Virtual team can be defined as group of people who use electronic means to communicate with each other
more often than having face-to-face meeting. (Anne Powell, 2004)
There are number of factors that need to be considered when arranging and conducting virtual meeting.
Factors can be divided into two broad categories. First are the factors related to the technological
component or tool used to facilitate virtual meeting and the other factors are related to conduct of the
meeting. Both categories of factor are equally important and need to be addressed for successful results of
the meeting.
In 1950, Wil Schutz identified three basic needs that individuals have when they come together to
collaborate: inclusion, control and openness. (Schutz, 1958; Interaction Associates, 2007). Any group that
is engaged in producing a collaborative result to be effective, these needs are very critical.
Inclusion is very important, in a group setting if individuals are not included properly in the discussion,
they often feel that they are ignored or marginalized. In a face to face meeting issue of inclusion is of less
significance as all the individual are present in the same room, but in a virtual team meeting many team
members if any of the other team members even know when they are there.
According to Schutz theory, humans have a second need: for control or influence. If a team leader fails to
control the environment of the meeting it can trigger underlying factor of humiliation. For example, in a
face to face meeting if someone intends to seek attention of the meeting participants he can raise his hand
or speak loudly. In virtual meeting it is difficult to seek the attention of the team leader. The inability to
influence the process can lead to feeling of powerlessness or ignorance, which may restrict meeting
participants to share their input.
The third important factor is openness. The feeling of being likeable and can trigger an underlying fear of
being rejected. Openness of the environment is very critical to share to allow team members to share their
perspective and ideas. The issue of openness is challenge in a face to face environment, but in the virtual
environment magnitude of challenge increases.
So any best practices developed should address these three basic needs discussed above. I have outlined
some of the best practices that I found in different articles available online.
1. Team Profile
Since in many cases, most of the team members (Brown M.K Huettner B, 2007) in a virtual
meeting might be communicating in with each other for the first time. It is very important to share
with each participant team a brief profile of each participant of the team member. It will help
everyone to be aware of the expertise on the team and begins the association with some brief
personnel knowledge of the individual team members. This is an important practice to address the
problem of inclusion. Further, every person should be asked to provide a brief overview of skills,
talents and personal profile. Further, it will also allow to clarify why each team member is there in
the meeting and what role they will be playing.
2.
Team Agenda and Desired Outcome
In order to keep all the participants of the meeting engaged into the meeting, duration of the
meeting should be kept as short as possible. In order to achieve this, pre-work is often as essential
tool to limit the actual meeting time and ensure the precious real-time during the meeting is
focused and productive. Further, meeting productivity can also be increased by circulating the
desired outcome that is expected to be generated out of the meeting. Desired outcome is generally
a product (decision, agreement, plan, list) or information (information will be used in some form
of activity).
3.
Determine team protocols and team norms
Ground rules are critical to manage effective group interaction and should be tailored to meet the
group needs. Common ground rules may include:
 No-multitasking
 No side bar conversation
 What level of participation is expected from each participant
 Ground rules for how to use the mute button or pass how the discussion will be rotated
among different team members.
Ground rules will ensure that each participant of the meeting contributes his ideas and is included in the
meeting.
4. Documenting the flow of ideas
It is important to provide mechanism to document the flow of ideas and keeping people on track of
discussion. There are number of ways to facilitate this process for example use of tools such as
stormboard to record brainstorm lists, action items, or other key discussion points as the group is
working.
5.
Poll the group (Engaging and focusing participants)
This technique is very important to address the inclusion factor discussed above. At different
stages of the meeting where agreement or conclusion is required over action items or discussion
point, voting is an effective way to seek agreement of the team members. For example, from the
number of ideas discussed, what are the most important ideas that are important and each team
member can be asked to vote on ideas which they feel are more important. Further, each team
member can be asked to contribute individually on each discussion point. It also reduces the
incidence of virtual participation dozing off if they know that they will be required to provide
input.
6.
Measuring Virtual Meeting Effectiveness
Setting goal and objectives for each meeting and determining how effectiveness will be measured.
Some of the goals that
1. Did we meet our objectives and desired outcomes
2. Did we achieve the desired level of participation
3. Did the technology add value
4. Did we manage within our time frame
5. Did participants demonstrate confidence and trust in the process and results
6. Will participants look forward to another meeting
In order to track these goals listed above, a survey should be circulated to all the meeting participants to
express their opinion in each of the areas. This will ensure the subsequent meeting can be even more
successful.
7. Using the right tool
Fluidity of creating and disbanding teams as needed has been brought about by advances in
communication technologies. (Speier, Fall 1998) With significant attention devoted to the role of
Face to Face meeting in virtual teams, it is important to evaluate the possible fit between various
technologies available to virtual teams. (Anne Powell, 2004) When choosing tools for virtual
collaboration, we need to start by identifying the task that your teams will need to accomplish.
Only then can you choose the appropriate tools for each situation. (Brown M.K Huettner B, 2007)
Meeting collaboration technology includes Web conferencing, video conferencing, telepresence
(or virtual conferencing) mobile conferencing, hybrid events, unified communications and face-toface video information gathering tools, wikis, blogs chats and instant management applications.
Most important thing to consider here is to match the tool and technology to meeting objectives.
Also, it is important technology selected needs to be easy and to use and accessible to all
participants. Before starting the proceeding of meeting it is always useful to check that all the
meeting participants are comfortable with the technology and they are online.
Works Cited
A. Martinic, K. F. (December 2012). Methodological Framework for Virtual Project
Team Project Management. International Journal of Innovation, Management and
Technology Volume 3, No.6 , 702-707.
Anne Powell, G. P. (2004). Virtual Teams: A Review of Current Literature and
Directions for Future Research. The Database for Advances in Information System - (Vol.
35, No.1) , 6-36.
Briggs R. O., V. G. (2003). Collaboration Engineering with To Purse Sustained Success
With Group Support Systems. Journal of MIS 19, 4 , 31-63.
Briggs, G.-J. d. (2005). Collaboration Engineering: Designing Repeatable Processes for
High Value Collaborative Tasks. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii.
Brown M.K Huettner B, J.-T. C. (2007). Choosing the Right Tool for Your Virtual Team:
Evaluating Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools. Professional Communication
Conference, 2007. IPCC 2007. IEEE International , 1-4.
Clarizen . (n.d.). Reports and Dashboards. Retrieved from Clarizen:
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/solution-reports-and-dashboard.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Google Docs. Retrieved from Clarizen: http://www.clarizen.com/newfeatures-in--clarizen-4-5/google-docs.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Project Scheduling. Retrieved from Clarizen:
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/project-scheduling.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Task Management . Retrieved from Clarizen :
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/solution-task--management.html
Frank Siebdrat, M. H. (2009). How to Manage Virtual Teams. Magazine : Summer.
Research Future .
Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten Robert O Briggs Get-Jan de Vreede Peter H.M Jacobs, J. H.
(2006). A conceptual foundation of the thinkLet concept for Collaboration Engineering.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 64 , 611-621.
