Making a Success of Your Virtual Global Workplace (Wiley, 2009) is a practical guide to working with colleagues around the world via new technologies. Early reviewers who have said they hate business fables say they love this book.
(MMD Newswire) April 14, 2009 -- Author and consultant Terence Brake was bored with the business books he found on the shelves, and so he decided to stir things up. Where in the World is My Team? Making a Success of Your Virtual Global Workplace (Wiley, 2009) is a practical guide to working with colleagues around the world via new technologies, but the first half is written as a comic soap opera! "I wanted to write about confused and imperfect people trying to come to terms with this new world of work", says Brake, "while also giving readers tools for making the experience productive. Enabling global talent to collaborate effectively through new technologies like web meetings, wikis, blogs, and groupware is an important source of competitive advantage," he added, "but these new capabilities bring new challenges."
Although Brake now lives in the U.S., the format of Where in the World is My Team? provides him with a space in which to demonstrate his seriously wild and wacky British sense of humor. Set in a London-based, but mostly virtual company, called ‘The Fun House' (a maker of online games) the book explores the trials and tribulations of working on a global team through the eyes of the main character, Will Williams. Tasked by his manager to write a briefing report on the new world of work - for her upcoming TV interview - Will connects with colleagues in London, the U.S., Bangalore, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Germany, France and other places to help him. He writes about his experiences in an e-journal, and the entries provide the instructional and entertainment value in the book.
What is the core of what Will learns?
Global virtual teams face three major challenges: team member isolation, fragmentation of team effort, and confusion. The countermeasures to these are increased levels of engagement, cohesion, and clarity. Levels in these three areas can be dramatically improved by focusing virtual team attention on six performance zones:
Cooperation: Developing collaborative, trusting relationships across distances
Convergence: Aligning virtual team members with shared purpose, direction, priorities and performance measures
Coordination: Synchronizing the work of the widely scattered team through common platforms, processes, and tools
Capability: Making the best use of skills, knowledge, and experiences on the team wherever it is located
Communication: Developing shared understandings on the team despite cultural and language differences
Cultural Intelligence: Developing a team culture that is not your culture or my culture, but our culture.
The first part of the book devotes a chapter to each one of the above - in the comic soap opera style already mentioned. For those too busy or uptight for the soap opera tale, the second part of the book presents all of the practical know-how in a straightforward Briefing Report.
Contact Information:
Phone: 1 609 799-3224
Cell: 1 609 213-7575
E-Mail: tbrake@tmaworld.com
Web Site: www.tmaworld.com
Also Terence Brake's Blog: http://virtualteamwork.blogspot.com
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