The Bumble Bee

Gartner Research discovers bioteams and swarms

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:00:42 +0000

In a press release to promote their upcoming Content and Collaboration Summit 2010 (London, UK, September 15-16) Gartner Research forecast 10 key changes in the nature of work through to 2020 centering around bioteams, swarming and connectivity.

Google drops Wave

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:33:41 +0000

BBC News reports that Google is dropping Google wave due to lack of users. Wave combined e-mail, instant messaging and the ability to collaborate on documents in real-time and was described as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today". Its a big surprise for a product that looked like a game changer and just like mobile picture messaging serves as a reminder of the risks of getting too far ahead of your market.

Real-time dashboarding of Social Media conversations

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:31:39 +0000

Interesting post on the idashboard blog which shows up how mass sentiment expressed through social media such as twitter can be automatically extracted into data visualization software and the results displayed in almost real-time. The number of applications for this type of social media dashboarding must be huge in both business and civic engagement

New mobile version of bioteams.com

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:50:41 +0000

Please checkout the new mobile version of bioteams.com at www.bioteams.mobi which optimizes the bioteams blog for readers on mobile browsers.

The 15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:02:55 +0000

Brainz.org has a very good article which gives 15 excellent examples of designs inspired by nature (biomimicry or biomimetics).

YouNetFast: Online Guide to Collaborative Networks

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:20:43 +0000

I am pleased to launch the YouNetFast blog/online resource which is a unique and up-to-date resource on leading, facilitating and benefiting from collaborative business networks. YouNetFast is the third website in my YouWorkFast series.

YouTeamFast: New Blog on working with Teams

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:56:37 +0000

I am pleased to launch the YouTeamFast blog/online resource which pulls together Twenty One of my best techniques for assessing, mobilising, operating and improving teams and is the second website in my YouWorkFast series.

YouBidFast: New Online Biz Dev and Marketing Blog

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:51:29 +0000

I am delighted to give bioteams.com readers a heads-up that I am launching www.youbidfast.com showing how any organization or even individual can turbo-charge their business development and marketing results by exploiting the latest best-in-class (and TOTALLY FREE) software in areas such as blogging, social media, CRM and web monitoring. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Have you discovered the power of Serendipitous Collaboration yet?

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:15:37 +0000

The most common approach to business collaboration (Planned Collaboration) involves prior analysis of the participants to try to identify shared interests in collaboration (e.g. as complementary players in a collaborative supply network). Another more radical approach (Serendipitous Collaboration) involves putting a random mix of companies in a room and seeing what develops. Guess what - Serendipitous Collaboration works really well provided you have a good process for uncovering synergies!

Leading collaborative business networks - 10 rules for success

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:18:00 +0000

When you are leading or facilitating any kind of collaborative business network or venture you need to know that these are very different kinds of team than you encounter inside organisations. These are "bioteams" so-called because each team has a life of its own and the normal team "command and control" simply does not work. To be successful you need to know The Ten Rules for herding cats!

Online Mindmapping Tools and Collaborative Whiteboards Review

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:26:58 +0000

Robin Good, at MasterNewMedia has produced a comprehensive review of 10 Web-based Mindmapping Services which are categorised against various criteria with a useful summary paragraph for each service.

The Collaborative Opportunities Dashboard Tool

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:54:22 +0000

One of the hardest things for a group of companies to do is to find some quick-win low-risk area where they can build trust by working together BEFORE they embark on something major. The Collaborative Opportunities Dashboard Tool allows companies to quickly explore a dozen practical ways to work together with the goal of meaningful results in 12 weeks or less.

Web Business Simulations for Management Development

Thu, 27 May 2010 16:57:00 +0000

I am sharing my set of powerful web-based interactive business simulations with their real-time graphs, dashboards, sliders, guages and avatars. I developed these over a number of years using the excellent ithink simulation environment as essential tools to support what-if analysis, management learning games, experiential learning, balanced business scorecards and scenario planning.

The Networked Enterprise: NASA Video

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:31:02 +0000

In the summer of 2009 I had the privilege of speaking to an audience of NASA scientists and researchers at the NASA Research Centre in Langley, Virginia on the topic of The Networked Enterprise and Bioteams in the context of major engineering and scientific enterprises. NASA have very kindly allowed me to publish the full video of my presentation here.

How to have a meeting

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:18:45 +0000

I had a great chat on the good, the bad and the ugly of organizational meetings with Phil Daoust of The Guardian newspaper as part of a excellent in-depth article which appeared today in G2 (April 23) entitled "How to have a meeting". Here are the online links to it:

Enterprise networks drive productivity gains: New Research

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 10:23:03 +0000

A recent research report by University of Queensland Business School (Australia) academics Tim Kastelle and John Steen suggests that large enterprises can make major gains in productivity by investing in their internal communication networks. This resonates strongly with the concepts of bioteaming according to practitioner Max Bhanabhai.

