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RUNNING HEADS: Team Performance Tools

Team Performance Tools

James Williams

University of Phoenix Online

February 02, 2009


Team Performance Tools

Introduction

Several factors exist that impact the success or failure of organizations in the

contemporary business world. These include the rapidly changing business environment and

marketplace competition, the growing globalization of organizations, the emphasis of teamwork

and collaboration, and the increased mobility and dispersement of the workforce. All these

factors force organizations into creating a work environment that integrates the technical,

political, and cultural systems of an organization in a manner that makes the their workers as

productive and effective as possible. The issues revolving around these factors include the

technological infrastructure, the timely and appropriate distribution of power, resources and

awards, and the integration of the workforce and corporate purpose, mission, and values through

a shared cultural environment (Tichy & Cohen, 2003, pp. 4 - 28). Organizations have made

immense advancements in building the technical infrastructure of its businesses and have made

much progress in collecting, processing, and dispersing its internal information. But the world

keeps changing and as it does new frontiers of effort are needed. According to Davenport and

Prusak (2000), leaders must now deal with the management of the knowledge that is inherent

within their organizations.

In an article on C/NET, Tim Leberecht (2007) argues that the next challenge in

increasing organizational performance is raising the productivity of those employees whose jobs

cannot be automated. According to Davenport & Prusak (2000), these jobs belong to what has

become known as knowledge workers who gather information and process it into knowledge

within their own minds through a combination of technical background, personal experiences,

and circumstantial variables provided by the worker’s environment.


The first goal of this paper is to explore the basic criteria of a knowledge management

system in meeting the needs of an organization and that captures the individual worker’s

knowledge during normal business process. The paper’s second objective is to present an

argument for a system that is conducive and transparent to workers performing their daily tasks.

System Criteria

The first thing that needs to be determined before selecting an appropriate system for a

knowledge team is to define the criteria that the system needs to incorporate. Since this system is

to support a knowledge team the criteria must meet the specific needs of a group of knowledge

workers. The two fundamental needs of all knowledge workers are communications and

collaboration. Davenport and Prusak (2000) state that “managing knowledge needs to be

everybody’s business” (p. 108). As such, team-oriented knowledge management systems need to

be highly reliable, easy to use, and conducive to team operations.

Communications

Maxwell (2001) posits that effective communications between all members of the team is

essential for team success and that effective teams have team members who are in constant

communications with each other (p. 197). The ability for team members to communicate as

needed is essential to knowledge work. Therefore, a wide range of communication channels need

to be available to all team members. Each team member needs to be connected by a wide variety

of technologies that allow them to freely interact.


Collaboration

Team members must also be able to collaborate with other individual team members,

with the entire group, and with outside advisors as needed. Fradette and Michaud (1998) argue

that highly successful organizations need to establish a means that facilitates collaboration within

its workforce and enable the transfer of knowledge. According to these researchers, such a

system needs to be capable of capturing, refining, and distributing knowledge throughout the

entire enterprise.

Recommended System

The system that best fits the criteria of communications and collaboration would be based

on solid, proven technology in order for it to be both capable and reliable. This would mean that

the selected technology would need to be proven, off-the-shelf equipment which the vast

majority of the workforce would be familiar with and capable of using. At the same time the

web-based system must provide secure, seamless, and unrestricted connectivity between

employees, other stakeholders, and information.

Cisco Systems offers three technologies that can be easily integrated into a web-based

team performance system. The first system is TelePresence which delivers a virtual in-the-flesh

sensation for meetings without the costs associated with travel and employee absences. Such a

system can be used by dispersed team members to conduct meetings with much of the same

interactions and communications ability of a live meeting.

The second system offered by Cisco is their Unified Communications which is an

excellent platform for collaboration. This system merges all means of business communications
into a single integrated system that facilitates collaboration between all members within an

organization. This is accomplished by the system’s ability to create adaptive workspaces and

effective use of highly integrated communications features. Unified Communications also allows

the organization to adapt industry standard applications such as office suites and databases into

the system for real-time interaction between users scattered over a wide geographical area.

The third technology offered by Cisco Systems is called Cisco Motion. This technology

offers a solution to the issues associated with a mobile workforce. Motion provides real-time

collaboration between users using the company’s preferences in voice, video, instant messaging,

email, or other application. Motion also enforces security and company policies and can track

organizational assets as they are called or used.

Summary and Conclusion

This paper has examined the criteria for a team performance tool by defining the major

needs of a knowledge team then described the technologies the author felt was most appropriate

for developing a strong, well-founded performance tool favorable to the needs of a highly

dispersed knowledge team.

The best solution for developing a web-based knowledge team performance tool is a

combination of TelePresence, Unified Communications, and Motion technologies in conjunction

with a sophisticated database capable of handling the demands of knowledge management and a

web portal that allows team members access to the data through the use of these technologies.

This combination of technologies would provide a safe, secure, and viable environment for the

transfer of knowledge between team members. The combined technologies feature the necessary

ad hoc ability for face-to-face communications through TelePresence. The merging of these
technologies also delivers the needed diversity in communications that allow team members to

express themselves and assist in helping others understand what they know through Unified

Communications. Finally, the use of Cisco Mobile allows connectivity for a mobile workforce.

All these technologies in concert provide all the tools needed for enhancing the performance and

effectiveness of a knowledge team.


References

Davenport, T. H. and Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what

they know. Boston, MA: The Harvard Business School Press.

Fradette, M. and Michaud, S. (1998). The power of corporate kinetics: Create the self-adapting,

self-renewing, instant action enterprise. London: Simon & Schuster.

Leberecht, T. (2007). Micros-productivity: Man vs machine, divergence vs. convergence. CNet

News, September 14, 2007. downloaded from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13641_3-

9774539-44.html?tag=mncol January 27, 2009.

Maxwell, J. C. (2001). The 17 indisputable laws of teamwork. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson,

Inc.

Tichy, N. M. and Cohen, E. (2003). Why are leaders important? In Jossey-Bass Reader:

Business Leadership. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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