Interaction Associates. (2007, August). 20 Ways to Improve Virtual Meeting . Retrieved
from Interaction Associates:
http://www.interactionassociates.com/pdf/IA_20_Simple_Ways_To_Improve_Virtual_M
eetings.pdf
Han, H. e. (Dec 2011). Does Medium Matter? A Comparision of Initial Meeting Modes
for Virtual Teams. IEEE Transaction on Professional Communication Vol . 54 Issue 4 ,
376-391.
Helbrough, B. (1995). Computer assisted collaboration- the fourth dimension of project
management . Journal of International Project Management Association Volume 13 , PP
329-333.
J.F Nunamaker Jr, A. D. (1991). Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work.
Communications of the ACM, 34 , 40-61.
Luminosity Global Consulting Group. (n.d.). Virtual Meeting Best Practise Checklist.
Retrieved from Luminosity Global Consulting:
http://luminosityglobal.com/images/resource/pdf/Virtual%20Meeting%20Best%20Practi
ce%20Checklist.pdf
Niederman, F. B. (1996). Issues and concerns about computer supported meetings. MIS
Quarterly, 20 , 1-22.
McConell, S. (1996). Rapid Development. . Microsoft Press .
Schutz, W. (1958). FIRO: A three dimensional theory of interpersonel behavior . New
York: Rinehart .
Speier, J. W. (Fall 1998). Teams: Virtualness and Media Choice. International Journal of
Electronic Commerce , 27-48.
Rose, N. &. (Sep2011). Real and Virtual Meetings Technology. PhoCusWright
Innovation Edition , p1-14, 14p.
______________________________________________________________________________________
In the article “Brainstrom, Chainstorm, Cheatstorm, Tweetstorm: New Ideation Strategies
for Distributed HCI Design, authors look at how social factors can be leveraged to
improve the group ideation process. The researchers identified three general social
configurations that foster idea generation: (1) face-to-face brainstorming (2) individual or
nominal idea generation and (3) computer mediated idea generation (Faste, Rachmel,
Essary, Sheehan, 2013).
The traditional face-to-face brainstorming session ranges from 15- 45 minutes in length.
Most of the time, an expert facilitator will make the agenda and lead the group through
brainstorming activities. The brainstorming activities are usually informal as group
members shout out their contributions. Most of the time, the team will have a scribe
assigned to record the ideas. Authors have not came up with an optimal group size;
however, Osborne postulates that a group of 12 or less will be ideal for brainstorming.
In nominal idea generation, the participants come up with ideas individually and then talk
to the group about the ideas they came up with. An important distinction about this
technique is that individuals are not affected by the many social factors that are ingrained
in traditional brainstorming sessions. Also, group members cannot just build upon the
ideas of others, so this will lead to a more diverse range of ideas. According to Diehl and
Stroebe (1987) the quality and quantity of ideas that are produced in nominal
brainstorming sessions are good.
There are many forms of computer-mediated ideation. The term ‘electronic
brainstorming’ has to do with any brainstorming that is mediated by computers. For
example, blogging and writing reviews are considered to be electronic brainstorming
because all of the responses are being entered into an online pool of ideas. The authors
provide us with the following definition of electronic brainstorming, “the subset of
software-mediated interactions in which users are asked to specifically generate creative
responses to a question or prompt” (Faste, Rachmel, Essary, Sheehan, 2013). This
narrowed definition allows us to differentiate between software mediated idea generation
and other online activities such as blogging or writing reviews for services.
Diehl, M., & Stroebe, W. (1987). Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: Toward the
Solution of a Riddle, Personality & Social Psychology, 53(3), 497-509
Faste, H., Rachmel, N., Essary, R., & Sheehan, E. (2013, April). Brainstorm, Chainstorm,
Cheatstorm, Tweetstorm: new ideation strategies for distributed HCI design. In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp.
1343-1352). ACM.
Osborn, A. F. (1963). Applied Imagination: Principles and procedures of creative
thinking (3rd edition), Scribner
Collaboration happens when people move from one group activity to another and
they complete the activity by moving through various combinations of patterns of
collaboration (Briggs et al. 2003). Collaboration in a team is most effective when it
includes several activities and each produces a different result. The project manager is
normally responsible for guiding the team and choosing a model for collaboration. The
project manager can determine which collaboration techniques are valued and commonly
used in the organization through their norms and culture.
Many organizations rely on external facilitators to solve their problems and to facilitate
their team meetings. The role of the facilitator is to help the team achieve their goal. The
facilitator will teach the team how to communicate and work together towards a shared
goal. The facilitator will also help the team to stay on track by tasking them with specific
and focused collaboration activities (De Vreede, G. J., R. O. Briggs, and A. P. Massey,
2009).
There are a couple key benefits to hiring a facilitator. First, the facilitator is an expert in
the field and can advise the group on how to accomplish their goal. Next, the facilitator
can use specific collaboration techniques to enhance discussion making and to allow for
diverse viewpoints. There are also several drawbacks to hiring a facilitator. First, it can
be very expensive to hire a facilitator. Next, there is no guarantee that the team can work
with the same facilitator the next time they need help. It is common for facilitators to get
promoted or to start their own company, so the team should always have a back up plan
(Omidyar & Omidyar, 2013). Lastly, some facilitators cannot make independent
decisions due to policies that are in place in their organizational. The goal when hiring a
facilitator is to find one that is transparent and will provide the team with honest
feedback.
The collaboration engineering approach includes six patterns of collaboration and a
number of sub-patterns. You can use the patterns to select group activities for your team
meetings. The patterns of collaboration are as follows:



Generate: You have fewer concepts and want more concepts
o Gather: collect and share known concepts to the team
o Create: construct and share new concepts to the team
o Elaborate: provide more detail about concepts to the team
 Decompose: break down and characterize a concept
 Expand: add more detail and make the concept more complete
Reduce: You have many concepts and want fewer concepts
o Select: indicate a subset of the current concepts
o Abstract: develop more-general concepts from specific instances in the
current set
o Summarize: provide an overview of the concept
Clarify: You have fewer concepts and want mutual understanding about them
o Describe: provide different explanations and constructions of the concept



Organize: You have fewer concepts and want to understand the relationship
between them
o Classify: organize and label concepts
o Structure: make spatial arrangements among concepts to illustrate their
relationship
Evaluate: You have fewer concepts and want to understand the value of them
o Poll: measure group opinion about concepts
o Rank: establish an order of preference among the concepts
o Assess
Commit: You want more group members to commit to an action toward the end
goal
o Measure: gauge the degree to which team members are ready to commit to
a concept
o Diagnose: explore and understand causes of dissensus
o Advocate: persuade group members to adopt a specific position
o Resolve: create a plan to overcome identified causes of dissensus
As the project manager, make sure to select group activities that will serve a
specific purpose in your meeting. As you become more comfortable with collaboration
scheme it will be easier to distinguish which patterns of collaboration will produce the
results you want in the meeting. Keep in mind it is completely normal for a single activity
to include more than one pattern of collaboration (De Vreede, G. J., R. O. Briggs, and A.
