#29767
Developing High-Performing Teams 
Social psychology and organization development suggest that virtually all people, and all teams, must deal with conflicting impulses toward effective and ineffective behaviour. Research shows that it is a basic human trait to want to succeed, to be in control, and to avoid embarrassment. Group dynamics research also suggests that teams operate on two dimensions: the task or work dimension, and the social or relationship dimension. High-performing teams pay attention to both the task and social environments. They create an environment that minimizes the occurrence of face-saving and defensive behaviour. This environment is usually characterized by honesty and authenticity, by the use of relevant and verifiable information, and by a willingness to own up to mistakes.
Conklin, John James. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Collaboration>Management>Workplace
#28188
Developing Technical Curiosity: A Marketable Skill
Every technical writer should have strong writing skills. Just as important, in my judgment, is a keen sense of technical curiosity. As a hiring manager, I look for it in every job applicant I interview. If you do not have this sense naturally, you can develop it.
Harvey, Michael. Carolina Communique (2003). Careers>TC>Collaboration
#31534
Do You Have a Reputation for Excellence?
Your reputation depends on your ability to be a public-spirited, plain-talking professional who serves the interests of your audience rather than your organization.
Olds, George. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Careers>Collaboration>Community Building
#29437
Dr. Strangemeeting (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Donuts)
Experts claim you'll spend 1500 hours in meetings during a typical 30-year career--that is, if you can duck some meetings by looking busy and if you can retire early. If you duck slowly or plan a long career, you could easily spend more time in meetings than you spend working. Fortunately, a little planning and some quick thinking should let you turn meetings into a blessing--or at least a tolerable evil.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Careers>Workplace>Collaboration
#27221
Earning Respect: How To Improve Your Department's Image
Could your department's contributions be better understood and valued? This workshop will give you some ideas for improving your department's image. You'll learn some time-honored marketing techniques for finding out what your customers think of your efforts. You'll also find out how to use those techniques to change perceptions. You'll discover ways to prevent second-guessing of your document designs. And you'll find out how to promote your services to the rest of your organization.
Bolton, David. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#15127
Eleven Commandments for Business Meeting Etiquette
Offers some rules on business meeting etiquette.
Smith, Gary M. Intercom (2000). Careers>Workplace>Collaboration
#14686
Essentials of Successful Cooperation
Brys discusses ways that technical communicators can lay foundations for good working relationships with subject matter experts.
Brys, Catherine M. Intercom (2001). Careers>Workplace>Collaboration>SMEs
#14146
Establishing and Building Mutual Respect with Technical Team Members 
As a technical writer, are you finding yourself wishing for just a bit of respect from the engineers, SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), or other technical people you work with? Are you finding that these folks seem to stonewall you on every question you have or every goal you're trying to achieve? Are they obstreperous? Difficult? Or just plain unhelpful? When I hear technical writers complaining about--er, describing--such troubles when working in a team environment, my first reaction is to want to sit and observe how they actually interact with those seemingly impossible team members. In my experience, I've found that the problem isn't always with a surly SME or with an engineer who lacks communication skills. Certainly, there are cases where other team members just don't value any contribution other than their own; however, most often, I have found the problem is with the technical writer's approach to the team environment--and have found that the problem began from the very start of that writer's involvement with the team.
Ray, Eric J. TECHWR-L (2002). Careers>Collaboration>Workplace>SMEs
#18934
Fifteen Tips for Remote Collaboration
It will always be easier to rally a group of people who work in the same building, but you can accomplish just as much (or more) with a motivated remote team. Getting team members motivated in the first place and holding their interest are your goals. Here are fifteen quick and useful tips to get you started.
Young, Indi. Adaptive Path (2003). Careers>Collaboration>Online
#30148
Forging Effective Partnerships with Clients
Numerous helpful references and courses teach us how information developers can create value for clients through good project management, but getting our partners to recognize that value remains a challenge.
Knodel, Elinor L. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Consulting>Collaboration
#24195
From Not Working to NETWorking
Networking—whether done formally or informally, alone or as part of a group—can give you a competitive edge in getting (and keeping!) business coming to you as a contractor or independent technical communicator.
Keefer, Christine A. Intercom (2004). Careers>Freelance>Collaboration
#31710
Fundamentals of Leadership: Communicating a Vision
Great leaders are not always born that way. Unfortunately, many management training programs don't sufficiently emphasize leadership development, but instead focus on fundamentals and the day-to-day tasks that confront managers within the organization. This article takes a look at how having vision and then communicating it is the foundation of leadership and contributes to the makeup of a truly great leader.
Harris, Kerri. Writing Assistance (2006). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Business Communication
#22879
Going Hollywood: Trends in the World of Work
The 'Hollywood Model' is one of several work trends that have emerged to satisfy the needs of the changing U.S. workplace in the last couple of decades. This paper will: examine some of the forces that have precipitated change in the U.S. workplace; explore emerging work trends especially relevant to technical communicators; and recommend a small set of key skills that technical communicators will need to develop in order to thrive in the changing workplace.
