Do you work with the person in the next cube, or is your closest associate half a world away? Do you work in an office with walls or an Internet café? Is your favorite mode of communication a quick water cooler chat, an IM or a detailed email? Are your go-to teammates working on your current project, with you, or working on other projects, elsewhere? Today it could be any or all of the above as people find themselves working in geographically distributed multigenerational teams. Even independent contributors work on teams. Whether you’re in an office or a cube, a train station or at home on the couch with a laptop, teams aren’t going away.
Global leaders and HR practitioners face challenges managing such diverse teams. It’s not just the challenge of many physical locations – it’s treating people fairly no matter where they work, making sure shared goals and targets are communicated and understood. All this is complicated by the average length of service of employees, the result not only of shifting demographics and multigenerational workforces, but also of economic realities. Plus, the closest-knit teams today may not even be working together on a project right now; they may be angling to work together again. The challenges to relationship-building and employee engagement are pressing. The leader’s challenge is to inspire the talent within teams that may or may not reside within the leader’s organization. Technology can only help so much – in the end success comes down to teams working smoothly and people helping people.
This week’s TalenCulture #TChat World of Work will look at teams in and out of the workplace and discuss the following questions:
Q1: Where do teams operate today: at work, elsewhere, or both?
Q2: How do leaders lead when professional networks are more fluid than ever?
Q3: The employee lifecycle is shorter now. How can leaders forge lasting relationships in this world of work?
Q4: How can teammates remain engaged in & out of the workplace when they’re both in & out of the workplace?
Q5: Where & what is technology’s impact in all this?
Wherever you are – at your desk, on a train, at home – join us for this week’s TChat. We’ll begin Wednesday 6/13 at 7-8 pm ET (6-7 pm CT, 4-5 pm PT, or wherever you are). Our moderator will be Rayanne Thorn (@Ray_Anne), marketing director for Broadbean Technology and a writer for Blogging4Jobs. Kevin W. Grossman (@KevinWGrossman) and I (@MeghanMBiro) will be there, as well, alongside the #TChat Tweet Team At-large: Sean Charles (@SocialMediaSean), Salima Nathoo (@SocialSalima) and Brent Skinner (@BrentSkinner).
image credit: Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept, by Scott Maxwell
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