Less is more

How do you engage your team members when you implement collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis, Microsoft SharePoint and the like?

Here is a summary of the suggestions offered from users and experts in the field on the best way to implement collaboration tools and engage the target audiences:

·        Make it easy and convenient for team members to use the tools to do small but important tasks. For example, checking a blog for information, or publishing an update on a specific item to a blog (rather than using email). 

·        Start small by engaging those team members that have a natural tendency to collaborate and are good early adopters. Form a tiger team and do a pilot project. You can work the kinks out before a larger roll out. It is easier to get additional team members to adapt once there is initial success.

·        Create a short collaborative project to evaluate certain tools (or have one person do an evaluation) and share the pros and cons of each tool with the rest of the team. Then the team can determine which tool is going to be the most productive to the whole group.

·        Make it fun and exciting too! Someone suggested running contests over SharePoint (scavenger hunts) or posting helpful notes that will get people thinking more and more about the value of the tool and its use for different projects.

·        Have an official cut-off date for when an old system is no longer available for use. This should be a far off date that is easy to remember (like at the turn of the fiscal year the new system comes online). This lets people know that they have a deadline to learn the new system.

·        The primary factor that enables adoption of a collaboration tool: A new project with no "incumbent" technology or process to change. So pick a new project, and work with the project team to select a tool for the project.

·        Find an executive sponsor who sees the benefits of the collaboration tool, and its impact on productivity and the ability to meet the key business objectives, and get their support in making the tool an important part of conducting business.

·        Provide the team with mini-training sessions, both formal and informal. A lot resistance to adoption has to do with the unknown and fears of wasting time. If you help your team overcome these fears, you are likely to get a much higher level of engagement.

·        Overall, the collaboration platforms should be a productivity tool, not a burden. The tool should make some important aspect of one’s job easier. Whether that is something as simple as submitting a ticket to the IT department, or viewing HR announcements, it has to be sold to the user base as something that will improve daily work life.

·        Also, at the end of the day, a tool has to be useful for the intended purpose. We too often see people thinking of all these tools as interchangeable, but blogs are more of a one-to-many tool as compared to wikis that are better at capturing widely held knowledge, which is different from SharePoint, which is much better at organizing document-focused work, e.g., word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, with collaboration more often in a supporting role.

Google Apps Day #7: E-mail conversations in Gmail, my first Google error today

Gmail groups e-mail conversations together into one entry, which you can then expand and therefore view each of the e-mail messages within the conversation.

So if you send a message to someone and they respond to it, both the original message and the response are grouped together in one entry in the Gmail inbox:

Clicking on the conversation will cause Gmail to display the underlying messages. Initially the unread recent message content is fully displayed, but you can click on any of the previous messages in the conversation, and see its content. You can reply to any of the messages in the conversation.

The conversation model is really efficient. It makes managing e-mail faster and more convenient. This is especially true when considering that in our corporate environment many messages are sent to multiple people and many back-and-forth replies are exchanged. Instead of having all these messages individually scattered throughout the mailbox, they are all kept together.

Not only the conversations are kept together in the inbox, but also when you label them, and archive them. And if someone replies to the conversation after it has been labeled and archived, the whole conversation is then moved back to the inbox, with the new response.

My first Google error

Even Google Apps are not prone to cryptic errors:

When I tried to find what error 102 is, by searching the help system, I got "Your search - server error #102 - did not match any answers in our Help Center."

Google Apps Day #6--To file or not to file, and Gmail labels

"To file or not to file?" That is the question. You probably know already that in Gmail, you cannot create e-mail folders and move messages to folders. Instead, you have the ability to create labels, and apply labels to your e-mail messages. Then when you want to see messages that were assigned a certain label, you click on the desired label (in the left navigation menu).

To create a label, you click on the "Edit labels" link:

   

This will take you to the appropriate settings screen where you can create the labels:

Once you label a message in your Gmail inbox, you can click on the Archive button (see below), which will remove the message form the inbox view, but keep it accessible in the corresponding label view, as well as in search results, and in the All Mail view (as we mentioned on Day #2).

If you are a "filing" addict, and like to have a nicely organized filing structure, you are likely to find labels limiting. Not only they are only one level, but you can only see 20 or 30 characters of the labels, so you need to keep them short.

If on the other hand you tend to file "lightly" or not file at all, then labels are likely to appeal to you. They are efficient and easy to use. Combined with the Archive capability, they allow you to get messages out of the inbox, and still be able to quickly refer to them together if/when necessary.

