Collaboration Archives - Page 2 of 2

May, 2018

What Star Wars can Teach About Mentorship

The Star Wars saga has many recurring themes – the struggle between desire and destiny, good and evil, impulse and discipline. However, a theme that particularly stands out throughout the series is the examination of the relationship between student and teacher. This theme is similar to the relationship that an IT provider should strive to have with their clients.

For today’s Star Wars Day blog, we’ll review some of the lessons that a professional can learn from the Star Wars films, as well as what the insights that the relationships shared by the characters can reveal about being a mentor, as well as the mentored. To do so, we’ll examine some moments and characters from the complete series thus far – Episodes I through VIII – and the stand-alone Rogue One.

WARNING: this article may spoil a few key moments from the series, so continue at your own caution.

How to Be a Mentor, According to Star Wars
There is no shortage of those who could be considered mentors throughout the series. From Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan/Old Ben Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, and finally, Yoda, many characters accept the mantle of mentor… albeit begrudgingly, at times.

In order to be a mentor, there are two requirements that each of these characters present during the series. Likewise, many characters also exhibit just one or the other characteristic. Yet, as they do not exemplify both qualities, they don’t quite qualify as a true mentor. We will explore these characters in more detail later.

These two requirements are to be a committed educator, as well as an equally committed leader. Each of the mentors listed above have had the opportunity to be both, and rose to the occasion. Qui-Gon took the initiative to take a young slave into his care, campaigning to the Jedi Council for the ability to teach him. When Qui-Gon was dispatched by Darth Maul, Obi-Wan rose to the occasion and took up Anakin Skywalker as his padawan learner.

Years after Anakin succumbed to his fear and hubris to be reborn as Darth Vader, Obi-Wan continued to be a mentor under the name Ben Kenobi, teaching the Skywalker of the next generation how to embody the principles of the Jedi. Once this Skywalker, Luke, had learned to be a leader, he teamed up with his long lost sister, Princess Leia Organa, to defeat the Empire. While Leia continued to lead an underground organization committed to fighting the Empire’s last remnants, Luke retreated to a sanctuary to ensure he was able to train the next worthy Jedi.

Finally, we would be amiss if we neglected to mention Yoda’s involvement as a leader throughout the saga. From the very beginning of the story, Yoda was a respected leader of the Jedi Order, proving his worth on the battlefield and in the Senate. When the Empire rose, he retreated to his home planet in wait of the next generation of Jedi to train. He then passed on, but returned as a Force ghost to impart his wisdom again, later in the series’ timeline.

Lining Up Star Wars Mentorship with Our Own (and with The Odyssey)
As one might imagine, the concept of mentorship has been around for much longer than Star Wars has been. In fact, we get the word “mentor” from a character in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Mentor was entrusted by the protagonist, Odysseus, to care for his son in his absence, and later assisted the young prince Telemachus in reuniting with his long-lost father by serving as his guide and, well, mentor.

In this way, Mentor serves a very similar purpose as many of the characters from Star Wars. By teaching another character and acting as a leader, he allows the protagonists to succeed in their quest – or, in the terminology more likely to be used in Star Wars, their mission. Furthermore, like the mentors to be found in Star Wars, Mentor shares a few characteristics with the mentors we see in the business world.

What Makes a Mentor, a Mentor
We’ve already established that a mentor should be a sort of amalgamation of a teacher, and a leader. This is admittedly a tricky balance to find, until you describe what kind of leader and teacher makes a mentor.

First, as a leader, you have to be able to be supportive as you take charge. As you work with a mentee, commit the time that the mentee needs to grow and devote your full attention to them. Just as Ben Kenobi understood Luke’s rage and bitterness after his aunt and uncle were slaughtered by the Empire’s stormtroopers, you need to be able to emphasize with your acolyte and guide them towards the higher purpose you can see them achieving.

As a teacher, it is important to also challenge those who you mentor. Not only should you assign tasks for your student to complete, these tasks should test the limits of their ability and set a standard that you expect them to meet. As Yoda challenged Luke to lift his X-wing fighter out of the swamps of Dagobah, he wasn’t coddling his student. Neither should you.

