The Bumble Bee

What teams can learn from spiders

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:20:24 +0000

Our old friend the spider gets a lot of bad press. For example he/she has been used as an example of the weakness of centralised leadership models versus so-called “leaderless organisations” in The Starfish and The Spider. However spiders can teach teams, enterprises and networks two very important lessons: Strategic Readiness and Appropriate Response.

Predictably Irrational teams

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:51:15 +0000

Teams, networks, groups and their members behave in an irrational way but quite predictably so. A good team leader will understand this and use it to everyone’s advantage. One key point is to knowing each team members motivations and whether they are operating in “social economy” or “market economy” mindsets.

Sports teams and organizational teams: a bioteams crowdbreaker

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:10:29 +0000

I have to thank Jo Jordan 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

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:19:32 +0000

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!

Email address fakers targeted by new open standard

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:41:12 +0000

One of the biggest nuisances on the web today is when somebody sends out SPAM pretending to be from your email. This is known as Sender Address Forgery and it could become a thing of the past due to a new open standard called Sender Policy Framework (SPF).

Bioteams Instant Assessment Tool: Improved Version

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:18:31 +0000

I am pleased to announce a new version of the Flash-based Bioteams Instant Team Assessment tool which provides an online snapshot of how much a team is operating like a bioteam. Many Thanks to Jo, Chris and others for their very helpful feedback and suggestions.

Bioteams: The Next Frontier of Business Process Management

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:47:03 +0000

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….

Mobile Digital Nomads on the rise

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:59:00 +0000

An excellent article in The Economist (10th April 2008), Nomads at last, describes the growing band of “digital nomads” who travel light from oasis to oasis with only an iPhone or a Blackberry and traces how they evolved from “digital astronauts” (who carried all their vital supplies with them) through “digital hermit crabs” (with a basic shell of devices, batteries and connectors) to their current digital nomadic form.

The Virtual Team Profiler: the fastest way to find out what your virtual team needs

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:00:00 +0000

A virtual team profiling technique to help you spot problems before they turn into nasty surprises by first exposing the nature of the team in 8 key dimensions: Team Objectives, Leadership Style, Member Profiles, Team Shape, Environment, Working Approach, Social Dynamic and Technology.

The Surprising Secret of Team Productivity: Cubicles

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:40:26 +0000

In Collision detection Clive Thompson comments on a new study published in The Journal of Human Movement Science (Dec 2007), which suggests that when you can see other workers performing different tasks out the corner of your eye, it slows you down.

Online team assessment: free bioteams tool released

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:08:41 +0000

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.

Nature Inspired Design Templates

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:33:02 +0000

In a BusinessWeek Special Report, February 2008, Matt Vella reports on how Janine Benyus, dean of the burgeoning "biomimicry" design movement, helps companies look to the natural world to help take their business green.

The Truth about Office Life

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:21:52 +0000

David Bolchover, author of The Living Dead: The Truth about Office Life, writing for the UK Times Newspaper in “Sickness at work: the big story” asks the big question: Why do smaller companies have fewer absences? And what can the big corporations do?

Effective Brainstorming: Top Tips

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:32:06 +0000

Brainstorming, despite the popularity of the term, is one of the most challenging collaborative activities to carry out. While most people think they know how to brainstorm, very few really understand how to consistently make a session work. Ken Thompson and Robin Good share some of the secrets gleaned from "The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm"

Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:48:21 +0000

Steven Poole, writing for the Guardian on Saturday March 15, reviews "Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration", by Keith Sawyer and concludes that the book's big idea is that there is no such thing as the lone genius: everything turns out to be collaborative.