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.

Good operational meetings, whether co-located or virtual, are the engine of organisational and project governance. However often their success is left totally to chance. Here are my five key tips for making them more effective:

The most widely used tool for mobile, distributed and virtual teams is still the plain old telephone conference call. However it is also the most badly used! So whether you are talking over Skype, mixing it with screen sharing and messaging, using your corporate PABX or just calling in to an external service if you follow these 12 simple rules you will get much better calls.

The Wisdom of Crowds and Collective Intelligence are very useful concepts but not if they are used in the wrong places. Confusing these two concepts will only produce bad results for your groups and teams.

I am pleased to announce the launch of “The Bumble Bee's Top Collaboration Techniques” as a mini site within www.bioteams.com as a practical resource for coaches, facilitators and team leaders who are incubating or supporting teams, networks, groups or communities, either Virtual or Co-located.

Usually we think of the importance of sharing 'positive' intelligence between organisational team members, however recent UK research on foraging Pharaoh ants indicates that sharing 'negative' intelligence to avoid wasted effort may be just as important.

The Delphi Technique is a proven way to harness collective group intelligence (popularly known as the wisdom of crowds) in a wide range of applications.

Create a single frame video conference using a peopleclock to help participants concentrate and engage better.

People are always asking me about good, proven techniques for developing and supporting teams, networks and communities so heres an introduction to my favourite fifteen techniques for teams.

Science Daily, “Establishing Trust Online Is Critical For Online Communication Say NJIT Experts” reports the conclusions of a paper “Swift Trust in Virtual Teams".