Wide Teams

Wide Links #5

Jul 16, 10 • In Links

In this edition: the US House approves a bill mandating more telework in government agencies; how to hire a remote worker; tools for distributed software teams; making the most of your coworking space, and more! Work Shifting – Lessons Learned From Workshifting tags: wideteams Hiring Remote Workers: 5 Red Flags To Never Ignore | oDesk.com – Annotated tags: hiring remote wideteams People are usually on their best behavior when trying to land a job, so what you observe in the interview phase of the relationship with your freelancer is probably as good as it gets. If a candidate seems difficult to reach, it’s probably because she is. Use Your Web Advantage to Survive Busy Periods – Annotated tags: wideteams Giving colleagues access to your electronic calendar can also reduce the number of meeting invitations and task

The Wide Teams Bootstrap Guide, Part 4: Virtual Presence

Jul 14, 10 • In Basics

You have your mail hub, your video/audio chat solution, and your text chat service set up. What other communications tools does your distributed team need? To augment Campfire or IRC, I recommend setting up a team status/presence tool. The two most popular tools occupying this space are Presently and Yammer. With the exception of some downtime issues, I’ve had good luck with Present.ly in several organizations. In a nutshell, these apps are like Twitter for private groups.They enable team members to post short messages about their status, what they are thinking about, or problems they are experiencing. You may be wondering: is such an app really necessary when you already have a chat application? Don’t they overlap? It’s true, either a chat room or a presence app can be used to simulate the other. But ideally, they handle two

Wide Links #4

Jul 9, 10 • In Links

Notes on dispersed teams, from around the web. Today: Inc. magazine goes remote; studies show “vritual” teams can match or outperform collocated ones; and the latest in bathrobe fashion. The Federal Coach: Rethinking the workplace in the 21st century – Tom Fox – Annotated tags: wideteams Yet, with the ever-increasing demands on government, leaders must learn to adapt to the new century and start rethinking when, how and where work is done. The bottom line is simple: it’s not where you are, but what gets accomplished that counts. Telecommuting’s Win-Win-Win-Win..Etc. | Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit – Annotated tags: wideteams As a new white paper (PDF) from the Telework Research Network (TRN) reports, workshifting is good for People: 70 percent of workers would like to be able to work from home at least some

Wide Teams are Stagnant Teams

Jul 8, 10 • In Experiences, Opinion

Distributed sucks. Human interaction is far better than virtual, all the more so for teams of any significant size. I have worked with successful distributed and local teams. The local teams were far superior in their ability to improve. I much prefer the lifestyle afforded by distributed teams. But that lifestyle comes at a significant cost that today’s tools cannot even begin to mitigate. Editors note: Wide Teams is about more than just advocacy for dispersed teams. One of the reasons this site exists is to foster a robust conversation about all aspects of remote work – including the very real challenges involved. In order to get a critical perspective on distributed work, I asked my friend, former coworker, and fellow blogger Chris Strom to write this guest article. As someone who has managed

The Wide Teams Bootstrap Guide, part 3: No message left behind

Jul 6, 10 • In Basics

In a dispersed team, a good email setup and healthy mail habits are critical to success. In today’s installment of our getting-started guide for dispersed teams, I talk about the importance of capturing all team email into a searchable archive. I also list some disciplines which, once internalized by your team, will ensure that knowledge is not lost or fragmented

Wide Teams Podcast Episode 4: Interview with Mike Zazaian, Part 2

Jul 5, 10 • In Interviews, Podcast

In this episode of the podcast, listen to the conclusion of my interview with Mike Zazaian at RailsConf 2010. In it we talk about the importance of getting to know your remote team members as people, and we discuss the state of remote collaboration tools, among other topics

The Wide Teams Bootstrap Guide: Part 2

Jul 1, 10 • In Basics

In part 2 of this series, I talk about why face time is essential; the two types of realtime communication tool which should form the backbone of your day to day interactions as a dispersed team; and why instant messaging can do more harm than good. If you missed Part 1 of this series, you may want to go back and read it. Face Time A little face-to-face communication goes a long way with remote work. A day spent working with a teammate in person can change the whole character of your subsequent online interactions. Before, they were a screen name and an avatar. After working with them in person, with every instant message or email they send you’ll have a mental picture of their tone and mannerisms to go with it. People become more

Wide Teams Podcast Episode 3: Interview with Mike Zazaian, Part 1

Jun 28, 10 • In Interviews, Podcast

This was the very first interview I conducted for Wide Teams. I couldn't have picked a better subject for a first interview if I had tried, because Mike had such a wealth of insights to share that I had to split the interview into multiple parts. This is part

The Remote Toolkit: Google Drawings (screencast)

Jun 24, 10 • In Toolkit

A quick walkthrough of the basic features of the new Google Drawing app, with a focus on remote collaboration features. Photo credit: Fran Pregernik

The Wide Teams Bootstrap Guide: Part 1

Jun 22, 10 • In Basics

Part one of a multi-part guide to getting started as a geographically distributed team. In this article I talk about the attitudes that form the foundations of an effective dispersed team. This is the first installment of a multipart guide distilling the basics of what I’ve learned so far about effective distributed teamwork. This series will take a concrete, prescriptive approach, with specific practices and tools recommended. Any distributed team will eventually need to customize their workflow and tools to their own preferences and needs. The advice here is simply a starting point based on common elements that have worked for other distributed teams