There is an “I” in Team: Session Recap

In March 2013, Bonnie Cain-Wood attended a session on organizational transitions. Her notes, takeaways and follow up questions are below.

Session Brief: From school sports to the workplace, we’ve been conditioned to believe there is no “I” in team. But that’s a lie. For years, the preferences of individuals have largely been ignored in favor of the team. Organizations have eagerly implemented team-building exercises and trendy collaboration tools to support team effectiveness and productivity; but in doing so, have overlooked individual work styles and preferred tools, leaving individual employees feeling frustrated and unempowered. But there is a new movement afoot, spawned by a generation of individuals who demand to work on their own terms and use their own devices; who want to empower themselves through mobile, social and other technologies to work in a manner that makes sense to them as individuals, not as members of a team.

This session explored the emergence of the "I" Team, its impact on team structure and group collaboration, and the strategies and tools to best support the "I" Team in your organization.

Takeaways:

• Evernote, Dropbox, etc. We bring these tools to work on our own. IT didn't give them to us. We are using personal devices and tools to collaborate on our own terms.
• Workology (link to http://www.mindjet.com/workology/)-different work personalities
• The achievements of an organization are the combined successes of a number of individuals.

Library Applications: What can we do to encourage/foster collaboration on personal terms? For example, I direct my work line to my cell phone because it a better tool. I don't expect the library to pay for it, but it helps me do my job better.

If you would like to share your notes on conference sessions relevant to the Library Future Series contact lib-pub@okstate.edu.