It is also important that, as their teacher, you review the lessons that have been imparted. These discussions will not only help ensure the information is retained, it will also encourage your mentee to draw their own conclusions. Remember, teachable moments happen all the time – it’s up to you to embrace them.

Finding Poor Examples in Rogue One
Alternatively, Rogue One offers a few examples of how to very much not be a positive leader. At the very beginning of the film, protagonist Jyn Urso’s father, Galen, is pressured into returning into the Empire’s service and designing the ultimate superweapon: the planet-destroying Death Star. In addition to being forced to work on a project he detests, he is stuck in a thoroughly unpleasant work environment. Oh, and did we mention that his wife was murdered and his daughter lost to him during the attack?

It should be no wonder, then, that instead of being loyal to his ‘employers,’ Galen instead decides to sabotage their operation from the inside. Hiding a critical weakness in the Death Star and sending word of it to the Rebel Alliance, Galen embodies the corporate espionage that a disgruntled employee could leverage against your business. A good leader sees the value in keeping an employee happy in two ways – first, it helps to keep that employee engaged and productive, and secondly, it reduces, if not eliminates, any ill will toward the organization.

In another example of the Empire’s failings in Rogue One, the antagonists of the film also leverage shady office politics to get a leg up on their superiors. For instance, Director Krennic elects to go over his commander’s head and out of the traditional chain of command, reporting directly to Darth Vader. As a commanding officer himself, Krennic serves as an example of what happens when office politics supersede the typical chain of command – and winds up being Force-choked into oblivion for his troubles. While it is highly unlikely that deviating from the chain of command will get you strangled like Krennic, it certainly doesn’t reflect well on you and shows a distinct lack of leadership and respect for the chain of command.

All this only goes to show that lessons in leadership can be found anywhere you look – even in a galaxy far, far away. Do you have any Jedi masters or mentors in your life? What have you learned from them? Share your thoughts in the comments, and may the Fourth be with you!

Oct, 2017

9 Ingredients to Creating a Winning UCC Strategy

If there is one thing that supports everything a successful business does, it has to be communication. Any company relies on its communications to ensure that its clients are satisfied with their services, and as communications have improved, it has only become easier for a unified communication and collaboration, or UCC, strategy to take form.

With these strategies, businesses have been able to expand upon their capabilities to enter and embrace the digital age. What follows are ten elements that a UCC would commonly feature in a business setting.

Collaborative Software
It is essentially guaranteed that you have some experience with collaborative software in this day and age, even if you haven’t personally used it to its full potential. With Microsoft Office and the G Suite available almost anywhere, the idea of collaborative software is not a new one. However, there are many more solutions out there that allow for many people to pool their skills and talents into a particular project in real time, regardless of how far away they are from each other. Many of these solutions also enable video conferencing and instant messaging, which will be discussed in greater depth later.

Podcasts
Imagine giving a presentation where the audience could pause you and wait until a more opportune time to listen to the rest of what you had to say. This is exactly what a podcast delivers–an on-demand lecture on a topic that an audience can listen to at their own convenience. Podcasts are also a more personal method of communication, as many listen through the intimate channel that is the headphone. If you are considering delivering your own podcast, you should be sure that you have these five needs planned out beforehand:

Topic
Length
Frequency
Format
Distribution

Instant Messaging
When it comes to rapid communication, you don’t get much faster than ‘instant.’ Businesses have picked up on this and now leverage instant messaging as a communications method. With utility as a communication device between individuals as well as among groups of people, instant messaging lives up to its name with the capability for near-instantaneous response times as individuals communicate with each other. In addition, companies that have used instant messaging in the workplace have seen increased efficiency and collaboration, as well as a reduction in email.