P. Massey, 2009). For instance, you may start your meeting with a brainstorming activity
to generate more ideas. Next, you may decide to have an activity to reduce the number of
ideas. It is recommended to plan activities in advance, put them in the agenda and
provide the team with a copy of the agenda prior to the meeting. This way, group
members can start to think about the concepts and even become comfortable with the
thinklet in advance.
Briggs R.O., Vreede G.J., de, Nunamaker J.F, Jr., “Collaboration Engineering With
ThinkLets To Pursue Sustained Success With Group Support Systems”, Journal of MIS.
19, 4, 31-63. 2003
De Vreede, G. J., R. O. Briggs, and A. P. Massey (2009), "Collaborative engineering:
Foundations and opportunities," Journal of the Association of Information Systems, Vol.
10, No. 3.
Omidyar, P., & Omidyar, P. (2013). Should we be using a facilitator. Collaborative
Leaders Network. Retrieved from http://collaborativeleadersnetwork.org/
________________________________________________________________________
Adoption of Collaboration technology
The merit of tools and technology discussed above depends on successful adoption of
technology by project participants or team members. While team efforts and use of
technology can be productive and successful, however due to lack of processes and
knowledge technology may not yield intended benefits (J.F Nunamaker Jr, 1991).
Therefore, many teams employ facilitators to design processes and move a group through
collaboration process. (Niederman, 1996). Although introduction of facilitators result in
increase in efficiency but the cost to introduce is big and they are very difficult to retain.
(Briggs R. O., 2003). Therefore, team needs to develop a process for itself, without
intervention by facilitators and with predicted results. (Briggs at el, 2006). Collaboration
Engineering was introduced to address this challenge. Collaboration Engineering is an
approach that designs, model and deploys repeatable processes for recurring high
valuable collaboration tasks. (Briggs at el, 2006).
Thinklet: is a named, packaged facilitation intervention that creates a predictable,
repeatable pattern of collaboration among people working together toward a goal.
(Briggs, 2005). Thinklet specifies detailed specification for the repeatable activities that
can be used to achieved consistent benefits.
Thinklet Parameters
Name
ThinkLet name is a descriptive or metaphorical name that
supports the pattern that ThinkLet creates. The name
should be mnemonic that will facilitate process designers to
remember the name.
When to Use
This provides a decision criterion when to use thinkLet. The
section provides detail description of the purpose that
thinkLet is designed to achieve and distinguish them from
other thinkLet that could produce similar pattern.
When not to Use
It specifies particular circumstances when thinkLet cannot
be used.
Overview
Brief description of the events and outcome of the thinkLet
Inputs
Identify the number of variables that be available at the
time thinkLet is used.
Outputs
Type of deliverable that thinklet will create
Setup
This parameter describes the technological capabilities that
is required to initiate the thinkLet process
Steps
This parameter defines sequence of steps that must be
executed in order to produce desired level of collaboration.
Insights
Tips and tricks and useful information, about the nature of
thinklets and how it works.
Success Stories
Past example that can be used to understand the utility of
the thinkLet.
Bibliography
Briggs R. O., V. G. (2003). Collaboration Engineering with To Purse Sustained Success
With Group Support Systems. Journal of MIS 19, 4 , 31-63.
Briggs, G.-J. d. (2005). Collaboration Engineering: Designing Repeatable Processes for
High Value Collaborative Tasks. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii.
Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten Robert O Briggs Get-Jan de Vreede Peter H.M Jacobs, J. H.
(2006). A conceptual foundation of the thinkLet concept for Collaboration Engineering.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 64 , 611-621.
J.F Nunamaker Jr, A. D. (1991). Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work.
Communications of the ACM, 34 , 40-61.
Niederman, F. B. (1996). Issues and concerns about computer supported meetings. MIS
Quarterly, 20 , 1-22.
Task management
Task management is an important part of virtual collaboration technology. After
the project idea has been conceived and accepted by the project team. The next
stage is to execute the project and manage the project related tasks. This step
is of particular significance as outcome of the entire project is heavily dependent
on how these tasks are performed. Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK) provided by Project Management Institute identifies comprehensive
number of best practices that are generally recognized by practitioner worldwide.
Project Management can be defined as “a special way of organizing, planning
and controlling to create defined changes or products with predictable cost time
and quality. (Helbrough, 1995). In the virtual project environment where team
member do not share common workplace, may never have worked together
before and may never work together again after the project is complete. In order
to derive results from such team, key drivers of performance are certain crucial
team processes that facilitate communication between team members that help
co-ordinate work and facilitate communication among members. Team
processes can be can be divided into two categories, namely task related and
socio emotional. Task related processes help ensure that each team member is
contributing fully in the project, whereas socio –emotional process increase the
cohesion of the group. Task related processes are more critical for the
performance of the dispersed team. (Frank Siebdrat, 2009). In order to make
project successful it is important for the project manager to define who is doing
what, and to track the progress and status of each task. Visibility of project
progress is a critical factor for project success. (McConell, 1996). Traditional
Project management software lacked in terms of real time tracking, which
increase the chances that thing can go wrong and people only become aware in
the last minute.
Modern Task management tools are sophisticated project management tools that
help Project Manager (PM) to manage important project related tasks in virtual
environment. Since now these features are available as part of Group Support
System, therefore we have recommended a solution that supports different
project related activities and perfectly integrates different project monitoring and
activity tools.
The tool that we are recommending for the project manager is online project
management tool Clarizen, the reason behind selection of this tool is that it
encompasses the entire project life cycle and contains features that enables
dispersed team member to participate through all aspect of project life cycles.
We have discussed below some notable features of this project management
tool.
Task Management
Task Management feature enables the project manager to manage project
related tasks across different projects, deadlines, resources, budget and teams.
(Clarizen)
It enables project manager and team member to collaboratively sketch tasks, and
define their related timelines, due dates, dependencies and assign tasks to
different team members.
Prioritize tasks so that project team can focus on high priority items.
It enables project manager to set global level, project level or single work item
level and then report if the progress, actual effort or remaining efforts are globally
reported or reported by each resource individually.
Project Scheduling
This feature enables project manager to create schedule of the project and at the
same time view of schedules of other team members so that no conflict occurs.
Further, it allows project manager to work with team members in real time to
discuss projects schedules and milestone. Different team member can work
together to work on the project plan. (Clarizen)
Reports and Dashboards
Another important feature of this tool is that it provides a dashboard to the project
manager that contains real time information about all the project activities.
Dashboard provides information to project manager about critical project
deliverables timelines, budget, resources loads, deadlines and critical path
overview.
It also provides project manager view about how different project are progressing
and if some projects are behind the schedules dates or have cost-over run
problems. (Clarizen )
Time Tracking
This feature allows remote workers to enter their time into time sheets and the
accordingly the project manager can approve time sheets. This feature is
integrated with other reporting tool that provides different report such as actual
progress or remaining efforts in the project.
