The Best Way to Support Modern Teams

Note: Links, dates, and statistics updated in 2020.

In 2000, when my first book, Research in Managing Groups & Teams: Technology (Volume 3) was published, Facebook didn’t exist. Teams used LotusNotes, email, stand-alone electronic discussion tools, and occasionally, video-conferencing and ad hoc file sharing. Amazing to think about this today when even elementary school kids are using Zoom to do their classes. Technology was an expensive tool, generally controlled and managed by enterprise information technology (IT) departments.

Team trainers, facilitators, and coaches all could help teams make decisions about the best ways of getting their work done. We could do a study, share the results, and expect the benefits to last for a while. Not so any more.

Pace of Change

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

We don't have time to do research about specific kinds of teamwork using specific kinds of technology. We have to support teams by teaching them how to do their own systems design.

Think about the current environment. Internet bandwidth is relatively cheap. As of 2019, 95% of North America uses the Internet, and world Internet usage has grown 1,167% since 2000. Seventy-nine percent of US people ages 18-29 use Facebook. Seventy-two percent of teens use Instagram. There are similarly high numbers for other working-age groups.

Those numbers mean that the majority of us have some level of on-line collaboration experience.  Many of us are driving technology changes in our companies, rather than waiting for ideas from the information technology department.  

Consumerization of Technology

This is called the “consumerization” of enterprise information technology. Professors like myself and many other educators have often been in the position that these information technology departments are in now. We explain things that people inside organizations are already doing rather than helping people set up to make decisions about what to do.

Design Your Own Tools and Practices - You Need 5T Thinking™

Given the pace of technology change, we will always be behind the curve unless we shift to helping teams make decisions about what technology tools and organizational practices to adopt in their teams and organizations.  We have had almost 50 years with email: Ray Tomlison sent the first email in 1971, email gained popular acceptance in the early 90s. Fifty years of stability is unlikely now. The pace of tool introductions has ramped up and with some high-end venture funds entirely focused on social media, I don’t see things slowing down. Yes, there will always be a need to help people understand how to use new technologies. But it is even more important to teach how to collaboratively mix people's knowledge, skills, and abilities with technology tools and organizational practices.

I call this 5T Thinking™ (or Thinking in 5T™ — which term do you think is better?) I would love to hear of your examples where trainers have made this shift. Cases where trainers (formal or informal trainers, mentors, etc.) are teaching teams to help themselves, rather than trying to supply a turn-key approach. Please share your examples in the comments.