Bioteams: The Next Frontier of Business Process Management
Stumble It!Support for collaboration is the hot discussion in BPM circles these days, and for good reason. It’s the human-to-human interactions of teams that count when it comes to innovation and agility. ... you and everyone you work with must be able to function in and through internal and multi-company teams, and must also grasp what the latest concept of “team” really means….
Read the full article from BPMInstitute.org.
About the Author
Ken Thompson is author of "Bioteams: High Performance Teams Based on Nature's Most Successful Designs"
Tags: bioteams, BPM, organizational teams
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Comments
Agreed!
I have described the typical model as a football team where you are only allowed to pass the ball to the captain.
Posted by: Jo | April 19, 2008 10:32 AM
Great Analogy Jo - I will use that!!!!
I am a soccer fanatic and I could not see even Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Real Madrid or Barcelona winning much playing that way!
Regards
Ken
Posted by: ken.thompson | April 19, 2008 10:39 AM
Hi Jo
Based on your comment have a look at this
http://www.bioteams.com/2008/05/04/sports_teams_and.html#more
Best Regards
Ken
Posted by: ken thompson | May 5, 2008 8:04 AM
Hi Ken,
I will be speaking of Biomomicry at the BPM conference in Orlando next week and want to add your book and concepts to my presentation.
In my constant search for examples of Biomimicry in business and design, you came up some weeks ago. I was happy to see your article in BPM magazine on the web. It makes a good connection from my organic examples in design to corporate governance.
In my 25 years as an outside consultant and designer for corporate advertising departments, I have seen the command and control, collide and collapse many times. I have often wondered why the same cycle seems to appear in in-house situations. New teams seem to eventually partition themselves in hierarchy that is unsustainable. As people begin to leave the remainder seem to isolate themselves, as if to avoid injury.
Have a good week.
Dan Halsey
Posted by: Daniel Halsey | May 6, 2008 2:10 PM
Hi Don
Thanks for your kind comments - it also puzzles me why my so many teams stick with C&C. My theory is that in many situations it is easier/better/safer for individuals to play the team game with the hidden goal of avoiding individual failure than than the stated goal of seeking collective success.
I have many examples of teams who started to play for the collective win goal and changed midproject to the "avoiding the individual blame goal". When this happens - usually due to a leadership failure - the team crosses the line and they all switch-off the "looking out for each other" early warning system to just look out for number 1.
Good luck at the conference - if you need anything let me know
Best Regards
Ken
Posted by: ken thompson | May 6, 2008 2:23 PM
Bioteams Books Reviews
Mobile phone users: are we now cyborgs
The term cyborg is used to designate an organism which is a mixture of organic and synthetic parts so designed to enhance its abilities via technology. William Mitchell a professor at MIT Media Lab believes that through our mobile devices we are all becoming mobile cyborgs and its for the better. In his book Me++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City which he discusses in an interview with James Harkin Mitchell describes how the new communications technologies have overlaid our city spaces with central nervous systems connecting us into the wireless ether via our mobile devices which act as umbilical cords to anchor us into the information society's digital infrastructure.
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Related Bioteams Features Articles
Sports teams and organizational teams: a bioteams crowdbreaker
I have to thank Jo for the idea behind this excellent little crowdbreaker which introduces the bioteams concepts and shows very quickly in a concrete way that it makes perfect sense when you actually think about it.
Did ants invent the perfect mobile communications system
Ants interact using a system known as pheromones, involving sending 'chemical messages' to their community through smell and taste. It is also one of the oldest and most sophisticated forms of group communication on the planet with many features today's mobile and virtual teams would die for!
Online team assessment: free bioteams tool released
I am pleased to announce the release of a new Flash-based Bioteams Instant Team Assessment tool which provides an online snapshot of how much a team is operating like a bioteam by calculating its bioteams footprint across 5 key areas: beliefs, leadership, connectivity, execution and organization.