Talking about storage

The standard version of Google Apps provides something like 6 or 7 GB of storage for each user, and premier version provides something like 25 GB of storage for each user. This, combined with the search capabilities, brings some real advantages. All this time you may have been spending archiving, managing archives, and referring back to them, is no longer necessary. So you may end up with a few extra hours per week or month, which you can apply to more important activities!

Google Apps Day #5--Importing Calendar entries and Contacts

Today was the time to bring the Outlook Calendar and Contacts to Google Apps. This process involved exporting the Calendar entries from Outlook into a CSV file (comma delimited file), and then importing them into Google Calendar, and then exporting the Outlook Contacts also to a CSV file, and then importing them into Gmail.

To import the calendar entries into the Google Calendar, you click on the Add drop down arrow (on the left navigation menu) as shown below, and then select the Import Calendar menu item, and then indicate the name of the CSV file to which you exported the Outlook Calendar:

The process is quick and easy. Note however that recurring events in the original Outlook Calendar don't stay recurring after the export and import process. They are imported as single occurrences for the period that you select during the exporting process.

To import the Contacts into Gmail, you following a similar process:

   

My first observation relating to Calendar has to do with color coding. I am used to my Calendar appointments being color coded, and was surprised to see that there is no such a thing in Google Calendar. You can choose a color, but this is for the calendar as a whole. Individual calendar appointments cannot be colored, and cannot be labeled.

More tomorrow!

Google Apps Day #4--Feeling "naked" in the Web 2.0 World

Last week, my iPhone stopped working for no reason, and I had to make a trip from San Francisco to San Jose without my iPhone. This seemingly minor inconvenience brought some awkward feelings. Strange enough, I felt quite disconnected, and quite exposed to the risk of not being able to reach the outside world easily in case of emergency or "perceived" emergency (such as a last minute update), and not being easily reached by the outside world (we seem to become quite dependent on our technologies).

This week, I had some severe connectivity issues, and was without Web access for a few hours. This brief time without Internet was another feeling of being exposed and isolated from the Web world.

One thing to note here is that with Google Apps, when there is no Web access, there is no access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, etc. So you cannot continue to work on your e-mails offline, check your calendar and schedule meetings, and lookup contacts. This isn't a problem for me yet, because I still haven't imported my calendar and my contacts to Google Apps. This is the next item on my list.

The good news for now is that Web access was restored, and My iPhone got replaced by a new iPhone and activated within minutes at the Apple Store in San Francisco, and the world came back to the way it is supposed to be. And now, I am ready to continue the Google Apps experiment.

Google Apps Day #3--no e-mails, try Google Reader, or maybe something else!

As I continue the Google Apps deployment ("deployment" may be an overkill here, I think it is more like a light implementation than deployment, considering how easy it is to get it going), it seems that a few nice surprises have come up.

First, when you migrate to a new e-mail system (and not move your e-mail messages with you), you experience a sense of relief. It is like a fresh start. Furthermore, it is easy to get your inbox down to zero. That is a nice surprise and it is worth writing home about. In addition, you get this additional little surprise message:

Let us zoom in so you can read this message better:

"No new mail! Want to read updates from your favorite sites? Try Google Reader"

Not a bad idea, but if I have no new mail, I would rather try to focus first on more important activities, that relate to my top priorities (then I will catch up with the Google Reader when I am ready for a break).

One more observation from today relates to spam e-mails. If you click on the Spam link in the Gmail left navigation menu, you can see the Spam messages. The spam filter is already doing its work, and seems to be quite robust. So far, when scanning the Spam message, I only saw spam messages.

Google Apps Day #2--the Archive button in Gmail

One of the techniques we teach in our "Managing and Organizing Your E-mail Inbox" class is to create a "catch-all" e-mail folder, and use it to file finished e-mail messages which are not important, but that you may need to refer to in the future.

The Archive button in Gmail does exactly that. When you click on the Archive button, it will move the selected message(s) out of the inbox, but the message will still appear in:

1. The All Mail view

2. The relevant Label views (if you have applied a label to the message)

3. In search results

You can see the Archive button in the screenshot above. Note that when you are using the standard edition of Google Apps, which is available at no cost, you also see the sponsored ads appear in Gmail. But those who get the premium edition which costs $50/user/year will have an ad-free Gmail.

More observations from today

First: The Archive button/feature is helping me keep the Gmail inbox clean instead of having it cluttered with read messages. I seem to be using the Archive button with ease and trusting that I can easily find these messages if/when I need them. After all, I am in the "search" kingdom.

Second: The "New Window" link (see picture below) allows you to open a new window displaying the currently selected message. This is helpful because it allows you to use the new window to reply to the message, and be able to refer to other messages in the Gmail window at the same time:

   

Third: Gmail does not beep when a new e-mail message arrives--one less distraction!

