In our November issue, we highlighted some work we were doing on virtual teams. We have expanded this work to include an article published in the Alberta Distance Education and Training Association's journal. Follow the link below to download a copy of this article.

We've also been working on an assessment tool to accompany this workshop. The Virtual Team Skills Inventory (VTSI) is a multi-rater, inside/outside, team skills inventory for virtual and other types of traditional and modern teams. It is similar to 360-degree assessments in that the VTSI draws on multiple perspectives from the individual, team members and external reviewers to get a clear picture of a team's skills. To do so, the VTSI identifies the strengths and areas for improvement based on a set of competencies and related indicators derived from our virtual teams framework (see our article for a description of the framework), and supporting literature on team and online competencies.

Give us a call or drop us an email if you'd like to find out more about the workshop and/or the VTSI.

Fearless Change: Patterns for introducing new ideas

Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising

How many of us have tried to introduce a change in an organization and struggled? We've not only struggled to initiate and sustain the change initiative ... we've also maybe found it difficult to find a common language with which to discuss our struggles. Fearless Change introduces "48 patterns for driving and sustaining change in your organization". The idea of Patterns and grouping Patterns together into a Pattern Language was first developed in the field of Architecture and has now been widely adopted by Software Engineers. An individual Pattern is a clear specification for a best practice. It includes information about the context where the Pattern might be used and which other Patterns it might be used with. A Pattern Language is a collection of Patterns that together give us a clear and concise way of designing, developing and discussing buildings, software, and now change initiatives.

Fearless Change has a very practical no nonsense approach to looking at organizational change and is very accessible. It is divided into three sections. The first briefly introduces the basic concepts behind organizational change and Pattern Languages. It goes on to look at the life cycle of a change initiative identifying different Patterns and how they relate to one another. The second section presents four case studies that provide more insight, and a different perspective on how the Pattern Language can be used to plan, predict and explain change initiatives in different organizations. The final section is a detailed presentation of each of the 48 Patterns.

A key feature of the each Pattern is its name. This has to be short, memorable and yet still capture the essence of the Pattern. My personal favorite is Do Food. You'll have to read the book to find out more!

Published in Fall 2004 by Addison-Wesley

We've scheduled four face-to-face certification workshops for 2005.

Vancouver - April 11-13
Toronto - May 9-11
Vancouver - October 3-5
Toronto - November 21-23

Please contact us if you'd like more information about one of these or would like to suggest other dates and/or venues.