Cheirrett, Peg A. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Workplace>Collaboration
#23663
Growing Your Practice by Managing Business Relationships
Independent contractors and consultants know the value of working cooperatively with other professionals to complete complex projects. 'Other professionals' includes subcontractors, other independent contractors and consultants, and business partners. The formation of these kinds of strategic relationships can help meet the demands of today’s diverse markets and clients. This paper outlines some of the basic issues that surround business relationships, including planning (estimating and bidding), formalizing project-based contractual relationships, and exploring more permanent partnership arrangements.
Barker, Thomas, Ryan Bernard, Melanie G. Flanders, Rob Moschak and Nicole Wycislo. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Freelance>Consulting>Collaboration
#10219
Handling Tough Situations: The Art of Buying Time
We have discussed the advantages of attacking tough situations not all at once but in four phases: (1) minimal immediate response, aimed at buying time; (2) realistic preparation based on a complete scenario; (3) problem-solving discussion focused on reaching an agreement; and (4) follow-through to ensure that agreements are carried out. The main argument for this approach is simple: to be persuasive, you need good arguments; when you are surprised and upset, you can't think of your best arguments; therefore, whenever possible, give yourself time to calm down, think, and prepare properly.
Reimold, Cheryl. IEEE PCS (2000). Careers>Collaboration
#10220
Handling Tough Situations: The Short Method
We discussed how to buy time when you are assaulted by an unpleasant surprise. Our argument was that few people respond well to challenging situations unless they have some time to prepare. Therefore, whenever you can, you should divide the task into four distinct phases: (1) minimal immediate response, (2) preparation, (3) problem-solving discussion, and (4) follow-through. Unfortunately, some situations don't let you postpone a full discussion. For such cases, you need the 'short method,' which condenses phases 1-3.
Reimold, Cheryl. IEEE PCS (2000). Careers>Collaboration>Project Management
#25368
Have Women Websters Achieved Equality On the Internet?
Will cyberspace fulfill our dreams of creating a new work environment where not only women but men can choose to work remotely at home, rocking babies with one hand while pushing pixels with the other? There are no easy answers.
Bucqueroux, Bonnie. Wise-Women (2004). Careers>Web Design>Collaboration>Gender
#14755
Helping New Writers Through Their First Year
Von Haas examines techniques for helping new technical writers achieve success in the profession.
Von Haas, Elaina E. Intercom (2002). Careers>Collaboration>Mentoring
#29341
How Do You Deal With a CEO Who Wants to Run the IT Department? 
A CEO is enamored with technology but doesn't understand the issues involved in implementing his time- and money-hungry IT ideas. What would you do to solve this problem?
Roberts, Becky. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Technology>Collaboration
#29254
How to Deliver Bad News to Customers
In order to be effective in the usability business, you have to face the fact that you'll have to deliver bad news. You have to talk about what's not working. You might have to bruise egos and make your client uncomfortable.
Rhodes, John S. Apogee. Careers>Consulting>Usability>Collaboration
#27384
How to Find Your Executive Usability Champion
Discusses making usability routine throughout your organization.
Weinschenk, Susan and Jerome Nadel. Human Factors International (2006). Careers>Usability>Collaboration>Workplace
#26918
What follows is some advice for managers on how to manager people, especially talented people. I worked for nine years at Microsoft, sometimes managing projects, sometimes managing people, but always with a manager above me. I think I’m smart, but many of the people who have worked for me definitely were. Over the years I’ve experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share.
Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#24690
Improving Your Work Teams by Identifying Individual Styles
Effective teams develop a synergy that cannot be estimated or measured, but is an end result of successful projects. This synergy can be contributed to effective communications and insightful task and resource assignment. By identifying team membership styles, and applying these styles to individuals in a team, all team members can contribute to the increased synergy and ultimate success of a project. Tools to achieve this effect, as well as practical examples to demonstrate it, motivate participants to reuse style identification methods.
Fay, Brenda and Dan Fay. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Collaboration
#24391
Information Development at Rockwell Software – Part 1: Organizational Issues and Work Process
Establishing and maintaining good relationships with internal customers is essential for technical writers. In our case, engineers are our internal customers and managing professional relationships with them can be challenging. At Rockwell Software, writers are matrixed into engineering organizations. This diffuses technical writing’s presence, but it gives us access to information we might not have if we were in a separate department. Given this organization, we have found that establishing personal relationships with engineers before focusing on work helps ensure our success. Finally, usability testing serves as a place where engineers and writers can focus on the success of their product as a whole.
Butler, Scott A., Eric J. Grabowski and Myron M. Shawala III. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Collaboration
#29048
Information Technology and Organizational Change 
The profession of technical communication is in transition. While a few might argue that we are in danger of being swallowed up by large, institutional realignments, it seems more likely that the future workplace (as characterized by Senge, among others) will put communication, culture, and collaboration at the center of work. However, in order for the profession to exploit these opportunities, we must understand the impact of integrated information technology (IT) on organizations. I summarize the interaction of corporate culture, leadership/management, human resources, and advanced networking and web-based applications (more commonly called an Intranet) for the successful integration of new IT products into an established and well-defined organization. Background research for this paper was conducted as part of an Army Summer Faculty Research and Engineering grant.
Carlson, Patricia A. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Careers>Business Communication>Technology>Collaboration