Video Conferencing
While it is certainly not a new technology, the practicality of video conferencing has increased significantly over the past few years. Better technology and improved Internet speeds mean that communications can happen in real time from almost anywhere in the world. Not to mention that, according to the IDG Enterprise Video Conferencing Trends in 2016, 96 percent of those surveyed agreed that video conferencing improves productivity and can reduce travel costs by 30 percent.

Discussion Forums
Sometimes a user would rather crowdsource their answers from their fellow users than bother the original source. Providing these users with an outlet to share their issues with each other allows them to identify their most pressing concerns, and also tells you what needs to be resolved or addressed first. You and your team can also step in and provide a solution to these issues, establishing yourselves as thought leaders.

Another benefit of discussion forums is that you are able to collect demographic information from your visitors here as well, enabling you to create a more complete idea of who your visitors are, and which groups seek information on which topics.

Email
While email may have once been seen solely as a means of sending and receiving messages with an individual or group, it is now relied upon as the primary record for over three-quarters of business correspondence. Archived emails help businesses keep track of their transactions, and incomplete email records have been the downfall of some companies in legal matters.

Clearly, email needs to be a component of your UCC. However, you will want to ensure that your selected email solution is properly secured, has searchable archives, is mobile-friendly, and integrates with your other solutions as much as is possible.

Enterprise Social Networking
While social media may have a less-than-shining reputation as a distraction in a workplace setting, Enterprise Social Networking works to the opposite effect. A company can leverage social media to help develop external business opportunities and to promote internal collaboration and communication. Furthermore, employees can be encouraged to act as brand ambassadors, using social media to share company culture posts and boost audience engagement–a strategy that more and more businesses are adopting.

With a UCC, a business has a variety of collaborative and communicative solutions to choose from, and many line-of-business applications incorporate enterprise social media platforms.

ChatBots
ChatBots can serve as a very helpful communication tool for the modern business and its website. Often structured in a way that is similar to an instant message, a ChatBot combines AI and human intelligence to improve the customer’s experience through a few common features.

Engagement – One of a business website’s key roles is to engage with its visitors so they will interact with the website. A ChatBot is an always-present opportunity to engage, with the benefit of providing your site visitor with information and assistance.
Personalization – As one of your visitors uses your ChatBot, they will likely give you a pretty good idea of why they are visiting. This allows you to customize your sales approach for their company, as well as to track and evaluate user behavior to deem which types of content are the most impactful to your strategy.
User Experience – Most businesses have an unofficial list of the questions that everyone asks. ChatBots can make that list official, with set responses that are activated by certain keywords in your visitor’s inquiry.

Project Management Software
In order for a business to be successful, it needs to be successfully managed. This is why 77 percent of businesses leverage project management software, as it encourages collaboration among team members, improved organization, and an overall boost to performance. This variety of software is also used by 66 percent of organizations to communicate with their clients.

UCC has grown significantly in popularity as the technology that supports it has developed. For more information on Unified Communication and Collaboration solutions and their place in your business, call us at 810.230.9455.

Sep, 2017

Microsoft Word Makes Collaboration Easier With Co-Authorship

Does your workforce have the option of working together on a document in Microsoft Word? This type of collaboration is something that is much desired in business today. One of the best ways to take advantage of this collaboration is through Microsoft Office 365’s built-in sharing features, which allow your workforce to work together on various initiatives.

Cooperate and Collaborate
If you need multiple users to access the same document, you can use Microsoft Office 365 to allow for it. You can review and edit documents in real time, but before doing so, you need to allow access to these documents by your staff.

First, open a new document in Word 2016 or Word Online. Once you’ve done so, select Share, and then Save to cloud. You can share the document in OneDrive or in a SharePoint Online location. Once you press Save, you’ll be able to share your document. Just select the Share panel and you’ll have several options for doing so. You can select Invite people to summon additional assistance from others in your organization, or Get a sharing link to send the invite out through email or instant message.

Once the invitations are sent and accepted, your team can then access the Word document and make changes. If you allow these changes to be made automatically, everyone will be able to see them as they happen.