Integration with Collaborative Authoring
Clarizen also provides integration with different project management tools such
as Google docs, this enables project team to work collaboratively on one file and
place the file in individual project areas. (Clarizen) Further, it also provides
integration with different calendars such as Google and Outlook.
Bibliography
Briggs R. O., V. G. (2003). Collaboration Engineering with To Purse Sustained Success
With Group Support Systems. Journal of MIS 19, 4 , 31-63.
Briggs, G.-J. d. (2005). Collaboration Engineering: Designing Repeatable Processes for
High Value Collaborative Tasks. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences. Hawaii.
Clarizen . (n.d.). Reports and Dashboards. Retrieved from Clarizen:
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/solution-reports-and-dashboard.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Google Docs. Retrieved from Clarizen: http://www.clarizen.com/newfeatures-in--clarizen-4-5/google-docs.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Project Scheduling. Retrieved from Clarizen:
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/project-scheduling.html
Clarizen. (n.d.). Task Management . Retrieved from Clarizen :
http://www.clarizen.com/project-software/solutions/solution-task--management.html
Frank Siebdrat, M. H. (2009). How to Manage Virtual Teams. Magazine : Summer.
Research Future .
Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten Robert O Briggs Get-Jan de Vreede Peter H.M Jacobs, J. H.
(2006). A conceptual foundation of the thinkLet concept for Collaboration Engineering.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 64 , 611-621.
Helbrough, B. (1995). Computer assisted collaboration- the fourth dimension of project
management . Journal of International Project Management Association Volume 13 , PP
329-333.
J.F Nunamaker Jr, A. D. (1991). Electronic Meeting Systems to Support Group Work.
Communications of the ACM, 34 , 40-61.
Niederman, F. B. (1996). Issues and concerns about computer supported meetings. MIS
Quarterly, 20 , 1-22.
McConell, S. (1996). Rapid Development. . Microsoft Press .
________________________________________________________________
III. Problem Solving
A. Ideation
A project manager has the important task of facilitating the meeting. In addition, he or
she must lead the team to generate ideas that are crucial to completing the project at hand.
With that being said, let us discuss problem solving abilities that a project manager
should use within a virtual meeting.
Before we get more in depth, I want to share with you a little inspiration from one of the
greatest creative thinkers of all time, David Kelly, CEO of IDEO, a company that created
the Apple mouse, Treo, and the Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down button on the TiVo remote
control.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138423n1
As we can see in the video from 60 Minutes, David wants people to build creative selfconfidence. As you may or may not know, low self-confidence is one of the key caveats that
hinder the ability of a successful virtual meeting.
So with that being said, how does a project manager get the creativity juices flowing? What
are some great techniques to use to generate ideas across a virtual team? What are the
roadblocks that a team encounters when trying to solve a critical issue?
i.
Mind Mapping
Well, one of the tasks in regards to ideation is Mind Mapping. According to ‘The Handbook
of High Performance Virtual Teams: A Toolkit for Collaborating Across Boundaries’2, we
learn that the human memory is associative, where a single idea has a great amount of links
in the mind, grasping to other ideas and concepts. With Mind Maps, these associations can
be generated and illustrated.
Before we get more in depth, let’s take a look at an image of an actual Mind Map, as
illustrated by Tony Buzan, the Mind Mapping creator. The following image is displayed
prominently on the tonybuzan.com website3.
As a project manager looking at this image for the first time, it can seem a little
overwhelming and confusing. How am I supposed to generate ideas through links and
associations from the brain? Words, Images, Colors, Lines, Structure, and Paper, Oh My!
You are probably thinking this is way too complicated. Well, it’s not.
There are honestly only a few tangible items that are needed, and a bunch of your brain
which cannot be excused as well. According to Tony, you only need a blank piece of paper,
some colored pens and pencils, your brain, and of course imagination.
A direct quote from Tony Buzan’s website3 sums up Mind Mapping very well.
“A Mind Map is a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the
potential of the brain. It harnesses the full range of cortical skills – word, image, number, logic,
rhythm, colour and spatial awareness – in a single, uniquely powerful manner. In so doing, it
gives you the freedom to roam the infinite expanses of your brain. The Mind Map can be
applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance
human performance.”
I will go into detail on a specific software that is out there to complete the Mind Mapping
process, but here is an interesting video on how to conduct an old fashioned Mind Mapping
process without the technology, but the use of tangible, old-fashioned items. This video
demonstration was completed by MacGrercy Consultants.
Mind Mapping Basics4
If videos are not the best way for you to learn the basics of Mind Mapping, the book titled
‘Why Mind Mapping’5, describes the 4 elements of a Mind Map. These elements are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The subject of attention can be seen in a central word or an image
Main themes radiate from the central images using branches
Branches contain an image or word where the details radiate out
Branches form a connected nodal structure
Since you will be leading a virtual meeting with remote teams, it is easier and much more
efficient to use software to complete the mind mapping process. You will most likely need
more than one piece of paper to list all of the ideas, and things will start to get very messy
very quick.
The first type of software that we would like to propose to you is mindmeister6.
Mindmeister is great for project managers like yourself, where you are given the ability to:






Split the project into stages in a mind map
Collaborate with team members
Brainstorm and share ideas
Set milestones and goals
Eliminate duplicate work
Integrate tasks in your Outlook/iCal-calendar and utilize email reminders
Two of the capabilities that we find very beneficial and relevant to this document are the
meeting management and project management capabilities.
The share function capability allows a project manager to prepare the agenda before the
meeting within the mind map and distribute it to the rest of the project team. You are given
the ability to see which members have looked at the agenda, and these members can add
items to the agenda as well. Another great aspect of mindmeister is the Wundertask
functionality, where you can assign tasks during the actual meeting.
In regards to project management, the mind maps assist in structuring topics and contain
the ability to keep track of issues that arise. The online collaboration session allows your
team to enter the first thoughts that come into their head, where you can then add
milestones and assign tasks. The task management functionality has the ability to enter
priorities and due dates to the project team members.
Mindmeister also utilizes the cloud since, so there is no need for installation.
ii.
Brainstorming
Another major component of problem solving is Brainstorming. Before we get more in
depth into this topic, let us take a look at the definition, as delivered by
businessdictionary.com7.
“Process for generating creative ideas and solutions through intensive and freewheeling
group discussion. Every participant is encouraged to think aloud and suggest as many
ideas as possible, no matter seemingly how outlandish or bizarre.”
There are a vast number of best practices documented on the Internet for brainstorming
virtual meetings. However, we believe one of the most vital parts is not going into a
brainstorming meeting unprepared. Just because a brainstorming meeting is supposed to
generate ideas, that does not mean that one should walk into the meeting not knowing
what to expect.
According to ideavist.com8, there are two aspects that you must pay attention to before
the brainstorming session already occurs. You must pick a facilitator and start with the
goals. The article presents that this appointee does not need to be the most creative
person in the room, but he or she must be able to keep the positive energy flowing, and
keep the meeting moving forward. It is also important to note that the facilitator must not
hold an active role in the brainstorming session. If you are looking for cost efficiency,
we would suggest that you take the facilitator role since you are an effective project
manager. However, we can see the benefits in hiring a professional facilitator to make
sure the session runs smoothly and that all steps of the process are followed.
