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Sunday, July 20, 2003 |
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It isn't surprising at all that Sam Ruby and I read many of the same geek blogs, but I was surprised to see that we both read Jenny Moore's reflections. I don't know how Sam first ran across Jenny's blog, but I'm guessing it wasn't the same way I did. See, my wife's name is Jennifer Moore (not Jenny, though), too, and some friends jokingly call her J Mo, as well. We were laughing about that one night, and I decided to see whether that domain was free. I was bummed to find that Jenny already had it, but I did enjoy her blog. Being a parent, too, I enjoy her entries about Jr, and you have to respect the Vargas pictures. comment [] trackback [] 6:08:04 PM 
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As global teams of Internet-connected workers become more of a reality, so do the corresponding logistics and cultural barriers they raise. Stanford Business School explores how some managers are tackling the challenges. [CNET News.com]
Not a bad article, IMO. I've managed distributed teams (U.S. and Europe), and I can't overemphasize the importance of staying aware of cultural differences. The article's point on the importance of trust is worth noting. IMO, the best way to develop trust is to enable team members to recognize one another as real, fully-rounded individuals. I think the best way to promote that is to allow them to meet in person for extended periods. If that isn't possible, I think it helps to promote whatever virtual, non-work interactions you can. Do team members share interests, hobbies, etc.? Put them together with an informal e-mail. I've thought it would be interesting to make team member pictures and biographies available on the network. I've also thought about having web cams mounted in break areas to promote informal interaction across sites. (Of course, time differences probably would make this suboptimal, but I would have liked to have tried.) I never got to try those, though.
I thought the idea of having everyone on distributed conference calls participate over the phone from their desk was an interesting idea, too. Certainly easy enough to try. |
Last update: 11/2/04; 6:10:50 PM .