Communication is Critical
You can’t have collaboration without communication. There are plenty of solutions available that help your business keep in touch while working together on a project. Microsoft Office 365 has a leg up on the competition because of its built-in integration with Skype for Business, allowing you to send messages or talk to anyone while working in a document.

Word also keeps a complete record of any changes made to your document so that you always have access to various versions of your documents. This makes it quite an excellent way to see who has made which changes, and when. Of course, the best collaboration happens when your workforce knows the endgame of the project, and they can then work toward a common goal moving forward.

In fact, many of these features are also available in other Microsoft products, including Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

Which of these features do you use most often in Office 365? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our blog for more great tips and tricks.

Jun, 2017

Employees Spend Nearly 80% of Their Time Communicating About Work. You Can Change That

How much time is wasted in your workplace just trying to communicate about potential projects? The notable difference between productivity and stagnation is that one is making you money, while the other is costing you money. Employees spend about 80 percent of their time in meetings, on the phone, or responding to emails, so it falls on the business owner to ensure that communications are as easy as possible so minimal time is wasted.

There are different approaches to this problem. The first place where you can cut down on wasted time is the one that you likely have the most control over: meetings.

Let’s face it; sometimes meetings aren’t as productive as they should be. One way to keep this from happening is to consider how you can make more efficient use of everyone’s time. Start by making a plan and considering what exactly is on the agenda. Ask yourself what the purpose of the meeting is, and if the goal of the meeting could be fulfilled more effectively in another way. If the goal of the meeting can be achieved without collecting your entire workforce into the same room, consider doing so.

Once you have determined that the meeting is the most efficient way to achieve this goal, you want to ensure that you communicate the purpose of the meeting to all of those who must attend. This way, everyone knows what they need to get out of the meeting, and nobody will be confused about why the meeting is being held. This keeps wasted time to a minimum.

By remaining cognizant of what your meetings should accomplish, you’ll inevitably save time and even wrap your meetings up earlier. This can even change the way that employees view meetings. Instead of keeping a meeting going long enough to fill in the space on their schedules, they will see that they can get more done since the goal was achieved earlier than expected.

Another way that you can make your meetings more effective is by creating an outline and then sending the agenda out to everyone at least 24 hours in advance. This way, your workforce knows what they can expect, as well as put together their own notes for quality input throughout the meeting. Another way that you can use this to your advantage is send them something to have read before the meeting starts–in essence, assigning homework. By using these methods, your meetings will be less improvised and more focused.

Once the meeting has ended, you can ask your employees for feedback regarding the process. If you take the time to listen to all participants’ feedback, you can then use it to improve the process and meet goals even more effectively next time. Eventually, it will lead to a chain reaction where meetings go by faster and faster, to the point where you have the process down.

When it comes to streamlining any processes in your office, the right technology can make or break the effort. Technology can help you make your meetings more efficient by utilizing video conferencing or voice chat technologies, so that your team doesn’t have to be in the same place all at once. They can even dial in with their mobile devices from their current location.

This strategic approach to collaboration technology can help your organization thrive, as well as focus on creating more opportunities for profit. To learn more about how there are technology solutions specifically designed to improve collaboration, reach out to us at 810.230.9455.

Nov, 2016

Tip of the Week: 4 Tools that Provide Your Employees With Greater Flexibility

Flexibility is an important part of the modern work environment, especially as technology has made it much easier to work anytime, anywhere. Employees understand that this flexibility exists in many industries, and they want to reap the benefits of a flexible work environment. However, it’s not that easy; there are quite a few pitfalls that can easily take a stab at your business’s productivity.

On the plus side, flexible work hours allow your team to flourish as people, rather than employees. Your employees no-doubt have families and personal interests of their own that they would like to devote time to. However, the biggest argument for workplace flexibility comes in the form of mobile technology becoming practically omnipresent in today’s environment. In the context of society, mobility is, more or less, a primary concern. Everyone carries a smartphone with them in order to stay up-to-date on email, and to receive important phone calls or to dial into a conference call.

