Friday January 28, 2005

Studying Distributed Work

Our group, the iWork Solutions Group had a two day off site this week. We are using ourselves as a laboratory to figure out how to make distributed groups more effective. We are also working with Julie Rennecker a Professor from the Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management who is studying virtual and distributed teams and how to make them more effective. (That is my interpretation of what I am sure is a much more complex study.)

In our meetings this week we focused on the concepts of connectedness and awareness as defined in the book Distributed Work edited by Pamela J. Hinds and Sara Kiesler. We were particularly focusing on chapter 13. The premise that we looked at is that awareness of others and the work they are doing improves team performance. If we assume that this premise is true then developing processes, methods, and tools to increase connectedness and team awareness will be a good thing for Sun and our distributed work programs.

We spent time briefly educating each other about several of our projects. We then looked at how different people are connected to different projects. For three of the projects we then consciously shared different categories of information that we thought might increase our overall awareness. The kinds of information we shared included everything from team members personal work style and work hours to project work assignments and priorities. From a qualitative point of view I think we all felt that we came away from the two days with some great information that will make us more effective. I think we also will be able to convert our process for more general applicability.

On a higher level I know Julie will continue to study how we are connected and how it impacts our work. To me it is all very interesting.