The article also makes a statement to never go into a brainstorming session unprepared,
unless the purpose of the meeting is to generate goals. If you define the goal, you can
assure that the group stays focused. If the goal is to generate ideas about a new type of
software, make sure that the team knows this is the purpose of the meeting. A set
deadline for this goal also needs to be addressed.
Other aspects that need to be addressed before the brainstorming session even occurs are
pointed out from directcreative.com9.
Create an agenda
It is crucial to outline the topics that are to be covered within the brainstorming sessions
and to address techniques that you will be using. An agenda should be provided to the
virtual team no less than one week before the meeting to provide ample preparation time.
Set time limits
As you know, it is also very important to address all of the topics for the agenda in the
meeting. The article suggests that it is best to keep the session short, particularly 15 to 45
minutes. If the session goes longer, there should be breaks taken at the hour marker.
Set quotas
You should set quotas on the minimum amount of ideas that are to come from the virtual
meeting. This article referenced a minimum of 100 ideas.
Circulate background information
Provide the team members with the statement of the problem, background information, and
the types of ideas that you would like.
Let us address some crucial aspects for brainstorming that should occur within the actual
session. Now that we have everyone together, what do we do?
There are 3 aspects that we found very useful to utilize within a session, stated by
fearnoproject.com10.



No criticism of ideas
Build on each other’s ideas
Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
Meetingsphere.com11 states that individuals fear that others within the group will criticize
his / her ideas brought to the table. There are many people that are self-conscious and
even though they might have great ideas, these ideas may never reach the surface.
Choosing the right people for the session along with a diverse group are also important
aspects to a productive brainstorming session. Mckinsey.com12 states that you should pick
people “in the trenches”, who have the firsthand knowledge needed. If you are a manager
who oversees a large group of people, you may not know the everyday tasks and challenges
that are required to complete certain processes.
You also need diversity within your virtual team. According to Learn This13, people with
different styles, backgrounds, and levels of experience provide better results. You do not
want a group of people who have the same way of thinking. You also want those who are
unfamiliar with the topic, because sometimes people might be too deep in the trenches to
see the bigger picture and think outside of the box.
In regards to a virtual meeting tool that will assist you and your team with the
brainstorming process, we suggest Stormboard.
We encourage you to first watch this short informative session with the CEO of Stormboard,
Reg Cheramy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZ5ZbAGNxE14
Since we are conducting this project on virtual meeting tools, it is important to look at the
collaborative aspects of a specific software. We prefer Stormboard15, because it has the
ability to connect remote teams, synchronously or asynchronously in real-time.
In regards to its brainstorming capabilities, the idea prioritization functionality is
particularly useful, where members of the team can vote on their favorite posts instantly. It
is very intuitive where the team members receive green dots, where they can place them all
on one idea or spread the vote across the board.
We think the generation and capturing functionality is really great as well, where you can
utilize sticky notes, videos, and photos along with voice capability to get your idea across.
Brainstorming does not simply mean writing your ideas on a piece of paper. The utilization
of all forms of media, including photos and videos help to enhance the session.
Of course a critical aspect is how you are going to communicate with the rest of the remote
team during these sessions. Well, Stormboard provides both instant messaging capabilities,
and the ability to refer back to threads for future collaboration. Since there can be multiple
ideas shared within a team, and multiple sessions held, the reference functionality can be
crucial to avoid lost progress. This is also great for a summary report to send to the team
after the project has been completed.
As a project manager, you want the capability to create a comprehensive report with the
results of each meeting. This report needs to be accessible for the rest of the team, and very
organized. With Stormboard, reports can be generated instantly, and you can export these
results to a spreadsheet.
Finally, you have the opportunity to choose from many templates which are customizable,
giving the project manager control of the presentation.
B. Knowledge Acquisition
When we look at knowledge acquisition, we are referring to gathering knowledge from
expert users. A typical use of this meeting would be gathering information from software
developers on how we can have an existing application run more efficiently and without the
amount of errors we are experiencing currently. We are mainly interested in how we
organize all of this information since software developers may not necessarily convey their
thoughts in a method a project manager can make sense of right away. The project manager
may need some time to dissolve the ideas and thoughts that were expressed by the
developers.
According to a piece of research16 , members within a team meeting may not have the
information needed for the project, and others who have a specific expertise may need to be
brought into attendance to share ideas and thoughts. These types of team meetings may be
necessary to learn about specific domains unknown to the project team.
There is a great piece of research from the Information Resources Management Journal17,
which mentions that the knowledge of organizations are contained outside of information
repositories that are formal, and lie within the individuals themselves.
You as a project manager need to bring all of that information into a setting and make sure
that all aspects of the project are well documented from the expert resources that share this
knowledge. If a similar issue arises in the near future, you will have everything well
documented and ready for project teams to utilize.
i.
Wiki
These bottlenecks can be removed by the use of collaborative tools, especially Wikis.
As a project manager, we believe that Wikis are great tools to utilize for collaborative teams,
especially when a virtual meeting occurs. According to “Managing Virtual Teams: Getting
the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and other Collaborative Tools by M. Katherine Brown, Brenda
Huettner and Char James-Tanny” 18, a Wiki allows virtual teams to collaborate by inserting
content and simultaneous sequential commentary.
A centralized location for team feedback and content is much more effective than a barrage
of emails being dispersed back and forth. During a virtual meeting, accessing this tool
allows everyone to discuss the documents that have been shared, and the feedback that the
team has provided between the meetings.
Mark Choate provides an interesting insight within his book titled “Professional Wikis” 19,
where “A wiki is to a typical website what a dialogue is to a monologue.”
A great Wiki for a project manager to utilize is PBWORKS.
PBWORKS is an effective collaborative tool to utilize between virtual meetings. This allows
the project manager to view all of the discussions, content, and feedback to set an accurate
agenda for the session. One of the best tools that PBWORKS has to offer for project
managers is Agency Hub20. This tool actually combines the Wiki aspect with the meeting
capabilities not seen within a typical Wiki.
Before reading through the advantages of this tool, the following is a link which leads to a
great demonstration of Agency Hub.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6ODz-h-cHkQ21
The most useful capabilities of this tool that are relevant to our topic of virtual meeting
tools are the abilities to: replace meetings with real-time status’, organization and notes,
and the ability to have ad hoc meetings with real-time editing.
Many times, status meetings can seem like a waste of time and resources. How many times
have you joined a meeting, where everyone goes around the room and states where they
are in regards to individual task completion?
Well, PBWORKS identifies the individual team members and links them to tasks, displaying
whether these tasks are late, due, and / or upcoming. By utilizing this tool, hours of
unproductive status calls can be eliminated.
You can also display a page within Agency Hub that contains the goal of the meeting, the
agenda, and those who will be in attendance. Notes can be taken in real-time, which
eliminate any ambiguity on what was covered within the actual meeting.
