Working from home has accelerated innovative team-building trends. How to make traits like agility, collaboration, and candor a permanent part of our management process.

The future of work arrived out of nowhere, on the back of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Team dynamics got challenged as members dealt with illness, trauma, and crisis. We've all been forced to rapidly and radically adapt to new working norms. The Ferrazzi Greenlight Research Institute has spent more than 15 years studying high-performing teams, but I've never seen entrepreneurs rise to the occasion as they have this year. When the crisis subsides, the temptation will be to turn back that progress and retreat into old behaviors.

Jeremy Lightsmith recently asked on twitter:

"Why are teams important? I'm looking for an inspired answer."

I don't know about inspired, but here's my thoughts on the topic:

First, I believe teams (true teams, mind you, not simply groups of individuals under single managers) are capable of delivering better results than individuals - this is the economic (and in a business sense the only) justification for teams. If they can't outperform, they probably shouldn't exist.

Much of my thinking on why they can outperform has been deeply influenced by the book: "The Wisdom of Teams" and I won't rehash it here except to say that I believe the key is in the notion of "complimentary skills" - teams are more efficient because rather than having to staff a group of super-humans (you know the kind that typical HR review material seems to want to turn us all into) you can look for how one person's personality and skills work to reinforce and amplify the others.

And that brings me to my most compelling belief of all: It's in our nature. We are social creatures, we need to connect with others, to bond with them, to feel we are working together. Rather than spend our time lamenting our "shortcomings" and worrying about our individual performance (and rewards), forming solid teams means using all of our actual skills as they are to compliment our peers and deliver more than any of us can alone.

People simply work better with a group of people who complete them, whom they feel a deep connection to, whom they trust whom they admire and feel respected by. When you have that, people stop thinking about what's wrong with them, and start thinking about how they can help each other to succeed. And when you have all of that, you have a force to be reckoned with.

Is this easy to accomplish? No - and you need to accomplish all of that (respect, complimentary skills, trust, common goals, acceptance of each other as we are, etc) to achieve a true team. But I am convinced that the payoff for everyone - from the employer to the individuals involved is so worth it, that I won't willingly work any other way - and I reject any "best practices" or conventional wisdom that interferes with achieving that sense of team in the groups I work with.

te koop: spro leo koot teamfeedershor/mid t range 12 feet 3.60 m feedercustum designed by spro.incl. 3 tips en mitchell tanager 2000 rd molenalles nieuw

te koop: spro leo koot teamfeederul short range 11 feet 3.30 m feedercustum designed by spro.incl. 3 tips en mitchell tanager 2000 rd molenmeerdere van te koop.alles nieuw

I had this one on my wall.

Published at LXer: We are very fortunate to have some really cool organizations like Proton, Tuta, Mullvad VPN, and others that have been consistently working on providing privacy-focused products...

Published at LXer: Arch Linux announces a collaboration with gaming giant Valve, focusing on developing a robust build service infrastructure and a secure signing enclave. Read More......

Published at LXer: Paradox Interactive teamed up with another developer again for the new Stellaris: Grand Archive DLC, which is blasting off on October 29th. Stellaris has Native Linux support and...

And the real estate journey continues … Sylvia and I started Crossland Real Estate in Jan 1993, and remained independent until we sold our property management portfolio in 2004 and “retired” for a year. We didn’t actually formally retire … more of a sabbatical … as we were still in our 40s with kids 9 and 12. But we did take a year off from active real estate “production”. We weren’t sure whether we wanted to remain in real estate forever or not. I started a telecom services company and dabbled in Business Brokerage, both of which were interesting pursuits worthy of a full effort, and which I could have succeeded at doing, but after some time off from the daily real estate routine, something happened… The phone rang. It was Real Estate. It wanted us back. Sometimes distance from something brings perspective and a renewed appreciation of it. So, ... Read more

The Delta King is moored in Sacramento used as a hotel.
In San Francisco it's at the pier in 1938. Click thumbnail to see it.

Delta King is a 285-foot-long paddlewheel steamboat (87 m). Delta King is the sister ship to Delta Queen, both christened 20 May 1927, traveling between Sacramento, California and San Francisco, California on 10-hour trips.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_King

Murray Princess on the Murray River in Murray Bridge, South Australia.

What if I told you that you can finally STOP buying all those prompts that keep giving you average results? Say ‘hello’ to Chat Gorilla instead. Simply give a few details about your product/service so that it can tailor the prompt accordingly, and watch Chat Gorilla produce compelling marketing content and copy that’s tailor-made for […]

Valve nous dévoile une nouvelle console Steam Deck, ne jetez pas de rage votre Deck OLED, nous vous rassurons il ne s'agit pas d'une évolution technique de la console phare de Valve, mais une nouvelle déclinaison cosmétique ! Valve proposera un Deck OLED blanc en édition limitée et contrairement à la version limitée transparente initiale, elle ne sera pas limitée à certains territoires. Donc, à partir du 19 novembre, minuit (UTC+1), vous pourrez tenter de commander votre Steam Deck OLED blanc en édition limitée ici, pour la modique somme de 719 euros, techniquement, il s'agit d'une Steam Deck OLED 1 To, avec une robe blanche et grise, le surcoût est donc de 40 euros pour cette version limitée. […]

This spring Microsoft "gave in" to the EU and other governmental regulators and began unbundling Microsoft Teams from Windows 11 and Microsoft 365 plans.

