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Lunch & Learn: Virtual Leadership and Team Effectiveness

Many organizations are distributed across a range of locations and time zones. Managers, employees, and business partners in these dispersed environments face many challenges. In today's session, Barbara Miller, president of Artemis Management Consultants and co-founder of Virtual Connection, joined us to share her insights about virtual teams and management. Drawing from her over thirty years of consulting experience, Barbara provided Lunch & Learn attendees with concrete strategies and techniques to be successful as virtual managers.

Barbara's interactive presentation provided participants with specific techniques they could immediately implement to make a difference in themselves and their teams. She addressed how to lead a team whose members are located around the globe and how to work with business partners or key stakeholders whom one never sees face to face. Barbara also shared the best practices others are currently using to achieve results in a virtual world.

For more information about Barbara and her insights on virtual leadership you can contact her at BMiller@VirtualConnection.biz or call (415) 388-9514. Also learn more about Barbara's 6 module web-based tool, Virtual@Work, which teaches managers and teams how to increase their virtual work effectiveness. Contact Virtual Connection at www.VirtualConnection.biz.

Also, check out Barbara's slides:

Download Virtual Leadership and Team Effectiveness

Join us for our upcoming free lunch & learn session!

What Losing 10% (body weight) Can Do (on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 12:45 pm Pacific Time)

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Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

Lunch & Learn: Virtual Law for Non-Lawyers - Justice on the New Frontier

Virtual worlds and video games may be virtual, but the scams, disputes, and risks are very real.  Pillsbury attorney and Virtual Law author Benjamin Duranske joined us today to present a fast-paced guided tour of this rapidly changing landscape. Benjamin touched on knockoff virtual goods, gold farming, fraud, agreements with users, avatar defamation, potential government regulation, and more.

Benjamin focuses his practice on the emerging field of virtual law, intellectual property law, Internet law, and litigation. As the author of Virtual Law: Navigating the Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds, the first book on this emerging field, as well as numerous online and print articles on the subject, Benjamin has helped define virtual law. He currently co-chairs the Committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games of the American Bar Association's Section of Science & Technology Law, which he helped establish. He is a frequent speaker on the subject of legal issues facing virtual world and game providers, software developers, content creators, and users. Benjamin co-chaired the first Virtual Law Conference, and founded the SL (Second Life®) Bar Association, an informal professional organization of attorneys and other legal professionals with an interest in virtual worlds.

To find out more about virtual law from Benjamin you can contact him at 650-233-4565 or e-mail benjamin.duranske@pillsburylaw.com.

Also, check out Banjamin's presentation slides:

Download Virtual Law for Non-Lawyers

Join us for our upcoming free lunch & learn session!

Virtual Leadership and Team Effectiveness (on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 12:45 pm Pacific Time)

Register for Virtual Leadership and Team Effectiveness

Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

Lunch & Learn: Virtual Worlds for Virtual Teams

In March of 2008, our guest speaker Eilif Trondsen, Research and Program Director of the Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning at SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (www.sric-bi.com/vwc), talked about the definition, evolution, and applications of Virtual Words, and provided a lively demonstration of Second Life.
 
Then in September of 2008, guest speaker Chuck Hamilton, Learning and New Media Program Manager of the IBM 3D Internet Team, talked about the IBM@PLAY program. He discussed how playful tools and projects are spreading across their workplace and how Virtual Worlds are an important part of this effort, helping connect people globally across the organization.
 
Last week, Eilif and Chuck both came back to our Lunch & Learn webinar to give us an update on the latest applications and developments in Virtual Worlds. They also shared further insights and examples on how Virtual Worlds are helping virtual teams collaborate and their visions on how Virtual Worlds might shape the future of workplace collaboration.

To find out more about Chuck and Eilif's work you can contact them at chamilto@ca.ibm.com and etrondsen@sric-bi.com.  

Join us for our upcoming free lunch & learn session!

Working together effectively: Using Insights to help teams collaborate (on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 12:45 pm Pacific Time)

Register for Using Insights to help teams collaborate

Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

Social Networking Lunch & Learn Follow-up Questions

Jason Alba, CEO and creator of JibberJobber.com, author of I’m on LinkedIn – Now What??? and co-author of I’m on Facebook – Now What???, took time to answer a few questions that that lunch & learn participants had following his Social Networking in Action lunch & learn presentation. Below are the questions that participants had, along with Jason's answers.

1. You mentioned that the LinkedIn audience is more businesslike/professional. As I evaluate best strategy for audience: How would you characterize audience demographics for (1) Twitter and (2) Facebook? 

This is just my opinion, but here’s how I characterize what I’m seeing on Twitter: Lots of people who are comfortable with social technologies and interested in “conversation.” The people whom I see on and using Twitter are often bloggers and have some kind of following. They are very cool, helpful and nice people. Lots of information sharing. Lots of news broadcasting.  
 
