Team Collaboration, Essay Example

7 Deadly Sins That Block Team Collaboration (And How To Overcome Them)

This Wiki is about team collaboration and how this impacts an organization ” Companies exist for the sole purpose of coordinating the efforts of their employees ” (PB Works, 2010). The article explores what it terms as ‘ the 7 deadly sins’ that prevent team collaboration within the organizational framework.  The concept of the paper is to stop you from dropping into these pitfalls and by understanding the nature of them make you a better team player.  It is essentially a simple checklist approach but provides some very meaningful and useful information  on the concept of group dynamics.

The wiki works on a question and answer basis and essentially challenges your assertion of the problem statement. It then explains how a software application like ‘PB Works’ can go towards helping resolve and solve the issues.  The usefulness of the software is directly targeted at the issues raised by each of the 7 problem areas ”  That’s where project management tools like PBworks come in.  By giving everyone on the team a means of seeing what their teammates are working on, it keeps everyone up to date without requiring multi-hour meetings” (PB Works, 2010).

The Wiki provides a very easy to understand and conceptual overview of how a software application can assist in building team skills in a collaborative learning environment.  Owing to the simplistic easy to understand nature of the wording it makes you intrigued to find out more about the application.

The drop down menus allow you to further explore videos that show how the PB Works project management software works in a collaborative environment.  Essentially placing all users in a networked environment in order to share project information from a central database in real time.  These applications are extremely powerful communication tools as they allow you to see everything that is happening on a project in real time. Essentially open transparency; equally if information is missing it will highlight this allowing you to track it down and assign responsibility in real time.

This particular wiki is extremely useful to any Project or Program Manager that has not experienced the powerful means of communication that an online collaborative tool like PB Works provides.  For those working in a relatively linear static environment the product is a revelation in moving forward. Users have commented on the usefulness of wikis in a shared environment  “For working collaboratively with colleagues, I set up wikis.  PB Wiki is great for this, especially as it is free, and I can quickly set up a space for any project I want.  PB Wiki has recently released some new features including a shared calendar and  spreadsheets.”  (Hart, 2009).

This Wiki group is obviously very well received with a massive user base, consider: ” PBworks manages 50,000 wiki groups with over 3 million users and has accumulated a loyal client base. The company serves teams at over a third of the Fortune 500, and was home to three presidential campaigns, the United Nations, The Financial Times and Harvard University.”  (Rao, 2010).

Works Cited

Hart, J. (2009). PB Works. Retrieved 5 20, 2010, from CP4LT: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/pbwiki.html

PB Works. (2010). 7 Deadly Sins That Block Team Collaboration (And How To Overcome Them). Retrieved 5 20, 2010, from PB Works: http://pbworks.com/team-collaboration

Rao, L. (2010, 1 12). PBWorks Launches Template Store For Collaboration Platform. Retrieved 5 20, 2010, from Tech Crunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/12/pbworks-launches-template-store-for-collaboration-platform/