Chapter 3: Collaboration and Business Etiquette

four levels of business style:

- Business Formal - Business Professional - Business Casual - Casual

Disadvantages of teams:

- groupthink - hidden agendas - cost - Overload

Casual

Difficult to pin down and varies widely—in one company it might mean nice jeans and a button-up shirt, but in another it might be shorts, sandals, and tank tops

In general, match your style of dress to the culture and situation.

If you're not sure, dress modestly and simply—earn a reputation for what you can do, not for what you wear.

However, unproductive meetings can be a huge waste of time, money, and energy, so planning and managing meetings are ______ skills.

Important

In formal meetings, one person is appointed to record the minutes.

In small meetings, attendees often make their own notes.

Chances are you'll also participate in online seminars...

Often known as webinars

Teams are often part of _______

Participative management

Communicators can collaborate in a variety of ways like:

Simple writer-editor relationships to full collaboration

Business Formal

Tailored suits in conservative colors, with shoes, accessories, and grooming to match; usually restricted only to the most formal occasions or among top-level executives and high-profile professionals

task forces

Temporary teams

The value of a meeting's interaction and discovery usually doesn't (or at least shouldn't) end when...

The meeting ends

The most important step in planning a meeting is...

To make sure that it's necessary

Costs?

aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project can eat up a lot of time and money

Etiquette is now considered...

an important business skill

Virtual meetings require an extra level of planning and attention in order to be successful...

and keeping people engaged can be more challenging, particularly in audio-only meetings.

Problem-solving teams and project teams?

assemble to resolve specific issues and then disband when their goals have been accomplished

Business Professional

based around suits or coordinated sets of jackets with skirts or trousers, but the overall vibe is slightly freer—expensive tailored suits aren't necessary

Disadvantage of cross functional teams:

challenge of harmonizing the efforts of people with different priorities and workstyles and who formally report to different managers in different parts of the company

Businesspeople are frequently expected to...

collaborate on business projects

Creative teams?

common in advertising, design, and other creative endeavors and combine writers, graphic artists, and other skilled professionals

Mobile brings a new dimension to collaboration by...

connecting employees and business partners who work part- or full-time outside conventional office environments

Destructive feedback

delivers criticism with no guidance to stimulate improvement

Personal appearance may be thought of as...

element of etiquette and sends a strong signal to managers, colleagues, and customers

Overload?

embracing teamwork so much that employees get overloaded with team assignments

Constructive feedback (sometimes called constructive criticism)

focuses on the process and outcomes of communication, not on the people involved

Committees

formal teams that can become a permanent part of the organizational structure

Businesses use a variety of systems for virtual meetings...

from teleconferencing up to multimedia online meetings and telepresence videoconferencing systems

A team needs a healthy balance of both types of roles in order to be...

harmonious and successful

Benifit of cross functional teams:

help companies overcome the silo effect of various groups and departments pursuing their own goals in isolation from one another

When introducing yourself...

include a brief description of your role in the company

Productive teams tend to develop positive norms...

informal standards of conduct that members share and that guide member behavior

Group dynamics?

interactions and processes that take place among members in a team

When meeting people from other cultures...

learn about their cultural customs beforehand.

Virtual communities or communities of practice...

link employees with similar professional interests throughout the company and sometimes with customers and suppliers as well

Business casual

means slacks or skirts, with nice-looking button-up shirts, blouses, and sweaters

Virtual meetings

meetings in which people join in from two or more locations and connect via some form of communication technology.

Virtual team

members work in at least two different locations and rely on technology to communicate and collaborate

Groupthink?

occurs when peer pressures cause individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinion

Hidden agenda?

private, counterproductive motives that undermine someone else on the team

cross-functional team?

pulling together people from a variety of departments who have different areas of expertise and responsibility

Group dynamics are influenced by...

roles assumed by team members and how the team evolves over time

Collaboration technologies range from:

simple features such as commenting and revision tracking to collaboration solutions such as content management systems that organize and control the content for many websites (particularly larger corporate sites).

