WP1 - An Analysis of Global Virtual Teams: Conflict & Leadership

The first web poster I read was PinkLady's... because I received a million update change update notifications for her pbwiki through gmail. With all those changes, I figured it had to be a good web poster. ;)

The topic immediately interested me because of 2 main factors:
1) I've been a part of several virtual teams (with varying degrees of success).
2) I was interested in how she got information prior to 2003.

This web poster was well organized and informational.

While I agree with the advantages and disadvantages listed in table 2.1 and figure 2.1, the most prevalent one in my experience was absent. I am admittedly an over-friendly person at time and while many people like to keep work and home life separate, I've always been social with my co-workers. This means the occasional after-work beers or BBQ. When working on virtual teams, there was friendly banter... but never the same depth of interaction and communication. The "personal touch" was definitely lacking in virtual teams.

I know that virtual teams will grow increasingly popular and the "personal touch" will decrease in importance as virtual communications become the norm... I am slightly saddened to think about that future workplace. :(

11.5 - Instant Messaging

The spread of information throughout organizations has increased dramatically over the last decade. One particular tool of interest to me is the Instant Messenger. While some refuse to use it, IM's have been invaluable to me. The greatest business attributes to me are responsiveness and speed. There are many people that I simply would not talk to on a regular basis without IMs. Through frequent conversations, even in busy times, I've forged deeper understanding and solid business relationships. We've established a mini-network of people we can talk to across the organization on a moment's notice. This brings me to the 2nd point - speed. It's nice to know at any given point in time, just by scrolling through your contacts list, that you can get someone to answer an important question or direct you to someone that can. Short of working in a conference room with 50 other employees... I've found that kind of responsiveness impressive.

While many companies are trying to capture the power and speed of IM'ing, there is admittedly a fair amount of abuse. I admit, I am a part of that abuse. :D Regardless, I feel the current and potential benefits for IMing are great!

11.4 - The squirrel technique...

When I first started working, I had some important projects and thought I was on the fast track to success. Putting everything into learning about wireless networking, I became our department's technical lead for that technology. Fearing that my position may be toppled, I did the worst possible thing... I squirreled the information away. I reasoned that if I was the only one that knew the technical info, I would be invaluable to the department. I was wrong.

One Christmas I went back home for the holidays. While on vacation, my plan backfired. One of our main routers crashed and the backup never took over. My department scrambled to find documentation in our workroom... but there was none. They asked around to see who could fix it... but no one could. This is the situation I was hoping for - I would be recognized as the "expert" who could fix everything. Instead, my manager absolutely chewed my butt out. They couldn't get a hold of me for 3 days and in this time, our client was furious. I almost lost my job over this...

In the end, I learned that sharing information is good. Teaching others was the best way to improve the department while showing commitment and leadership!

11.3 - Revisiting information overload

For a week, I was out of the country and had no Internet or phone access. Despite early separation anxiety, I truly learned to enjoy the feeling. As I sat on the plane... I dreaded the avalanche of email I would return to. Sure enough, my voicemail box was full and it took me about 3 hours just to sort through my emails for just one week.

After reading about information overload for quite a while, I decided to curtail my email usage as much as possible. It took me a while to wean myself away from tv and caffeine... and I haven't been successful staying away from those, so I'm dubious about my efforts to be strong when it comes to email. So far, I've restricted myself to checking email only twice a day and it's been nice. At the very least, it should help me organize my time better...

Wish me luck!

11.2 - Rants & Raves, pt.2

Another random rant.

the next chapter of my last blog...

The year following my bad performance review, I had low motivation at work. Think Office Space, when he starts cleaning fish at his desk... but instead, I would bring fishing reels to work, dismantle them, clean them, then reassemble them. My manager never said anything directly about it, but seemed somewhat amused by my little assembly line. I got my job done, but did the bare minimum necessary. I made sure never to sign up for projects if I could avoid them. One day towards the end of the year, we had our last meeting before our performance review. He asked how I felt about the year so far and for reasons I don't understand, I told him...
"my job is boring. xxxxx is an idiot, I've had to fix her work several times. I don't trust working with xxxxx, he's a backstabber. I don't like coming to work. the customer whines too much. I take long lunches and sometimes sneak 9holes of golf in. I don't like it here. I think the processes we do are completely asinine and a waste of time."

He thanked me for my imput and didn't really address anything, asking what I'd prefer to do. I told him I rather be working on an external account to have some other human interaction and get out of my rut. A month later, I got a great review saying that I showed initiative and was assigned to an external account. I was as surprised as anyone... I had busted my butt the year before and received a sub-par rating. This year, I slacked off and told him I had no motivation... and he gave me a good rating.

I think the whole rating and evaluation system is a farce. It seems so subjective and not based on any solid criteria. I can work on a dozen projects, fail 1, and get a bad rating... or I can work on 4 projects all year and finish them leisurely and get a good rating. I'm not sure what kind of behavior they're trying to reinforce...

Rant off.

11.1 - Rants & Raves

Random rant.

Growing up in Hawaii, I always thought it would be cool to move to the mainland and work in a large corporation. Unfortunately, my experiences have soured my perceptions of what it was really like. Most notably, the companies I've been a part of have had horrible communication practices. The following is one example:

Every year in IBM, we have annual evaluations. Since our bonuses, promotions, and raises are based off these evaluations, they are understandably quite important. One year, I had an active year, receiving a few performance awards and completing several high profile projects. During annual review, I received a rating below what I expected. My manager knew I was upset and suggested that I may talk to my second level manager. As part of our checks and measures, IBM has an open door policy for these situations. It turned out to be a waste of time. After bringing a list of my year's accomplishments... my second line manager told me "I can't do anything... I have to trust my first line managers since they're the ones in the field." My second line manager refused to even review my documentation. My manager refused to talk to me about the issue once it was handed out... and I had no recourse to appeal the matter. Frustrating.