The most relevant functionality to our topic is the ability to host an ad hoc meeting with live
editing. There are many times when teams cannot wait until a scheduled meeting arrives to
address an issue. Let’s say that a software development team has a release meeting in a
week, but a bug has been discovered within the application, and needs to be dealt with
immediately.
Agency Hub has a response for this type of situation. There is a click-to-call functionality
which allows voice conferencing between team members. These individuals have access to
live editing, so the issues can be brought to the table and the next action steps can be
addressed.
A. Knowledge Exposition
When we refer to Knowledge Exposition, it is gathering the information that has been
provided to you, and drilling deeper into the content to make sure that there is a very clear
understanding on what is being expressed. Without a deeper understanding on the ideas at
hand, it is very difficult to make an intelligent decision.
i.
Collaborative Modeling
Collaborative Modeling may be an integral piece to a successful virtual meeting since many
individuals are able to comprehend with a visual model and organization more than
abstract thoughts and ideas. A list of ideas and concepts may not make sense, unless there
is some type of mapping involved on how specific processes will work.
According to a review by a piece of literature titled “Challenges in Collaborative Modeling”
22, it is more of a challenge to empower participants of a meeting to assist in model creation,
rather than to be the sole person creating the specific model for the team.
With that being said, there is a great tool for project managers to utilize for collaborative
modeling within virtual meetings, and this tool is FLOWCHART.COM23.
How many times have you been in a meeting, and multiple concepts and strategies have
been talked about, but you come out of the meeting confused as to what processes are going
to occur in what order? Imagine that sense of confusion increase, now that the meeting has
gone virtual.
Well, FLOWCHART.COM provides 3 capabilities that are ideal for a project manager
that is leading a virtual meeting.
FLOWCHART.COM allows team members to collaborate in real-time, chat about the
processes that are being mapped out, and the ability to create flow charts in the same
session.
There are also many times that tools do not work well with certain browsers, but
FLOWCHART.COM works with the browser that you prefer. It is also beneficial
because there is no software download required and runs on any operating system.
1. "Building creative self-confidence" CBS 60 Minutes Video. Online video clip.
cbsnews.com
< http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138423n >
2. Nemiro, Jill, Michael Beyerlein, Lori Bradley, and Susan Beyerlein (eds). The
Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams: A Toolkit for Collaborating Across
Boundaries. Jossey-Bass. © 2008. Books24x7.
<http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy2.lib.depaul.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=24270>
3. Tony Buzan – Inventor of Mind Mapping. (2011). Mind Mapping. Retrieved from
http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/
4. MacGrercy. (2009, May 6). How to Make a Mind Map - The Basics
[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLWV0XN7K1g
5. Lewis, Clive, and Richard Evans. "Why Mind Mapping?". Mind Mapping for a
Business Advantage: Organization Development, Vol. 25. ASTD. © 2008.
Books24x7.
<http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy2.lib.depaul.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=27105
>
6. mindmeister. (2013). Mind Mapping. Brainstorming. The leading online mind
mapping software. Retrieved from http://www.mindmeister.com/
7. Business Dictionary. (2013). brainstorming. Retrieved from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/brainstorming.html
8. ideavist. (2011, March 5). 9 Tips on Conducting Productive Brainstorming
Sessions. Retrieved from http://ideavist.com/2011/03/05/9-tips-on-conductingproductive-brainstorming-sessions/
9. Direct Creative. (1999). The Secrets of Successful Brainstorming. Retrieved from
http://www.directcreative.com/the-secrets-of-successful-brainstorming.html
10. Bruce McGraw. (2011, March 17). Guide to Effective Brainstorming (with a
remote team). Retrieved from http://fearnoproject.com/?s=brainstorming
11. MeetingSphere. A Storm Over Brainstorming. Retrieved from
http://www.meetingsphere.com/blog/brainstorming-debate
12. McKinsey & Company. (2011 March). Seven steps to better
brainstorming. Retrieved from
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/seven_steps_to_better_brainstorming
13. Learn This. (2011, May 11). 6 Steps to Setup an Effective Brainstorming
Session. Retrieved from http://learnthis.ca/2009/05/6-steps-to-setup-aneffective-brainstorming-session/
14. Reg Cheramy. (2013, March 6). Stormboard [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZ5ZbAGNxE
15. Stormboard. Realtime Brainstorming and Collaboration. Retrieved from
https://www.stormboard.com/
16. Walz, Elam, Curtis. (1993 October). Inside a Software Design Team: Knowledge
Acquisition, Sharing, and Integration. Retrieved from
http://www.itu.dk/people/oladjones/semester2/Project2/materials/newmaterials/IN
SIDE%20A%20SOFT.pdf
17. Information Resources Management Journal. (2006 January-March). Breaking the
Knowledge Acquisition Bottleneck Through Conversational Knowledge
Management. Retrieved from
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0
CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownl
oad%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.123.3138%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&ei=mZWvU
cqdNdSdqQGarIDIBQ&usg=AFQjCNFlPq8ue3de9qqxkBKd58vKowpuLQ&sig
2=ncmzFcB7vmIjPbiWQ9qrWw
18. Brown, M. Katherine, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny. Managing
Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and other Collaborative
Tools. Wordware Publishing. © 2007. Books24x7.
<http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=18222
> (accessed June 5, 2013)
19. Choate, M. Professional Wikis. John Wiley & Sons. © 2008.
20. PBWORKS. (2012). Agency Hub: Collaboration for Agencies Retrieved from
http://pbworks.com/agency-hub
21. PBWORKSVIDEO. (2011, July 21). Agency Hub Overview [Video file].
Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6ODz-h-cHkQ
22. Renger, Kolfschoten, Jan de Vreede. (2008). Challenges in Collaborative
Modeling: A Literature Review. Retrieved from
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-68644-6_5#page-1
23. FLOWCHART.COM. (2013). Collaborate Together. Retrieved from
http://flowchart.com/
________________________________________________________________
Stages of Team Modeling (Seneca)
As the project team prepares to begin their task, they will experience levels of growth and
maturity ranging from the early stages of preparation, to managing potential conflict and
producing project outcomes, according to Dr. Bruce Tuckerman’s Stages of Group
Development (Tucker, 1965). The four stages, described below, are a tool that can be
used to substantiate the nuances of this process.
 Stage 1: Forming
 Stage 2: Storming
 Stage 3: Norming
 Stage 4: Performing
Stage 1: Forming
In stage one, known as forming, the initial meeting of the group will take this opportunity
to introduce themselves, share their backgrounds and discuss the nuances of the project as
a way to gauge each others personalities and build a consensus on the purpose for the
project. During this stage it is important for the project team to learn each other’s roles
and responsibilities by establishing a team charter as a framework for how the team will
work together. After it’s been established, the group will have the ammunition to
circumnavigate conflict and misunderstandings to balance the individual constraints of
the group with the requirements of the project.
