A team of one is sometimes best. It might sound like heresy but sometimes the most effective way to produce something is not through collaboration. Collaboration is best for tasks which cannot be fully achieved by a single person – if a job can be completed best by one person then to collaborate to do it will only make it worse.

Create a single frame video conference using a peopleclock

I discovered this very simple technique in an article in the Harvard Business Review, Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger. One of the problems of audio-only conferences is keeping concentration when you lack any visual stimuli.

Taking your most important relationships seriously

The current focus on ‘social networking’ might make you think you should spend most of your efforts warming up distant relationships and creating new ones. This focus on new relationships is good and healthly – however it would be a major mistake if it meant you neglected to nurture the strong relationships you already have.

Often we get fixated on the soft side of teams and change management. By this I mean techniques concerning how do we get the right team, how do we understand the team members personal motivations, how do we create a good team working environment and how do we resolve conflict.

These are all vitally important however we may forget that this is only half the story.....