Guiding The Journey To Collaborative Work Systems

Guiding the Journey to Collaborative Work Systems is a hands-on, practical guide for dealing with the challenges of designing and implementing collaboration in the workplace. People working in groups and teams, team-based organizations and networked organizations, and value chains and strategic alliances understand that effective collaboration is mandatory for success in today's business environment. Change leaders— such as organization development managers, steering committee members, design team members, line managers, and others— will find this workbook an invaluable source of help, as it provides a step-by-step planning process to transform an organization to better support collaboration. Teams and groups can use the workbook to improve their collaborative processes, and elements of the workbook can be applied to a wide variety of situations where collaboration is needed. The workbook covers a broad range of topics necessary for successful change, including generating and maintaining support for the initiative, launching a thoroughly planned change program, and effectively communicating the plan to the rest of the organization. Filled with assessments, tools, and activities, and based on interviews conducted with twenty-one experts and hundreds of team members, Guiding the Journey to Collaborative Work Systems offers the support needed to design in-depth plans for changing work systems to facilitate collaborative excellence.

The content of the book has been structured into four technical research sections with total of 18 chapters written by well recognized researchers worldwide. These sections are: 1. process and performance management and their measurement methods, 2. management of manufacturing processes with the aim to be quickly adaptable after real situation demands and their control, 3. quality management information and communication systems, their integration and risk management, 4. management processes of healthcare and water, construction and demolition waste problems and integration of environmental processes into management decisions.

Sponsored by the International Association of Facilitators, TheIAF Handbook of Group Facilitation offers the need-to-knowbasics in the field brought together by fifty leading practitionersand scholars. This indispensable resource includes successfulstrategies and methods, foundations, and resources for anyone whoworks with groups. The IAF Handbook of GroupFacilitation provides an overview of the field for new andaspiring practitioners and a reliable reference for experiencedgroup facilitators, including chapters on Creating positive ongoing client relationships Building trust and improving communications Facilitating group brainstorming sessions Drawing out the best in people Developing a collaborative environment Designing and facilitating dialogue Managing conflicting agendas Working with multicultural groups Using improvisation Understanding virtual meetings Facilitating team start-up Assessing group decision processes Building expertise in facilitation Reviewing core facilitation competencies Modeling positive professional attitudes

Managing the Knowledge Culture expertly explores how to overcome one of the biggest challenges 21st century leaders and their followers face functioning effectively in a knowledge culture. The thoroughly up-to-date book will deepen your understanding of the knowledge culture and its management and clearly detail the changing roles. For human resource professionals or managers who wants to be on the leading-edge of knowledge management, this realistic resource is a must.

The Handbook of High-Performance Virtual Teams is an essential resource for leaders, virtual team members, and work group leaders. The editors provide a proved framework based on five principles for working collaboratively across boundaries of time, space, and culture. Written by experts in the field, the contributors offer practical suggestions and tools for virtual team who need to assess their current level of effectiveness and develop strategies for improvement. This important resource also contains an array of illustrative cases as well as practical tools for designing, implementing, and maintaining effective virtual work.

You know that great improvement initiatives abound. What you may not know is how to implement them effectively; get fast, dramatic improvement; and sustain those results for the long term. It's a common problem. But take heart: The next wave of performance excellence is here—the seamless integration of today's leading improvement methods. This integration, described thoroughly in this book, builds upon the strengths and addresses the shortcomings of each discipline. For example: While Six Sigma provides a disciplined, quantitative approach, many efforts fail because they don't address the people side of performance improvement and change management. Plus, Six Sigma efforts are expensive and take too long to produce results. Lean Manufacturing techniques can provide quick results, but they lack quantitative tools to reduce variation, and, as a result, are incapable of addressing numerous high-dollar improvement opportunities. Though High-Performance Organizations (HPO) create conditions for great motivation, improve intra-organizational interactions, and lower employee turnover, many HPO interventions fail to produce solid business results because members lack a disciplined approach and the tools for improvement.

Creativity in Virtual Teams offers a well-researched and practical resource that outlines a new model for attaining high levels of creativity in virtual working arrangements to anyone who designs, manages, or participates in virtual teams. Written by Jill E. Nemiro—an expert in building organizations and virtual teams—Creativity in Virtual Teams provides a valuable tool that takes you beyond mere theory. Within these pages, the author leads you through a series of diagnostic tools, questions for reflection, checklists, and exercises that will help you assess and develop the five key components—design, climate, resources, norms and protocols, and continual assessment and learning—that will foster creativity in your virtual teams. In addition, Creativity in Virtual Teams is filled with illustrative lessons learned from nine highly successful and innovative virtual teams.