Then there’s the problem of achieving a work-life balance. If an employee is constantly tethered to the office, even while at home, it can feel somewhat invasive to that employee’s domestic life, which can lead to dissatisfaction, and in some cases, disruption. Nobody likes to receive a phone call in the middle of the night, or at the dinner table, about something that can easily be handled the following morning.

Whether or not you want to implement a flexible workplace environment is ultimately up to you, but if you do choose to go all-in on this investment, you’ll need the proper technology solutions to ensure maximum communication and productivity.

Voice over Internet Protocol: A VoIP phone system uses your Internet connection to send your voice to the call’s recipient. It’s basically like a traditional phone system without the complex wiring. VoIP systems also come equipped with your standard phone line functions, like transferring, conference calling, etc, and some even have video conferencing technology.
Virtual Private Network: A VPN encrypts data that’s sent to and from your business’s infrastructure. They’re great for keeping sensitive data secure from hackers who would steal information while it’s in transit. The reason you’ll want this is because hackers may be lurking on public Wi-Fi connections, just waiting for someone like you to access the network.
Cloud Computing: Your business’s data and applications are available to those who are hooked up to your on-site network, but what about those who choose to work remotely? Cloud computing lets you host information and applications in an online environment, where anyone who has access to an Internet connection can utilize it.
Mobile Device Management: If your team is using their own devices to access your company’s sensitive information, you need to make sure that they comply with your BYOD policy. A mobile device management solution can be used to limit access to data on a per user and per device basis, as well as allowing you to remotely wipe devices that are potentially compromised.

If your business is ready and willing to invest in a flexible, modern workforce and workplace, NuTech Services can help. Our solutions are designed to give you maximum control over your data, while allowing your team to work anytime, anywhere. To learn more, give us a call at 810.230.9455.

Dec, 2015

Technology Has the Power to Bring the Office Together Like Never Before

The technological landscape of the office has changed significantly over the years. Only a decade ago collaboration could only be accomplished through sitting down in a conference room and discussing issues face to face. Today, however, technology is changing the way that we as a society view collaboration, and thanks to various achievements in software development, it’s easier than ever to work together on team initiatives.

Don’t Be Afraid of New Solutions
We all now the convenience of being able to communicate with the click of a button. Email and conference calling have been great additions to the office collaboration environment, but in recent years there have been more comprehensive and streamlined solutions that are constantly improving the way we work together. For example, video conferencing allows workers to communicate in ways which were previously unheard of, and instant messaging sure beats sending an email for an urgent request.

The important thing to consider when improving the way your office communicates and collaborates is that you should embrace new solutions, but not without completely forgetting the basics. Email is still a vital communication medium that your organization needs, and so is the office telephone line. While certain features of these solutions are better performed by more recent technologies, they are still vital assets.

It Doesn’t Take a Genius
Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to operate collaboration technology in an easy, efficient manner. Most modern solutions like instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol, and more, are all similar to everyday products that are used by the average PC enthusiast. This means that your employees will be relatively familiar with working with your office’s technology solutions, because they use similar services outside the office. For example, your employees might use Facebook messaging or Skype video calls for their personal matters, and they’re used to the simplified interfaces that have come about from innovations in recent times.

Establish Proper Boundaries and Protocol
Granted, some solutions still require a little bit of training, like making sure your employees are using your enterprise-level solutions in ways which are beneficial to their workplace collaboration, and not distracting others or compromising your business’s data security. A big part of this is training your employees on what these solutions should (and shouldn’t) be used for; for example, there’s no reason to use the video conferencing solution when you have a perfectly fine conference room to use at your leisure. Furthermore, your collaboration solutions should only be used for in-house purposes. Your employees shouldn’t be using their work email for personal use. Not only is it unprofessional, but it complicates things significantly if they decide to leave the company.

Overall, your technology collaboration solutions should be designed to allow for maximum productivity and efficiency. For more information about how we can help your business better communicate and collaborate in the workplace, contact NuTech Services at 810.230.9455.