rented conference room in an airport hotel, executed in who knows where, and managed using email and on-line tools. Sales meetings, to cite another example, take place on conference calls not in conference rooms.

Your company's workforce is its most valuable asset. It is the employees who translate your organization's strategy into reality, interact with consumers and determine the corporate brand. "Living the Brand" demonstrates how you can empower and enthuse your employees to create "brand champions". This approach enhances employee commitment, improves service standards and focuses efforts to deliver business goals.

Each brand is classified under an Engagement Profile, according to the brand's magnitude of presence and engagement. Those with high engagement and many channels (on the top right quadrant) are called mavens while those with one channel and low engagement (lower left quadrant) are named wallflowers. 

The simple reason for this post is to make you aware of the dangers of introducing third party tools into your SharePoint environments and to recommend a series of steps to take to help you understand and decide if a third party tool is right for you. Third party tools can and do add real value, but be sure that these tools do not interrupt your core SharePoint environment.

Summary: "Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you need the best practices and ideas for superior team building--but don't have time to find them--this book is for you. Here are 10 inspiring and useful perspectives, all in one place. This collection of HBR articles will help you: boost team performance through mutual accountability, motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects, increase groups' emotional intelligence, reverse the fortunes of a struggling team, prevent decision deadlock, extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars, fight constructively with top-management colleagues, and ensure productivity in far-flung teams."

Virtual teams, although relatively new to the global business landscape, are already recognized as a boon to international organizations. Without the time, cost and hazards of travel, groups can now share information, chat, innovate and make decisions together. Creating effective virtual teams has proved to be more difficult than expected. Managers cannot simply create high-performance by assigning members and 'letting them run'. Without careful structuring, support and attention to processes, virtual teams do not achieve their potential and may not even get off the ground. Here we focus on four of the most important challenges: effective communication, relationship building, managing conflicts and leadership.