Unfairness perception destroys team collaboration

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:31:05 +0000

One of the deadliest invisible killers in teams is the perception of unfairness: that some are rewarded beyond which their contribution merits. "Fairness perception" is a massively important but poorly understood team concept, which even extends beyond human teams into the animal kingdom. Here is how to successfully manage it.

Ten Collaboration Trends for 2010

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:15:54 +0000

IT in Canada report on the Top Ten Collaboration Trends for 2010 as seen by Barry O'Sullivan, Senior Vice President of Cisco Voice Technology Group. Barry expects to see more things like Intercompany Collaboration (3), Connected Device Proliferation (7) and Customer Collaboration (10) - all of which resonate strongly with The Bioteaming Manifesto.

Ten critical foundations for successful collaborative networks

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:27:03 +0000

There are 10 really critical foundations to make a Virtual Enterprise Network a success: 1) Communities and Project Dynamic, 2) Network Ground Rules, 3) Group Membership Structures, 4) Practical Group Structures, 5) Complete set of Network Roles, 6) Appropriate Legal Frameworks, 7) Practical Exchange Model, 8) Viable Stakeholder Ecosystem, 9) Realistic Network Development Model, 10) Proven Development Road Map. This article offers an introduction to these ten foundations.

The Networked Enterprise (TNE) Reference Card

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:54:48 +0000

A unique reference card for printing on 2-sided A4 (Landscape) which folds into 6 sections showing the key priorities and resources in developing The Networked Enterprise through its 7 maturity stages with the 8 key techniques and their checklists. A must-have for all group collaboration coaches, leaders and practitioners!

Prediction Markets 101

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:01:29 +0000

Prediction Markets apply group intelligence techniques such as the wisdom of crowds to provide new insights into certain types of decisions about the future which an enterprise must make. According to Andrew McAfee of MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of the book Enterprise 2.0. "They may seem like strange beasts but prediction markets are simply stock markets; they contain securities that are bought and sold by traders." Read his excellent 2-page introduction.

Virtual Teams and Communities Training Manual

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:43:57 +0000

As a festive treat I am making available, totally free to Bioteams readers, my Virtual Teams and Communities Training Manual (155 pages) which I have used on a number of occasions as a comprehensive full-day workshop on this very important topic.

Virtual Enterprise Networks Presentation

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:06:17 +0000

Thanks to mollfrey for posting my presentation on VENs at Connecting Innovation in Brighton (UK) on myplick.com. I like the way the slides are automatically previewed in flash with the text transcript also shown. Nice one!

Brain activity exposes promise breakers

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:45:27 +0000

Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable you to predict whether someone will break a promise.

Bioteams referenced in a dozen new books

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:15:55 +0000

I did some searching with Google books search and Amazon book search and was pleasantly surprised to find that "bioteams or bioteaming" is discussed in over a dozen recent books. You can checkout my Bioteams book here or my latest book The Networked Enterprise (TNE) which describes in detail how to use bioteams to create Virtual Enterprise Networks.

From Social Networking to Swarm Intelligence

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:44:25 +0000

A new area of research called "complexity science" embraces the notion that an ant colony and the human brain, the stock market and Facebook all have something in common. All are complex systems, basically huge networks made up of individual components whose behavior is difficult to predict. Kathleen Ryan O'Connor reports on Bioteams and Research from Binghamton University NY.

Outlook Express users: move to Windows Live Mail!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:06:35 +0000

I have been a loyal Outlook Express user for many years but recently have started to encounter constant problems such as OE terminating, hanging and deleting my messages when it tried to compact them. And of course OE is a "functionally stabilized" product as IBM would say (i.e. no new releases or bug fixes)! So I started to look for alternatives......

A Social Network Development Model

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:46:31 +0000

Way back in the social networking Dark Ages, OK - October 2005, I published a "A Virtual Community Development Model" with sports metaphors for each stage. Looking back today I think some of it still applies to the development of those social networks driven primarily by shared interests/knowledge (rather than by relationship building). But see what you think?

A biology lesson for bankers

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:08:06 +0000

Thanks to Jo Jordan for pointing out research on how biological systems such as the animal kingdom or the environment can offer lessons on how we might have predicted and controlled the behaviour of bankers and thus avoided the financial panic that has rocked our financial system to their core.

Swarm Leader opportunity for team practitioners, consultants and researchers

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:06:26 +0000

Bioteams and Swarms are acknowledged as radical innovations in the field of teams, communities and social networks. To help the adoption of this innovation globally we are looking to work with and develop a limited number of "Swarm Leaders" who will create exemplars of swarm and bioteam working within various markets, communities and geographies.