Stage 2: Storming
In stage two, known as storming, the team will adhere to the framework [charter] it
established during the first stage. During this stage, the team will begin competing for
ideas on how the group will execute the project. The necessity to cooperate each other,
be tolerant and respectful of the ideologies, cultural influences and knowledge levels
from other team members will proactively reduce any potential unpleasantness or demotivations among the team. Disagreement among the group is not completely excluded
or the commonality of wraithlike isolation of individuals, which is why the importance of
the first stage becomes an essential part to aid in these types of challenges and promote
cohesiveness. The willingness and necessity to compromise should be used, as a
resolution if/when an agreement among ideas cannot be reached. This becomes
necessary in order for the group to advance to the next stage.
Stage 3: Norming
In stage three, the team will adhere to the directive(s) of the mutually agreed upon plan,
obtained by consensus or negotiation from the previous stage. Known as the Norming
stage, delegation of particular parts of the project is decided on. Methods of
communication, whether formal in some instances and informal in others, will become
normal representations of the teams’ comfort level with other. So if the team prefers to
use Skype as method of communication, everyone in the group will accept it during this
stage. Opportunities to explore social activities, discussions or momentum building
exercises as a group can be introduced during this stage as well, particularly as the group
becomes comfortable with each others style and work ethic.
Performing
In stage four, known as Performing, the group will undergo their assigned tasks and fully
execute deliverables, attend scheduled meetings and meet benchmarks that were
established by the group. This stage will illuminate the strengths of each member’s
expertise. Individually, members will work independently without permissions or
direction from the rest of the group, to complete their delegated portion(s) of the task.
The deliverance of the project milestones and goals will become outputs to be submitted
to the group for input, whether discussion, decision-making or revision, to be conjoined
as part of the collective work from the group.
Meeting Sphere (Seneca)
A team’s productivity and morale can impact the outcome of a project. And while there
can its members make numerous reasons, those that particularly relate to the vitality of
contributions and their willingness to act on them are critical. The collaboration process
can inadvertently cause teams to holdback on their suggestions or even prevent ideas
from being developed when the threshold of trust, fear of retaliation and a reputation for
un-cooperativeness can be a consequence as suggested by Steve Bather, President of
Meetingsphere. He suggests that the silo effect in company cultures, in spite of their
declarations of stating that the companies’ environment is open and welcomes unfiltered
suggestions from employees; it continues to be viewed by employees as an adverse risk
that could impact their job or reputation with the organization (Bather. 2012).
There are two provocations that come to mind as a result of this dynamic:
 First: How does a project manager cut through this potential constraint to increase
the teams’ motivation to openly contribute their honest suggestions without
feeling alienated or marginalized?
 Second: Why does understanding this dynamic improve a team’s capability to
yield better outcomes?
In response, Meetingsphere, an EMS tool that utilizes the positive aspect of anonymity to
harness unfiltered contributions from teams, is the ideal solution. Here is a video
overview:
http://meetingsphere.com/tools/take-tour
Meetingsphere is a source for project managers and teams to fully develop more ideas,
suggestions, and feedback [*when compared to traditional meetings] while
inconspicuously elevating the spirit, buy-in and ownership of the outcomes by team
members. Of this tools multiple benefits, there are three specific areas that substantiate
why and how it should be utilized in a virtual meeting environment:
Deeper Engagement
As a project manager, Meetingsphere can be used synchronously or asynchronously.
Input from each participant can be anonymously or openly submitted in a way that
everyone can see their own contributions as well as those of others. As a result, the
group will have very little room to direct their attention to emails, mobile devices or other
potential distractions because their lack of contributions could potentially be observed by
the meeting facilitator and other team participants.
The two primary drivers for deeper engagement stem from each participants willingness
to openly share their ideas and contribute to the process; an option they would potentially
forego if they were in a traditional face-to-face meeting with their colleagues and
superiors. The second is the capability of each participant to feed off the responses from
other participants as they’re contributing their responses.
As ideas are being exchanged, participants are able to filter, explore, rank and poll
everyone’s contributions to produce outcomes that are scrutinized and more
comprehensive.
Greater efficiency
In a traditional meeting setting, one that participants meet in person without the use of an
EMS tool, participants would have to wait to be recognized by the meeting facilitator to
speak or engage the direction of the group. A start and end time is often established as a
parameter for getting an array of goals met within the allocated time frame. In this
instance and often unnoticeably, time or lack there of, becomes the primary driver for the
meeting to achieve the goals that were set. The emphasis on digging deeper into the
meeting discussions is impeded because the constraints of time will not allow for it. As a
consequence, contributions from participants can be tabled or never surface, missing a
tremendous amount of opportunities.
Meetingsphere has a reciprocal effect. Using the same scenario, the ability of the
participants to develop their contributions, or speak at once, is not only a capability but
strongly encouraged. Participants do not have to be recognized and are therefore able to
share as many ideas as they want, adding a higher yield of benefits from the meeting.
Time no longer becomes the primary driver so much as quantity and filtering of
information become more dominant. What is also worth noting is while these
contributions are being submitted and scrutinized, it happens in far less time when
compared to a traditional meeting. This translates into a much more efficient use of time.
Better Implementation
The transparent environment, deeper engagement and greater efficiency of
Meetingsphere increase the buy –in of the participants. Therefore, they have not only
shared and filtered information and ideas, but have a sense of ownership in the outcome.
As a result, the likelihood of the outcome(s) has a higher chance of being implemented
because of the collaborative input from the whole team and the deeper exploration and
scrutinzation of the shared results.
* Traditional meetings as used in the aforementioned scenario means face-to-face / inperson meetings
Google Docs (Seneca)
Getting Started
As a collaborative authoring tool, Google Docs is one of the most easily accessible tools
to deploy for your virtual team project. To get started, you will need:


A user ID, obtained at www.google.com, by creating a Gmail account
Creating A Document
Creating A Google Doc
Once the account has been created, you can access Google docs by signing in with your
user name and password then logging into your account. Once logged in, located in the
upper left hand side of the screen will be a red box with an arrow that says, “Create”.
Click on the box to access the pull-down menu to create a:






Folder
Document
Presentation
Spreadsheet
Form
Drawing
After deciding on your desired document, click on it and your Google Doc will be created
and will immediately populate on your screen.
Collaborative Authoring
Google Docs functions are similar to those in Microsoft Office. Formatting the text,
Adding bullets, copying and pasting are just a few on the many capabilities. The
collaborative authoring function, the capability that allows the newly created document to
be edited synchronously or asynchronously by additional users, is exceptionally easy to
use. There are multiple ways to begin sharing the newly created document:
Synchronous Use
If using sharing with your team synchronously, make sure that everyone is logged
into their Gmail accounts then begin by going to “file” in the upper left hand
corner to access the pull down menu. Select “share” and the “share settings”
screen will populate. Although there are multiple ways to share a Google Doc,
add the email addresses of those whom you’d like to share the document with in
the box at the bottom (*note that before hitting done, make sure the box to the
right of the box you typed the email addresses in says “can edit”. This will give
the users the ability to edit the document) then hit done.
