Tag Archives: GTD

I am free from email because I use GTD and social business tools

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

My last blog post was about “walking the talk”.  Like everyone else, I am really busy and don’t have time to be trolling through email all day.  It is now mid-day and here is what my email in-box looks like:

Yes, I still do have emails to reply to however, I am in control of them.  I use a product called eProductivity for Lotus Notes which works on David Allen’s methodology for Getting Things Done (GTD).  Not only that, but my preferred option for communication is by making use of social business tools, I use IBM connections.

Social Businesses build collaborative cultures to get a job done

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

When you hear the word “Team”, most people automatically switch off for various reasons.  For some it will be that they have seldom been a part of a successful team, while for others they believe they can do a better job on their own.  Over the years, we have all probably gone through a multitude of team building exercises,  but have never seen any improvements to the daily grind of a job.  Most businesses don’t have a team culture and as a result people find themselves working in their own little silo’s.

In a sports game, team members play and work together for a common goal – to win.  Each member of the team is given a task to do while on the field, but this task cannot be done without interaction from the rest of the team, otherwise the team will full apart.  From my observations, this is not so with most businesses.  People are recruited to do a job, not for what they contribute to the rest of the team.  Just because you are a small company, doesn’t mean that you are a team.

Teams work together to get the jobs done.  The culture of a successful team sees people continuously interacting  while working towards a common goal.  It’s not just about having a meeting and assigning tasks to individuals, but it’s about finding ways to contribute your expertise to give a job momentum.  It is about under performers, having the ability to ask for help, and to feel supported.

As mentioned before, I am a keen supporter of IBM Connections – a set of tools which enables businesses to use social applications to achieve results in less time through harnessing the power of collaborative teams.  One of the most significant of these, is called “Activities”.  Activities, is a socially driven application enabling people to collaborate around a set of tasks.    Typically, a team would have a discussion about an activity which needs to be done.  They would break down the activity into tasks which would then be assigned to team members.

As each team member carries out their tasks they can refer back to the activities as they are completed.  A simple tick in the box indicates that a task is complete.  Because of this visibility they can assist others to finish the remaining tasks.  This then results in successful completion in less time.  Sounds simple doesn’t it?

Okay, let’s put the activity on steroids.  Let’s do something that your competitors probably aren’t doing.  Let’s allow a team member to say that they’re  having a problem completing a task.  The collaborative nature of IBM Connections (Activities) allows for discussion to break out over a task, either to provide or gain assistance.  Quickly, the right expertise can be deployed to drive better outcomes.  The result usually leads to innovation and agility.

Over the years, I have probably made the mistake of hiring people using a role orientated job description rather than for the expertise that they could offer to both real and virtual teams.  Collaboration doesn’t rely on one person to complete an activity, it relies on people with expertise working together.  Collaborative teams are habitually innovating and finding solutions to problems, rather than individuals working alone.