Such meetings are common in business today...

so it's important to know how to run a virtual meeting and how to get the most out of one as a participant

Participative management?

the effort to involve employees in the company's decision-making

Your ability to contribute to the company—and to be recognized for your contributions—will depend...

to a large extent on your skills as a meeting participant and leader

team?

unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for working to achieve a common goal

Some companies are starting to incorporate AI in their collaboration efforts, such as...

using taskbots to help teams with scheduling, data collection, document distribution, and other routine chores

Workplace etiquette includes...

variety of behaviors, habits, and aspects of nonverbal communication

Collaboration?

working together to meet business challenges—has become a core job responsibility for roughly half the U.S. workforce

Effective teams tend to have these characteristics:

• A shared sense of purpose and compatible values • A clear and challenging goal • A belief in the value of the team's efforts • A well-balanced mix of contributors • A size that aligns well with the team's responsibilities • Positive behavioral norms that promote psychological safety • A willingness to put the team's needs ahead of individual needs • Open and honest communication

Learn the basics of professional online behavior to avoid mistakes that could hurt your company or your career. Whenever you represent your company online, in any medium, you must adhere to a high standard of etiquette and respect for others:

• Avoid personal attacks. • Stay focused on the original topic; don't hijack threads. • Don't present opinions as facts, and support facts with evidence. • Follow basic expectations of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. • Use virus protection and keep it up to date. • Watch your language and keep your emotions under control. • Avoid multitasking while using messaging and other tools. • Don't waste others' time with sloppy, confusing, or incomplete messages. • Never assume you have privacy. - Be careful with online commenting mechanisms that are linked to your social network profiles; personal comments may have your work affiliation attached to them. - Respect boundaries of time and virtual space.

Telephone etiquette is essential for overcoming the lack of visual contact and feedback:

• Be conscious of how your voice sounds. • Be courteous when you call someone; take into account that you might be interrupting. • Convey a positive, professional attitude when you answer the phone • End calls with courtesy and a clear notion of what all parties expect to happen next. • Use your own voicemail features to help callers. • Be considerate when leaving voicemail messages.

Disadvantages of virtual teams:

• Because virtual teams rely on technology to stay connected, any limitations in the tools will hamper team performance. • Interpersonal communication is a constant challenge in virtual environments. • Distance and separation can foster an "us versus them" mentality between factions in a team.

When conducting business over a meal, be sure that you:

• Choose foods that are easy to eat • Avoid ordering alcoholic beverages or save them until after business is concluded • Choose topics of conversation carefully (avoiding politics, religion, and other emotional topics) • Don't complain about work • Avoid profanity • Avoid deeply personal questions • Be careful with humor

Business professionals use a wide range of systems to collaborate:

• Content management systems help companies that produce a high volume of digital information for both internal and external distribution; these systems often include such features as version control (making sure two people can't accidentally edit a document or page at the same time) and workflow features that define how content can be created, edited, and published. • Wikis also organize digital content but in a much less structured and formal way; wikis can be public or private. • Shared online workspaces are "virtual offices" that give everyone in a work group access to the same set of resources and information. • Social networks are used extensively for business collaboration, and many companies have private, internal-only versions of social networks for their employees. • Workgroup messaging systems are evolving beyond basic messaging capability to include file sharing, meeting hosting, and other collaboration features. • Private networks are essentially private versions of the internet with various communication and collaboration features; they include intranets (open to employees only) and extranets (open to employees and to selected outside parties by invitation only).

If a meeting is indeed the best way to meet your objective, follow these steps to prepare:

• Define the best possible result of the meeting and use this to shape the direction and content of the meeting. • Select participants for the meeting by inviting everyone who really needs to be involved, and not inviting anyone who doesn't (to the degree that you have control over this decision); in general, keep meetings as small as possible without excluding anyone who needs to be there. • Choose the venue and time and prepare the facility with the best seating arrangements possible. • Distribute a carefully written agenda to participants, giving them enough time to prepare as needed. • An effective agenda answers three questions: • What do we need to do in this meeting to accomplish our goals? • What issues will be of greatest importance to all participants? • What information must be available in order to discuss these issues?

Poor etiquette can:

• Destroy morale and drain productivity • Drive away customers, investors, and other critical audiences • Limit your career potential

Business receptions can be good networking opportunities, but remember that their primary purpose is often social.

• Don't network too zealously. • Invite others to join your conversations so they feel welcome.

As teams grow and evolve, they generally pass through a variety of stages, such as these five in the commonly used model proposed by Bruce Tuckman:

• Forming (group comes together) • Storming (team becomes assertive) • Norming (take tales on cohesive Personalities) • Performing (group ready to preform tasks) • Adjourning (group accomplished and break up)

Tips for success with virtual teamwork:

• Keep teams as small as possible. • Launch the team with an in-person event, if possible. • Use the best collaboration technology available. • Clarify the purpose of each tool. • If most of the team is co-located, assign responsibility to someone in the local team for keeping distant members in the loop. • Don't rely solely on written communication.

