Bioteaming: Natural Models for Virtual Teams
Stumble It!I presented Bioteaming: Natural Models for Virtual Teams at the Collaborative Tools Conference (CTC2006) at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, MA, on June 22. We discussed what nature's teams might teach us about messaging, swarming, networking and personal collaboration strategies.
I presented an Interactive Bioteaming Experience where we explored what we could learn from:
- Ants on Group Messaging
- Bird Flocks on Team Member Swarming
- Foodwebs on Team Networking
- Sticklebacks on Personal Cooperation Strategies
Click below to download a PDF of the presentation slides:
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Comments
Concerning BIOTEAMING:
1/ Sheep:
Does it exist any experience, or does it exist any study about the ways that we can consider that team members or entire teams are acting like sheep ? whether that is a conscious choice or an instinctual behavior, whether that is specific, repetitive, or quite to the contrary very usual.
What can be the point of view of the employees ? Do they agree with these behaviors when necessary ? On the contrary are there some situations in which they feel constrained ?
What can be the point of view of the managers ? What are the main situations when such behavior proves useful ?
Now, can we describe communication when "sheeping" ? And can we propose ways to communicate so as to prevent the phenomenon ? Or on the contrary to provoque the phenomenon (http://www.txtgroups.com/) ?
2/ Is it possible to consider that there exists a sort of bioteaming phenomenon when some members of team are called with words usually indicating an animal ?
For example, several months ago a new surgeon has been recruited in the Institute where I have to go the most to cure my hand (http://www.institut-main.fr/).
His name is "KATZ" which means in french "CHAT", and this is very near the german word for cat. His comportemental way of being sometimes makes me think about characters of comic strips which are cats, particularly those representing of the dispensers of justice or the heroes with a cape and a sort of black mark around the eyes ("loup" in french, but "wolf" is not the correct world is it ?).
I am sure that he is not always playing a role.
Ideally it would be useful to evaluate precisely his influence on the team.
Posted by: COUTURAS | July 11, 2006 10:24 PM
Bioteams Books Reviews
When not to collaborate
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.
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Related Bioteams Features Articles
Biological teams live
Much of the foundation of bioteaming is based on the organisation, communications and behavior of social insect societies. The BBC has a wonderful series Life in the Undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough with a whole programme dedicated to Supersocieties and Super-organisms.
Bioteams Rule 2: Team Intelligence
Instead of issuing orders, nature's teams such as ants, geese, dophins, jellyfish and microscopic life forms, function by providing timely information to the team members and then allowing and expecting them to take the appropriate action. Curiously, this information is not provided by the Queen nor a leadership group but by the 'rank and file' members. Team Intelligence provides a team with a much more sensitive and long-range early warning 'radar' than the conventional approach which enables them to spot problems and opportunities sooner and to react to them more effectively.
A Design Framework for Bioteams
The Trinity of all Living Systems - A Design Framework for Bioteams. Dr Humberto Maturana and Dr Franciso Varela, 2 Chilean biologist/neuroscientists, in their ground-breaking book "The Tree of Knowledge - The Biological Roots of Human Understanding" [1] suggest a simple but profound model, represented graphically below, which wonderfully captures the essence of living systems.
