distributed teams

greenspun.com : LUSENET : work teams : One Thread

ok teamnet's here is the deal, about a year ago i took part in an experimental team of 6 truck drivers. we developed a "blueprint" measured and pretty much achieved our goals. i reported to the upper managment that with a new shift in thinking on the part of the management and the drivers the team culture can flourish. biggest problems 1. communication. how do you get drivers to communicate w/ each other when they are hundreds of miles away from each other? answer : we are lucky enough to have satellite communicators in the trucks so we can use in-cab email. 2. managements acceptance of the culture: it's very hard for managent to even listen to a "dumb truck driver" let alone think that they might have a viable idea. answer: this seems to require a constant reassuance to the management that we are not trying to take over there jobs. (you lead, we'll manage) it seemed to work. now the company is getting ready to role this out to the entire fleet 6 teams of drivers 1 team of mechanics w/ 1 driver on that team and 1 team in the office. my question is: of all the potential problems, give me your top 3 concerns. thanks

-- Don Hawryluk (donly@home.com), August 13, 2001

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