Friday 31 October 2008

Any one Linked In??

I saw this today - a kind of Facebook for grown ups and professionals with cool applications (you know, not Vampire bites or cute bunny hugs) like Huddle workspace so you can share documents and work on projects together. Here's the Huddle video:




I think this might be something I try out with my team. We are attempting to set up a cross faculty network of "talent" we can draw on to develop learning programmes for clients. I have started to set up a Ning community, but it has limitations. With this I could envisage everyone having a Linked In profile detailing their CVs, and using something like Huddle to collaborate on tenders and programme design....hmmm!! Sounds promising!!

Wednesday 22 October 2008

nuff said

the blog is dead: it's official:
http://tinyurl.com/5f59ns

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Self Managed Teams

once again I am indebted to the Bioteams site - and to Ken Thompson - for bringing this to my intention.

http://tinyurl.com/5w4yy3

Self managed teams are a different kettle of fish to the remotely managed team - but sometimes, in the absence of a leader on a day to day basis, self management is the only option.

There is an interesting interview/video included which discusses some of the themes relevant to the performance management section of the programme: avoiding micro managing, trusting the team to manage situations effectively.

Paul Tesluk talks about taking time to get to know team members, to coach them and respect their individual contributions, role modelling by the leader.....everything you have been talking about in the discussion boards really

Wednesday 15 October 2008

If your soccer team played like your work team..

..is an interesting question posed by Ken Thompson of Bioteams.com in this video:

NLab Social Networks Conference 2008 - Ken Thompson from IOCT on Vimeo.

He explains his thinking about bio-teams, plays some good games! and poses some thought-provoking questions.

What if your work team played like a football team? Would they be better or worse? Is working in your team as exciting? (for football team substitute any high functioning group of your choice.... Ocean's 11???).

Ken gives a live demonstration of how social networks can be a used as a collective brain using simple text messaging techniques. His central theme is about collective leadership - no one leader has all the answers all the time. He also suggests that short messaging creates dynamic, mobile teams whereas we are locked into "document culture".

I'd add "discuss", but only in the chat room, I guess!

Tuesday 14 October 2008

5 common mistakes in using blogs

I have been pondering on the uses of blogs in this module: the following article has helped me in my musings...http://tinyurl.com/3m8wbd

I think the author make some good points about clarity and trust, busy-ness and perceived value.... what has emerged for me is that I like blogging and use this space to add richness to the learning materials we started with; but it doesn't lend itself to a place for discussion. Blackboard and the wiki do that.

If by setting up this blog I have found a repository for my own reflections and maybe taught one or two people how to use them for their own purposes, than I am happy enough with that.

I note that comments are becoming fewer on here... so I will do a belt and braces and post on Bb too......

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Sunday 5 October 2008

Team communications technology

A health-related team comms case study: may be useful as a starting point for this week's chat theme!!

http://tinyurl.com/4qp7m5

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Ten Commandments for bloggers

One thing we/I didn't do before setting up this blog was to set out some "rules of engagement". Here are some that have been suggested elsewhere.

http://tinyurl.com/3u9cob

This doesn't, however, refer specifically to issues of taste and decency.

I had cause recently to delete a posting from this site because I felt it was bit "near the knuckle" (although pretty funny I admit). I was operating from my own sense of what is and isn't OK, but I didn't discuss this with the group. Maybe I should have?

What do you thtink should be included in a set of "netiquette" guidelines for the blog, wiki and discussion boards?