The 11th Mind

I recently came across the work of Fred Keeton who is Vice President for External Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, Harrah's. Harrah's is the world's largest gaming company.

While Mr. Keeton ensures there is diverse representation of identity groups in the business, he also has another intent - cognitive diversity. His goal is to 'yield-manage' diversity to generate views radically different from the norm, and generate solutions to customer needs in new and compelling ways. He says in one interview, "The performance potential of any team depends upon the number and relevance of diverse cognitive tools it possesses".

The approach to collaboration at Harrah's can be summed up in the phrase - Diversity by Design. The term 'design' points to the fact that to yield-manage diversity a structured approach is needed, rather than simply putting a diverse team of people together and saying, "OK, show me the magic." The approach consists of the following steps:

1. Have a clearly defined business goal
2. Put together a diverse team with relevant dimensions of diversity considering the business goal
3. Create a safe environment - no fear of repercussion
4. Ensure all team member ideas are heard. The best idea wins
5. Ensure a formal structure and process to both synthesize and distill from the many ideas an actionable, scalable and sustainable solution

What struck me most was not so much the process, but an image (which, perhaps, tells you something about my own cognitive processing style). It is the image of the 11th mind.

Suppose you have a team of 10 diverse people, what the collaboration should produce is a collectively generated team member - the 11th member resulting from the active collaboration. A mind smarter than the other ten; the mind holding the best business solution.

To end with more words from Fred Keeton - "Rather than simply counting heads, our approach ensures that we make heads count."

Building Cooperation in Virtual Teams: General Guidelines

Many of us work in virtual teams so often that it can be easy to forget how to make the best out of these relationships. Cooperation is key to truly productive and effective virtual team working, here are a few tips for building cooperation and collaboration:

• Meet face-to-face early in the life of the team (if at all possible) to build relationships, shared ownership and personal commitment; meet face-to-face at regular intervals if you can
• At the beginning of a project focus on establishing relationships, and not just assigning tasks; promote a shared sense of identity and belonging
• Establish a climate of enthusiastic, open, honest, and respectful communication in which all ideas are valued, listened to and explored
• Quickly demonstrate your capabilities, your integrity, and your caring for others
• Maintain a sense of presence through frequent and thoughtful communications, and fast responses
• Problem solve rather than assign blame; deal with problems in a calm, confident way
• Establish transparency, keeping promises, confidentiality, and mutual accountability as key operating principles
• Develop shared understanding of the different contexts in which team members are working - the local constraints
• Keep the whole project visible to team members, not just the parts
• Work together to determine the best way to handle conflict on the team
• Recognize and celebrate the achievements of the team

Global Working: It's Not All About Culture!

This week I delivered a webinar to HR managers. Before the webinar, a colleague of mine conducted some interviews to gather more context about their specific issues. Let me say that that the topic of the webinar was to be developing cultural intelligence for managing a global workforce. Although the interview questions were specifically related to challenges of managing cultural differences, the feedback to the questions was wide ranging.

Some of the challenges were related to underlying cultural orientations like differences in value placed on individual vs. group, or shared power vs. concentrated power, but many were not.

The problem with the concept of culture is that it can be like a waste basket into which everything is thrown. This is a problem because when we do that culture becomes everything and nothing. Having just moved to California, I am now much more aware of the value of unbundling waste into various types so that it can be treated more appropriately - and maybe value derived from the treatment of different types.

Let me give you my definition of culture: The learned set of assumptions, expectations, values, beliefs and behaviors that distinguish one group of people from another. It's all about the inner world of the group, and how that inner world drives the behaviors of group members.

The challenges raised during the interviews were as much about the difficulties of global working as they were about 'culture'. Challenges raised can be divided into:
Logistics - for example, setting up and running meetings across time zones.
Infrastructure - for example,the unreliability of phone systems in emerging markets along with issues of bad roads, traffic, crime, and lack of a sophisticated technological infrastructure. When remote managers are unaware of such ground realities are very likely going to make wrong assumptions, incorrectly diagnose performance discrepancies, and make unrealistic demands - while all the time giving cultural explanations.
Expertise - for example,a lack of training given to people in local facilities in relation to company systems or necessary working methods.

The simple issue is, no amount of cross-cultural training will solve the challenges of logistics, infrastructure, and expertise. They must be dealt with on their own terms. Putting them into the catch-all of culture doesn't help managers sort through and manage the varied challenges of global working.

Collaboration: Socio and Technical Are One

Despite the recession (or because of)HR leaders are preparing to expand into new markets/geographies over the next three years. This is according to a survey - Working Across Borders - published by IBM in September, 2010 (see link below). Such expansion, of course, means finding ways to work more efficiently and effectively across many types of boundary. The study found three workforce gaps Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) need to address:

Cultivating creative leaders: nimble leadership in complex, global environments
Mobilizing for greater speed and flexibility: developing greater capability to adjust underlying costs and faster ways to allocate talent
Capitalizing on collective talent: generating more effective collaboration across increasingly global teams

The CHROs rated their organizations as least effective in fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. Seventy eight percent of the HR leaders interviewed did not think their organizations were effective at fostering collaboration and social networking. Only 19 percent of respondents regularly use collaborative technologies to identify individuals with relevant knowledge and skills, 23 percent to preserve critical knowledge, and 27 percent to spread innovation more widely. Even if companies have the IT infrastructure, they are not using it to make the best use of their global talent and intellectual assets.