Ensure a productive meeting by:

• Keeping the discussion on track • Following agreed-upon rules, including parliamentary procedure if appropriate • Encouraging and moderating participation • Participating actively • Avoiding interrupting others • Closing effectively

Follow these tips for successful virtual meetings:

• Make sure the meeting has a well-defined task, so that it steadily moves toward a goal. • Provide pre-study materials as needed, in addition to the agenda. • Let participants know what will be expected of them. • For large meetings, assign specific roles, such as a tech specialist to help with system issues. • Make sure everyone has up-to-date versions of whatever tools you plan to use. • Make sure everyone knows how to ask questions during the meeting. • Log in on time. • Be present—mentally and emotionally. • Mute your audio input when needed. • Make sure your keyboard noise isn't distracting. • As the facilitator, be sure to check in with everyone periodically.

For every collaborative project, follow these tips:

• Make sure the project goals are clear and agreed on. • Map out how the work will be done. • Structure the assignments so that each person can lend his or her greatest strengths to the effort. • Establish frequent checkpoints. • Appreciate that people have different writing styles.

Advantages of a successful team:

• More information and knowledge • Learning opportunities • Boldness • Accountability • Trust building • A broader range of viewpoints • Buy-in for solutions the team creates • Improved performance • A sense of community in good times and bad

The simplest communication collaborations are writer-editor relationships:

• One person reviews and possibly revises the work of another. • It's vital to clarify expectations before the writer hands the work over to anyone else—for example, do you want a technical review, a style review, a messaging review, or a rewrite? • When asking someone to revise a draft you've written, explain your objectives for the piece, including the audience you want to reach and the message you intend to share—then let go of it emotionally.

When you receive constructive feedback:

• Resist the urge to defend your work or deny the validity of the feedback. • Disconnect emotionally from the work and see it simply as something that can be made better. • Step back and consider the feedback before diving in to make corrections. • Don't assume that all constructive feedback is necessarily correct.

Follow these tips for workplace etiquette:

• Respect other people's time. • Don't interrupt people in conversations or in meetings. • Watch your language. • Pay close attention to cleanliness, and avoid using products with powerful scents. • Avoid eating at your desk if possible, particularly in open-plan offices • Keep the noise level down. • Respect other people's personal space • Don't gossip • Don't come to work when you're sick • In general, avoid discussing religion, politics, or other potentially emotional issues.

The way you use your mobile devices sends a message—positive or negative—about your professionalism and respect for others. Avoid these disrespectful choices:

• Selecting obnoxious ring tones • Failing to mute your phone during meetings or other situations where it will interrupt people • Talking loudly in open offices or public places • Using your phone right next to someone else • Making excessive or unnecessary personal calls during work hours • Invading someone's privacy by using your camera phone without permission • Taking or making calls in restrooms and other inappropriate places • Texting during meals and while someone is talking to you • Allowing incoming calls to interrupt meetings or discussions • Using voice commands or voice dictation in ways that interrupt other people

Well-run meetings can help companies in many ways:

• Solving problems • Developing ideas • Identifying opportunities

When introducing two other people, remember to:

• Speak both their first and last names clearly • Offer some information to help them ease into a conversation • Introduce the lower-ranking person to the senior-ranking person

Various roles of teams:

• Team-maintenance roles are played by those who help everyone work well together • Task-oriented roles are played by those who help the team reach its goals.

The minutes of a meeting summarize:

• The important information presented • The decisions made • The people responsible for follow-up action

When you give feedback:

• Think through your suggested changes carefully. • Discuss improvements rather than flaws. • Focus on controllable behavior. • Be specific. • Keep feedback impersonal. • Verify understanding. • Time your feedback carefully. • Highlight any limitations your feedback may have.

Full collaboration involves working together from the beginning of the project through to the end, from planning the message to final production:

• This sort of partnership can bring together a diverse range of talents, insights, and experiences. • Most of the tasks involved in creating communication pieces lend themselves quite nicely to team effort, but think carefully about composing as a group. • Crafting sentences is a highly individualized activity that requires thought and reflection, and most ideas can be expressed effectively in more than one way. • If you divide the writing, outline the document or presentation first so that each writer knows exactly how his or her assigned section fits in the overall flow. • When the pieces are ready, assign one person to do a final revision pass to ensure a consistent style.

benifts of virtual teams:

• Virtual teams can pull together the best people for a task. • Companies and employees can take advantage of the economic and personal benefits of telecommuting. • Virtual teams can be more effective, more engaged, and more productive than co-located teams