On Facebook I see a lot of people who are professionals but are there for social/personal reasons.  Lots of newer people I’ve seen are small business owners who have some kind of money making or money saving opportunity. Many people don’t know what they are doing there, or why they are connecting with me. It’s like they are kicking the tires. Users seem to interact differently on Facebook than they do on LinkedIn. Still, don’t underestimate the professionals on Facebook.
 
2. Where do you draw the personal vs. business line with Facebook and Twitter?

I do everything onbrand for my business, or my personal brand, so I’m very careful to barely put any personal stuff up, even on Facebook. Realize that, no matter where you put your personal info, it can show up anywhere.
 
3. How do you handle people who ask you to be on multiple social sites (Facebook & LinkedIn)?

I get this quite often. No big deal… Some people want to connect in different places for different reasons and play to each platform's strengths. Sometimes people connect with me on LinkedIn for the search factor (the ability for one another to tap into each other’s network), but also want to connect on Facebook because of the social communication tools. It’s really not a big deal, but I do draw the line there. I hardly ever (never?) connect with people outside of LinkedIn or Facebook.
 
4. When will Jason's new book on LinkedIn be out? 

Guess what?! I just learned that I'm on LinkedIn - Now What??? should be shipping on Black Friday, November 28th. Very excited to get this new information out!

 

Join us for our upcoming free lunch & learn session!

The growing risk of e-mail & blog mis-use (on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 from 12:00 noon to 12:45 pm Pacific Time)

Register for The growing risk of e-mail & blog mis-use

Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

Lunch & Learn: IBM@PLAY: Learning that work and play are complementary

For those who have been through our Accomplishing-more-with-less workshop, you know that we use “play” as a way to get energized, invigorated, and ready to tackle important challenges. We also use play to unleash creativity and to help build team spirit. Even people who have worked with each other for years, say they learned much more about their colleagues as a result of the play activities in this workshop.

Our lunch & learn session today dealt exactly with this topic (how work and play are compimentary) and was presented by Chuck Hamilton, Learning and New Media Program Manager of the IBM 3D Internet Team. When I met Chuck and heard his presentation, and learned about his effort at IBM and the innovations that he has been leading in this field, I thought this would be the perfect topic for our productivity theme. With his busy schedule, traveling around the world and educating business leaders about these issues, I wasn’t sure we were going to get him, but luckily we did, and he shared with us today plenty of insights on this topic.

Today's Session description & slides

Recent research is pointing out that play is a vital activity that can help us learn, get engaged and energized, better manage stress, increase productivity, and connect people in ways they might not otherwise have been able to do. While incorporating play in team building events seems to have gained some acceptance, play in today's work environment is still a controversial activity in most cultures. In this webinar, we will hear from Chuck Hamilton, Learning and New Media Program Manager of the IBM 3D Internet Team, regarding the IBM@PLAY program and how playful tools and projects are spreading across their workplace.

Download ibm_at_play.pdf

Our upcoming session description and registration

"Lunch & Learn: Social Networking in Action" on Thursday September 18 at 12:00 noon Pacific Time.

Social networks are communities of people who share interests and activities and are interested in exploring these interests and activities with others. Social networking has become a phenomenon and went beyond the social aspect to become an integral part of business, especially as the lines between personal and business lives continues to blur.

In this session, our guest speaker Jason Alba, CEO and creator of JibberJobber.com, author of “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???” and co-author of “I’m on Facebook – Now What???”, will start with an overview of social networking, and continues to explore its business applications, and the reasons why business professionals and businesses of all sizes needs to get engaged in this field. Jason will also compare some of the popular platforms and include live demonstrations and useful tips.

Register for Social Networking in Action

Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

Lunch & Learn Webinar on "Virtual Worlds and Second Life" with guest speaker Eilif Trondsen from SRI Consulting Business Intelligence

This week's complimentary lunch & learn webinar was titled: "Virtual Worlds and Second Life" (see detailed description below). In this webinar Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D. (Research and Program Director, Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning (VWC), at SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (SRIC-BI)) presented about the latest innovations in Virtual Worlds and their impact on business and outlook for the futur, as well as demonstrated some interesting destinations and applications in Second Life, one of the most popular Virtual World platforms.

Here are some additional highlights from the lunch & learn webinar, including the slides that you can download, and some helpful announcements and links:

- Download lunch_and_learn_virtual_worlds_and_second_life.pdf

- The next "Accompishing more in less time, less effort, and less stress" workshop on March 27 in San Francisco.

- The next lunch & learn webinar: "Social networking in action" will be held next Thursday March 20 at 12:00 pm PST.

- Session Description from this week:

You may have heard about Virtual Words, or more specifically about Second Life (one of the popular Virtual Words platforms), or you may have already experimented with them, and you may be wondering about their applications and impact on your business in the future. In this lunch & learn webinar, our guest speaker Eilif Trondsen, the Research and Program Director of the Virtual Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning at SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (www.sric-bi.com/vwc) in Menlo Park, will talk about the definition, evolution, and applications of Virtual Words, and provide a lively demonstration of Second Life.