The document will be shared with those you have listed. After each user has
accessed the document, they will each be able to edit synchronously, viewing the
edits from the other users in real time. The edits to the document will
automatically be save in real-time
Asynchronous Use
If using sharing with your team asynchronously, it is not necessary for everyone
to be logged in to edit the document. Follow the exact aforementioned procedure
to share the document with the group. The user that has been given access to the
document will receive a notification at the email address that was typed into the
box. Upon the users access, at any given time, they will be able to edit the
document.
Collaborative Authoring Features of Google Docs
Revision History
Users may view the history of edits of the group by going to “file” in the upper left hand
corner of the document to access the pull-down menu and selecting revision history. A
box filled with the revision history from all of the users whose made edits to the
document will be revealed with their name, date and time.
Download Google Docs
Google Docs can be downloaded, opened and saved as a Microsoft Office document
(Word, Excel) edited and sent as an attachment in an email.
Google Doc Caveats
Google Docs is only one of many collaborative authoring tools on the market. That said,
its deployment could vary depending on the project or constituency utilizing it. For
example, students in collaborative environments have been less apprehensive than some
industry professionals because of their willingness to give up authorship to a
collaborative document in an effort to get a collaborative project completed (Hunter,
2011). Industry professionals, particularly medical professionals, may not find Google
Docs comprehensive enough because it lacks features that focus on the “authoring” more
than the “collaborating” (Ness, V., Duffy, K., McCallum, L. & Price, L., 2013).
Google Docs does not have all the editing features of a Microsoft Word, Excel or
PowerPoint Document. It also loses some of its formatting if uploading a document to a
Wiki.
Sources
www.google.com
Hunter, R. (2011, March) Erasing “Property Lines”: A collaborative notion of authorship
and
textual ownership on a fan wiki. Computers and Composition. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461510001027
Ness, V., Duffy, K., McCallum, L. & Price, L. (2013, 25 April ). Getting published:
Reflections
of a collaborative writing group. Nurse Education Today. Retrieved from
http://tinyurl.com/d8f8een
Sequential Writing
The sequential writing process is a collaborative writing process that involves starting the
collaborative authoring process with one member of the group and then passing it to
another member of the group to write their portion and so on. And while one of the
major benefits to this process includes cohesiveness between each subsequent author, it
can be a time consuming process. Each member has to wait for the preceding member to
complete their portion before they can submit their portion.
Parallel Writing
Parallel Writing in collaborative authoring is synonymous with groups splitting up parts
of the collaborative work and then piecing it together to make it cohesive, appearing as if
a single author wrote it. The benefits to this writing process involve faster completion
times, as the group is simultaneously writing at once. The negative aspect of this process
is the increased amount of editing and revisions required when combining the works of
all the contributors to achieve succinctness as one voice in the finished product.
Reciprocal Writing
Reciprocal writing in a collaborative authoring environment, especially when writing
virtually, is an efficient method to deploy for group authored works. Google Docs, for
instance, is a formidable tool to facilitate this type of writing. Each member of the group
may post their portion to the Google Doc and simultaneously make edits in real-time.
This not only reduces the overall edit time to strive for cohesiveness between authors, but
it allows each writer to write simultaneously so that the loss of time does not become an
issue, much like the Sequential Writing process. Other tools such as Wiki’s have similar
functions as Google Docs
Doodle (Seneca)
A significant part of a virtual team’s decision-making process rests in the charter in
which the team has adopted. But in the execution sense, an effective virtual tool can be
deployed to schedule meetings and vote on questions that can arise in between meetings,
for without one; misunderstandings and conflict can impede ideas from being explored
and objectives from being met.
It is common to have questions arise throughout multiple stages of the project at any
given time (Duarte, D. L., & Snyder, N.,1999). When will the team meet? How do I get
feedback from the group on new information that was received? Juggling the schedule of
project team members can get complicated and missing opportunities can impact project
milestones. As one can imagine, constraints from external sources, family, school and
other obligations, can be difficult to mesh with every member of the team.
An accessible virtual meeting tool, Doodle, is a source to coordinate group schedules for
meetings and conduct polls. It’s simple and takes only minutes to set up.
Getting Started
To begin, go to www.doodle.com and follow the instructions to create a user account.
Schedule a Meeting
Once the user account has been created, Scroll down to the blue button on the left-hand
side and click “schedule and event”. A screen will populate to ask you details about the
event.

Step 1: Type in the relative information and click next.

Step 2: A screen with a calendar on it will populate on the screen asking you to
select YOUR available dates. Click as many dates as you wish and then hit next.
Step 3: A screen will populate with 3 boxes for time slots for every day that you
selected in the previous step. Enter your availability in each time slot. If you
need more time slots, just click "Add more time slots” and three more time slots
for each day will appear next to the original three you selected. Only fill in the
time slots that you are available and leave any other ones blank then hit next.


Another screen will populate and ask you if you would like to start a poll. Click
next for yes.
Step 4: A screen will populate and ask you to enter the email addresses of your
group, located underneath the subheading “Doodle sends the invitation”. Fill in
the relative information and click the box to track whose missing and who’s
responded to the poll then click send and finish.
Schedule a Poll
Once the user account has been created, Scroll down to the blue button on the right-hand
side and click “make a choice”. A screen will populate to ask you details about the event.

Step 1: Type in the relative information and click next.

Step 2: A screen with 10 boxes called “options” will populate on the screen
asking you to type in your poll question(s). Type one option in each box. If you
need more option slots, just click add more slots and ten more option slots will
appear below the original option boxes you filled. Only fill in the boxes that you
need and leave any other ones blank then hit next.
Step 3: Another screen will populate and ask you if you would like to start a poll.
Click next for yes.
Step 4: A screen will populate and ask you to enter the email addresses of your
group, located underneath the subheading “Doodle sends the invitation”. Fill in
the relative information and click the box to track whose missing and who’s
responded to the poll then click “send and finish”.


Sharing The Results
The poll initiator will be sent the results and can and can share that information with
the group via an email, text message or using the most preferred method for the group
to communicate.
Doodle Caveats
While Doodle’s ease of use, accessibility and integration with Google calendars are
great benefits of why this tool is effective for a project manager, it does have a
downside. This tool works optimally when everyone is responsive, but if one or more
of the group members take a considerable amount of time to respond to the poll, it
will delay obtaining all of the results making the tool less effective. That said, poll
questions and meetings that are time sensitive, needing results in minutes or a couple
of hours for example, may require another form of communication such as text
messaging (that’s assuming that text messages have been determined by the group as
being a method of communication that elicits quicker responses).
Aside from the aforementioned caveat, Doodle is an excellent tool to deploy when
advanced notice is given, especially during a project meeting, when the opportunity to
remind everyone that a poll will be subsequently sent afterwards to schedule a
meeting or take a poll.
www.doodle.com
Duarte, D. L., & Snyder, N. (1999). Mastering Virtual Teams: Strategies, Tools, and
Techniques That Succeed. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.
Highlighted portion (More will be added to this including sources)