Alianza, Inc.amp;nbsp;today introduced Alianza for Microsoft Teams, a new and powerful solution that gives service providers a robust cloud PBX voice solution for Microsoft Teams.

[MAP] Salé -- Morocco's football head coach, Walid Regragui said on Tuesday that competition for spots on the national soccer team is fierce.

[New Times] The Mediterranean Knights of Libya are not finished yet despite suffering a major setback from a recent 3-0 loss to Nigeria on forfeit in the AFCON 2025 Group D qualifiers.

On vous en parlait en septembre dernier, Project Borealis: Prologue vient de sortir sur Steam. Il s’agit d’une courte démonstration des différentes mécaniques qui seront embarquées dans Project Borealis, un jeu développé par une armée de fans, prenant comme base les ébauches de script de Marc Laidlaw pour Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Pour faire patienter […]

Students at Kumaraguru Institutions in Coimbatore designed a hydrogen fuel cell car for the Shell Eco-Marathon, pushing boundaries in sustainable automotive technology

Missouri Governor Bob Holden this week awarded a Governor's Award for Quality and Productivity to the State Portal Newsfeed Development Team. This annual award that recognizes excellence in service, efficiency and innovation went to employees from 17 different state agencies who developed a system for state agencies to share the state's news feed portal at little or no cost to the agency. This system currently publishes the news from 18 government agencies, offices and organizations at the top of each hour on the state homepage, in addition to providing continuous newsfeed to web sites in the public sector.

74(11):2024, p.458-464

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Want to travel and serve the Church at the same time? Then consider joining one of the many OCMC Mission Teams this summer and serve in places like Alaska, Albania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Romania, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.

Data makes the world go round, but without proper context, it can only tell a small part of the story.  At a call center, for example, the average time that agents spend on calls tells you very little about the success of those calls. If the calls are super short, […]

The post What Your Average Call Duration Says About Your Team appeared first on .

Get daily news, stats, fans views and punditry from your Premiership club, all in one place.

Competing for Scotland is a rare opportunity. BBC Scotland takes a look at why it means so much

Sam Warburton reveals his all-time top five team-mates.

As Wales head to Turkey in the Nations League, pick the team and approach you think Craig Bellamy should adopt in Kayseri.

The Channel Islands Air Search team sees a "significant increase" in incidents.

Four Army teachers are preparing to row across the Atlantic in a 3,000 mile challenge for charity.

Meet some of the team behind Ben Ainslie's mission to win the America's Cup.

After every round of Premier League matches this season, Troy Deeney gives us his team of the week. Do you agree with his choices?

The trial will give rural areas and passengers on the railway's route access to the internet.

Organisers of the Great Dorset Steam Fair say it costs about £5m to run the event each year.

Bristol City have the squad depth to be a "top team" and challenge in the Championship this season says forward Anis Mehmeti.

Nearly half of all dogs are affected by Bonfire Night displays, with 45% of owners saying their dog is not calm when they can hear fireworks Sky and NOW have […]

The post Sky and Now team up with Dogs Trust for pop up Bonfire Night channel appeared first on ShinyShiny.

In the round-up: Teams "welcome freedom" of 2026 regulations • Alpine targets Colapinto - reports • Pulling quickest in Formula E test

All 10 Formula 1 teams will participate in a new "season launch event" in February next year to reveal their liveries together.

Aim/Purpose: The main aim of this study was modeling a collaborative process for knowledge visualization, via the creation of infographics. Background: As an effective method for visualizing complex information, creating infographics requires learners to generate and cultivate a deep knowledge of content and enables them to concisely visualize and share this knowledge. This study investigates creating infographics as a knowledge visualization process for collaborative learning situations by integrating the infographic design model into the team-based and technology-mediated Bridge21 learning model. Methodology: This study was carried out using an educational design perspective by conducting three main cycles comprised of three micro cycles: analysis and exploration; design and construction; evaluation and reflection. The process and the scaffolding were developed and enhanced from cycle to cycle based on both qualitative and quantitative methods by using the infographic design rubric and researcher observations acquired during implementation. Respectively, twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-four secondary school students participated in the infographic creation process cycles. Contribution: This research proposes an extensive step-by-step process model for creating infographics as a method of visualization for learning. It is particularly relevant for working with complex information, in that it enables collaborative knowledge construction and sharing of condensed knowledge. Findings: Creating infographics can be an effective method for collaborative learning situations by enabling knowledge construction, visualization and sharing. The Bridge21 activity model constituted the spine of the infographic creation process. The content generation, draft generation, and visual and digital design generation components of the infographic design model matched with the investigate, plan and create phases of the Bridge21 activity model respectively. Improvements on infographic design results from cycle to cycle suggest that the revisions on the process model succeeded in their aims. The rise in each category was found to be significant, but the advance in visual design generation was particularly large. Recommendations for Practitioners: The effectiveness of the creation process and the quality of the results can be boosted by using relevant activities based on learner prior knowledge and skills. While infographic creation can lead to a focus on visual elements, the importance of wording must be emphasized. Being a multidimensional process, groups need guidance to ensure effective collaboration. Recommendation for Researchers: The proposed collaborative infographic creation process could be structured and evaluated for online learning environments, which will improve interaction and achievement by enhancing collaborative knowledge creation. Impact on Society: In order to be knowledge constructors, innovative designers, creative communicators and global collaborators, learners need to be surrounded by adequate learning environments. The infographic creation process offers them a multidimensional learning situation. They must understand the problem, find an effective way to collect information, investigate their data, develop creative and innovative perspectives for visual design and be comfortable for using digital creation tools. Future Research: The infographic creation process could be investigated in terms of required learner prior knowledge and skills, and could be enhanced by developing pre-practices and scaffolding.

