Common Tools, Distributed Team


Googling casually online for research on distributed teams and remote working alongside homeworking threw up much advice on how to start a distributed team (and people willing to sell you all you need to do so). There is also a fair range of advice 'out there' on the necessary ingredients for success in a virtual team and many accounts which evaluate participation within such a team. When idly perusing this emerging advice, the early research and the rush to say how it should be done it all seems so clinical, so matter of fact. Much of the language used about strategies and networks is so cold and working online is always compared to the face to face alternatives.
The working practices embedded within the culture of Ultralab were and remain ahead of their time. More so it seems given that I have not been able to find a fully and permanently distributed academic team attached to a British University (I stand to be corrected though). Anglia Ruskin has a quietly, though stunningly effective, groundbreaking team within its fold

Google "distributed teams: ac.uk" and Ultralab is the top hit, the items below in the list are writing about 'distance' learning and distributed teams etc. but they don't practice this themselves. Ironically whole departments in other Universities have fixed office based teams. Ultralab in its organisation is living out the practice it seeks to spread. It uses the practices that it espouses. So many distributed or e-learning departments seem to be working from a central location, Ultralab's full time, permanent living out of distributed learning, distributed research and online community puts the team in a hugely advantageous position to empathise with, understand and develop delightful learning online. I am not setting out to criticise interpretations of distributed working practice, but I do feel like authentic practitioner voices are missing from the discussion.
I've been thinking about "the way we do things around here" (here being the organisation/department and not a geographic reference of course) ... At a very simple level I have summarised communication methods I personally use within the team and for what purpose.
Each method alone is not unique, groundbreaking or innovative particularly. What is unique though is how as a remote team we have developed a culture which embraces a range of tools, a different tool for a different purpose. As we encounter need we develop a solution. Also there is an ethos of innovation, trying out new possibilities. In my initial perusal of the web it seems that wholesale solutions or programmes are being developed to support remote teams. What we have here though is quite the opposite where there is a fairly incohesive menu of available methods, which is made usable by a shared culture. Contributing to this shared culture is the process of together fathoming out new solutions to emerging needs is a team bind, a piece of common ground and an example of how in grappling with our own needs we have characteristics and means on a par with distributed learners/students. Developing the tools and supporting culture is one factor which binds the distributed team. It is also an act of research in itself. Maybe not in an obvious explicit traditional way but, the development of our own communications and distributed practices, the incremental improvements and ever developing understanding is disseminated within all that we do, through a deep understanding of how it is to be remote and what makes it delightful.

Posted: Sunday - April 30, 2006 at 11:38 AM          

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