Googls Apps--another 81-day-experiment may have started

Well, after having some drastic server problems yesterday, and lost access to our Exchange server and to a number of other services, we decided to give Google Apps a try. Okay, this is not all. We have been wanting to give Google Apps a "real" try for some time, and it seems like this is a great excuse to get started. Obviously our main purpose is to continue to educate our readers about new technologies and new offerings in the market, and how these technologies can be helpful to them in their daily work.

So am I going to continue using Google Apps for the next 81 days and report my daily experiences? Like I did with smartphones last year? I am going to start this process and see what happens. I will take it one day at a time.

The initial process of setting up Google Apps and creating a new domain and some new accounts was seamless. In just about 15 minutes, I got a whole set of applications up and running including the new domain (which took another 15 minutes or so to become active). My initial impressions are very positive. There is some degree of lightness and user-friendliness about the interface which are desirable. I will continue to report my progress, so stay tuned.

Helpful hints for reducing stress and relevant books and resources still keep coming…

Thanks to everyone for your great suggestions!  Another important recommended strategy is changing one’s mindset – Action (or stress) can be attributed to 99% re-action to our environment and the people around us.  If we can re-act with more flexibility and insight and less gut-level anger or frustration then we can begin to reduce our stress triggers at the workplace and in life.

More book recommendations for reducing stress in the workplace and beyond:

The Truth About Burnout by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter
The focus of this book is organizational interventions to address stress and burnout. 

Banishing Burnout by Michael P. Leiter and Christina Maslach
The focus of this book is what individual employees can do while they're waiting for their employer to get around to reading the first book. 

How To Want What You have by Timothy Ray Miller

A California cognitive psychotherapist, Miller establishes three principles-compassion, attention and gratitude-that must be employed lifelong for change to be lasting.

The 7 Habit's for Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey

Same timeless principles, but written in a fun way that adults will stick to plus use it with their teens.

Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Read the story of a successful man in pursuit of a more meaningful existence.

Sign up for the special "Excel Bundle"--3 online classes covering budgets, lists, advanced PivotTables, macros, and more ($35.00 special)

Please note that the Excel bundle has been extended, and that no more spaces are available in the April workshops, so please note the new workshop dates below. The Excel bundle includes the three workshops listed below, and can be purchased online at:

-------------> Register online now ($35 special expires on 4/18 at 5 pm Pacific Time)

• Workshop 1: Microsoft Excel Techniques, June 12, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 90 min
• Workshop 2: Advanced Excel PivotTables, June 24, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 2 hours
• Workshop 3: Excel Macros, July 29, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 2 hours

They are made available for a nominal registration fee of $35.00 (this includes all three workshops). This is a special offer and seats are limited. You can order up to 10 seats.

Once you place your order, and receive the confirmation e-mail, please forward the confirmation e-mail you receive to training@people-onthego.com indicating which of the three workshops you would like to attend, and if you order for a group of participants, please include the names and e-mails of the additional participants, and which workshops each participant would like to attend. As a result, you and the other participants will each receive their individual login information for the desired workshops (for the web and phone conference).

-------------> Register online now ($35.00 special expires on 4/18 at 5 pm PST)

PS: Please note that these workshops are also availale as corporate workshops. Feel free to e-mail us at training@people-onthego.com if you have questions, or if you would like to discuss bringing the workshops to your team.

We look forward to your participation!

Please note that the Excel bundle has been extended, and that no more spaces are available in the April workshops, so please note the new workshop dates below. The Excel bundle includes the three workshops listed below, and can be purchased online at:

-------------> Register online now ($35 special expires on 4/18 at 5 pm Pacific Time)

• Workshop 1: Microsoft Excel Techniques, June 12, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 90 min
• Workshop 2: Advanced Excel PivotTables, June 24, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 2 hours
• Workshop 3: Excel Macros, July 29, 9:30 am Pacific Time, 2 hours

They are made available for a nominal registration fee of $35.00 (this includes all three workshops). This is a special offer and seats are limited. You can order up to 10 seats.

Once you place your order, and receive the confirmation e-mail, please forward the confirmation e-mail you receive to training@people-onthego.com indicating which of the three workshops you would like to attend, and if you order for a group of participants, please include the names and e-mails of the additional participants, and which workshops each participant would like to attend. As a result, you and the other participants will each receive their individual login information for the desired workshops (for the web and phone conference).

-------------> Register online now ($35.00 special expires on 4/18 at 5 pm PST)

PS: Please note that these workshops are also availale as corporate workshops. Feel free to e-mail us at training@people-onthego.com if you have questions, or if you would like to discuss bringing the workshops to your team.

We look forward to your participation!