The report makes some useful suggestions for HR leaders:

Weave collaboration into the way employees work:
Promote the formation and use of cross-organizational communities around strategic topic areas
Build collaborative capabilities directly into business processes and project management activities

Raise the visibility of ideas and insights
Sponsor online collaborative events to identify ideas, prioritize them, and then resource them
Incorporate all parts of the internal and external business network into the innovation process
Increase the visibility of connections between individuals/work teams to identify new trends and their dissemination

Create and share assets to drive productivity improvementCreate value through the systematic capture and reuse of individual work outcomes

While these suggestions are very useful they have a technical/process-driven flavor that will take enterprise collaboration only so far. Making the best use of a collaborative IT infrastructure to produce results requires an equally powerful set of collaborative values (backed up with highly supportive reward and recognition incentives). Once upon a time 'socio' and 'technical'were spoken of together in the same breath. We need to breathe new life in the 'socio' side and make sure it always accompanies the 'technical'.

On the 'socio' side, what sort of shared values will help you create the climate for collaboration?

Professionalism over politics
Trust over suspicion
Conversations over commands
Transparency over secrets
Problem-solving over blaming
Opening over closing
Creativity over conformity
Inclusion over exclusion
We and me over me
Yes/and over yes/but

The list could go on and on. You might want to be a bit more creative:

Circles over triangles
Fire over ice
Fluids over solids

Just as long as you share the same meaning!

And, the link to the IBM report is here!

A post by Terry’s Shameless Promotion People!

Latest Reviews on ‘Where in the World is My Team’ from Amazon.com


Superb flow of thoughts into the complex topic of virtual teams, August 20, 2010
This book is a recommended course reading, which implies I had to read it. Fortunately, it turns out to be great fun while acquiring knowledge. It's the same point the main character "SHE" articulated in her TV interview... working (gaming) could be fun. If the goals are set properly and each team member knows with clarity what to undertake... he or she will always look forward to beginning the game the the next day. This is a highly recommended read for those working within a multicultural environment not necessarily only for virtual teams.

Structure with a sense of comedy, August 11, 2010
Appreciated both the technical detail as well as the fiction aspect of making this a more interesting read. The human theory side of it has been very useful in working with my teams as well as working with local HR staff in defining gaps in our training procedures.

Innovative business book that is ahead of its time, June 4, 2010
Great book that is very useful to anyone working with global and/or virtual teams (and who isn't these days?!) It is not your average 'business' book and is all the better for it. Written from the perspective of Will adds humour and realism to the problems we all face every day, yet the recommended actions at the back are extremely valuable. I really like the easy to follow, logical structure and the issues that are easy to relate to. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to work better in teams.

Find out more about the trials and tribulations of Will Williams as he navigates the tricky waters of virtual collaboration in Where in the World is My Team.

Virtual Imagination

Wow! When I first saw this video on YouTube, I was lost for words. It takes 'virtual' to another level, and demonstrates that we haven't even begun to explore where we can go in virtual space.

Eric Whitacre is a conductor and composer. He composed a piece call lux aurumque, and made a video of himself conducting the piece - no singers or instruments; he conducted the piece in silence just from hearing the music in his head. He watched the video and added in the piano accompaniment track, and created the sheet music. These he made inro a free download to the web.

Singers began posting their individual tracks, obviously without hearing or seeing anyone else. Eric did call for virtual'auditions' for the soprano solo. Putting all the tracks together was managed by the very talented Scott Haines. The result is stunning. Eric's ultimate goal is to write an orginal piece for a virtual choir and have its world premiere in cyber-space, with hundreds or even thousands of people singing alone, together. Go nowto! Let your virtual imagination soar.

Speak With Your Mind, Not Just What's On Your Mind

Speaking comes so naturally to many of us that we often lose sight of those who are listening. If we kept our listeners in mind, we would speak with our minds engaged. Here are a few tips for speaking in a virtual space:

Environment: Try to eliminate any background noise or distractions - anything that could interfere with you understanding others and others understanding you

Pace: Think about who you have on the line. Are there any non-native speakers on the call or individuals who might find your accent challenging? If in doubt, slow down. Check with those on the call if you are speaking at a comfortable pace

Clarity: Articulate your words and phrases clearly. Don't rush over words or speak in a low voice that causes people to strain to hear you

Precision: Try to avoid abstract and vague words and phrases, e.g., 'as soon as possible'. Be specific

Simplicity: Use simple words and short sentences. Make sure everyone on the call will understand any jargon or acronyms you use. Stay away from using slang as it can cause great confusion

Intonation: Be expressive. Put verbal emphasis on important words or phrases. A monotone voice will also cause people to lose attention faster. Use your voice to highlight and engage. Smiling while speaking can also make the voice sound brighter

Courtesy: Keep interruptions to an absolute minimum. Let non-native speakers finish their thoughts, and don't try to finish their sentences. Ask permission before putting anyone on speaker phone

Length: Be concise. Keep your continuous talk time short; people lose attention and could miss important information. Break up what you have to say into small chunks