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study about changes in computer science and software engineering students’ perceptions of their soft skills during their progress through the Computer Science Soft Skills course. Background: Soft skills are often associated with a person’s social, emotional and cognitive capabilities. Soft skills are increasingly sought out and are well recognized by employers alongside standard qualifications. Therefore, high importance is attributed to soft skills in computer science and software engineering education. Methodology: Content analysis was applied to interpret, categorize and code statements from students’ course assignment answers. Data analysis was performed gradually at the three main stages of the course and by the two students’ study populations. Contribution: The paper highlights the variety of (a) soft skills that can be learnt in one course, both on the individual level and on the team level and (b) assignments that can be given to students to increase their awareness and motivation to practice and learn soft skills. Findings: Data analysis revealed the following: (a) five individual soft skills categories, with 95 skills, and five team-related soft skills categories, with 52 skills (in total, the students mentioned 147 soft skills); (b) course assignments and particularly team-based activities elicited student awareness of their individual soft skills, both as strengths and weaknesses; (c) students developed their reflection skills, particularly with respect to team-related soft skills; and (d) significant differences exist between the two groups of students in several categories. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to integrate soft skills during their training. Establishing a meaningful learning process, such as project-based learning, enables students to apply and develop soft skills when accompanied by reflective thought processes. Recommendation for Researchers: A similar course can be taught and be accompanied by similar analysis of students’ learning outcomes, to examine the influence of local culture on the characteristics of soft skills. Impact on Society: Increased awareness of soft skills in scientists and engineers’ undergraduate education. University graduates who will strengthen their variety of soft skills in their academic training process and will be more meaningful employees in the workplace and in society. Future Research: Our future research aims (a) to explore additional innovative ways to increase students’ learning processes, awareness and practices in relation to soft skills and (b) to research how students’ soft skills are developed during the entire undergraduate studies both on the individual level and the team level.

Aim/Purpose: The complexity of today’s organizational databases highlights the importance of hard technical skills as well as soft skills including teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. Therefore, when teaching students about databases it follows that using a team approach would be useful. Background: Team-based learning (TBL) has been developed and tested as an instructional strategy that leverages learning in small groups in order to achieve increased overall effectiveness. This research studies the impact of utilizing team-based learning strategies in an undergraduate Database Management course in order to determine if the methodology is effective for student learning related to database technology concepts in addition to student preparation for working in database teams. Methodology: In this study, a team-based learning strategy is implemented in an undergraduate Database Management course over the course of two semesters. Students were assessed both individually and in teams in order to see if students were able to effectively learn and apply course concepts on their own and in collaboration with their team. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed in order to determine if the team approach improved learning effectiveness and allowed for soft skills development. The results from this study are compared to previous semesters when team-based learning was not adopted. Additionally, student perceptions and feedback are captured. Contribution: This research contributes to the literature on database education and team-based learning and presents a team-based learning process for faculty looking to adopt this methodology in their database courses. This research contributes by showing how the collaborative assessment aspect of team-based learning can provide a solution for the conceptual and collaborative needs of database education. Findings: Findings related to student learning and perceptions are presented illustrating that team-based learning can lead to improvements in performance and provides a solution for the conceptual and collaborative needs of database education. Specifically, the findings do show that team scores were significantly higher than individual scores when completing class assessments. Student perceptions of both their team members and the team-based learning process were overall positive with a notable difference related to the perception of team preparedness based on gender. Recommendations for Practitioners: Educational implications highlight the challenges of team-based learning for assessment (e.g., gender differences in perceptions of team preparedness), as well as the benefits (e.g., development of soft skills including teamwork and communication). Recommendation for Researchers: This study provides research implications supporting the study of team assessment techniques for learning and engagement in the context of database education. Impact on Society: Faculty looking to develop student skills in relation to database concepts and application as well as in relation to teamwork and communication may find value in this approach, ultimately benefiting students, employers, and society. Future Research: Future research may examine the methodology from this study in different contexts as well as explore different strategies for group assignments, room layout, and the impact of an online environment.