Supporting Team Collaboration

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Supporting Team Collaboration

• AAFRDs Lessons on
• Processes and Tools

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Team Collaboration Attitude, Tools and Skills

• Whats worked for AAFRD
• Staff with attitude (leadership and teamwork
  training)
• Project teams with external members (working at
  distance)
• Knowledge Management (knowledge sharing,
  collaboration tools, project management
  fundamentals)
• Network Development (interpersonal skills to
  stretch project teams into networks)

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Setting the Stage Its still about Leadership

• AAFRD began comprehensive leadership training in
  1997
• Two courses
• Leaders in Agriculture Strategic planning and
  leadership (Banff Centre)
• Face to Face Leadership (team and work unit
  leadership)
• Staff Skills Developed
• Systems thinking for strategic planning
• If it is to be it starts with me
• Team leadership skills

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Leaders in Agriculture (Banff course)

• 240 trained
• Now moving into Leaders II course
• Impact on 68 attendees since Oct 2000
• 12 into management
• 5 onto secondments
• 8 lateral transfers
• 3 positions reclassified up
• 28 changes for the 68 participants

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Face to Face Leadership

• Still a popular course (course filled through
  waiting lists)
• Practical How Tos
• Team Leadership skills
• Conflict resolution

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From Programs to Projects

• In 2000, a sector reorganization focused on an
  emerging trend in project work
• Retooling of programs done on project basis.
  Manager I have 50 programs. I treat them as 50
  projects.
• Most projects had outside partners and staff in
  different regions ?working at distance.
• KM unit started coaching PM fundamentals
• Project Management coach in 2001, Business case
  for PM Unit approved in 2003.

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KM Hooking up with the innovators

• AAFRDs KM unit formed in fall 1999
• In Fall 2000, we were observers at a staff
  training course on collaboration tools for teams
• Ran by 3 staff outside Edmonton, computer
  literate and looking for more effective ways to
  work
• Meetings, bloody meetings and driving to
  meetings (in winter) were motivators.
• The three sessions were full.
• Where are the tools?

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Start-up Tools for Teams

• Fall 2001 launched rental of team private website
  tool (ASP offering by IBM Lotus of QuickPlace)
• Word of Mouth advertising
• May 2002 9 active sites out of 18 created from
  December through to April.
• May 2003, 25 active sites out of 36 sites
• 250 users, only 35 AAFRD staff
• Renting was a good idea.
• Learned providers good practices
• Troubleshooting on providers coin
• IBM doesnt offer this service any more

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Bringing the Tool Home 2003/04

• AAFRD purchased and launched QuickPlace in May
  2003
• Currently 68 sites, 60 are active
• 29 sites include external partner
• 39 are internal sites
• Internal team sites on shared drives are
  encouraged to move to QuickPlaces

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How we market

• One Place to find Everything related to your
  on-going work
• QuickPlace provides a private, secure website
• To share team documents,
• For discussions,
• Joint editing of documents presentations.
• Basic project management
• tasks assignment.
• team calendar.
• work timelines.

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A 160 member team including federal, provincial,
municipal govt staff plus pilot project teams
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How we train

• Meet-me conference calls work best
• Team members computer and browser problems show
  up early in training session (important with
  outside team members)
• 45 minutes to introduce members to sign-on,
  navigation, posting documents and group edits
• Site manager one-on-one training, 1 hour

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How we support

• Three staff responsible for administration,
  coaching, training
• You can get an answer pretty much right away
  with a phone call or e-mail
• Well trained Site managers (gatekeepers) are key,
  need about 50 for 1000 staff.
• Short guides on Using and Managing QuickPlaces

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Lessons Learned

• The project leader must be persistent in using
  the site and in encouraging the team to also use
  it.
• Training is essential, it takes 45 minutes.
• The team needs someone to organize and manage the
  team website (a gatekeeper).
• QuickPlace is not simple. It is not useful for
  every team.
• BAD TEAMS HAVE BAD QUICKPLACE EXPERIENCES

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Lessons Learned

• You attract members by new content.
• To encourage team to get tasks done by deadlines,
  QP has simple tools.
• Team members with telephone access find
  QuickPlace slow. Try off-line QuickPlaces. (If
  not computer literate, dont use QuickPlace).
• It was useful to pilot before the full-scale
  launch
• Herdin Cats is 80 about people
• and 20 about tools

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What we would have done different

• Start by offering Instant Messaging and Web
  Conferencing tools (address the meetings, bloody
  meetings)
• Pilot test to find out tools constraints before
  involving external partners
• Its software, it takes time

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Next Steps

• Add Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing
  (enhanced conference calls)
• Roll it out through a Portal
• Official Announcement of QuickPlace as an AAFRD
  software offering
• Move onto supporting collaboration processes for
  Networks

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What we are learning about Networks

• Networks are about turning competitors into
  collaborators through
• Building Trust by Building a Common Vision
• New skills required of project leaders
• Facilitation
• Lead from behind
• The art of conversation (getting to know you so
  you will trust me)
• Networks are not extended project teams
• Doing networking is part of making a Network
  work and grow. Requires resources

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How AAFRD Supports Networks

• Network Development Team formed 2002
• Facilitates
• Trains
• Coaches
• Sharing Lessons Learned
• Video capturing lessons learned from one of our
  network teams