Jill Nemiro, PhD, book author, former actor, and film and video editor, is an expert in virtual teams. It must be close to ten years since I first heard from Jill as she was working on her PhD in an original field: Creativity in Virtual Teams. Her dissertation was so good that it was published - and she's gone on to do several more books.
When Jill got started, she was among a small number of people doing research on virtual work and, among those, she struck me as unusually collaborative and generous. We've stayed in touch ever since and, when she teamed up with Michael Beyerlein, Lori Bradley, and Susan Beyerlein to pull together The Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams, she asked Jeff and me to participate, which we gladly agreed to. We got a cherished spot in such collections -- the very last piece about the future of virtual teams ("The Virtual, Networked Organization").
Just received notice that Jill's been interviewed by Vern Burkhardt in the Idea Connection ("Virtual Teams"), where she talks about her background, what interests her about virtual teams, and how creativity plays into their success. Thanks for the mentions, Jill, and here's her excellent list of eleven competencies for effective virtual teamwork (and, Endless Knotters, don't miss the interview):
- Developing an awareness of yourself and how you interact with others;
- Developing and practicing supportive communication skills;
- Building the ability to communicate effectively across cultures;
- Resolving conflict effectively;
- Problem solving and decision making skills;
- Managing stress because virtual work schedules are often 24/7;
- Time management and personal productivity skills;
- Developing and motivating others – coaching and empowering;
- Utilizing positive political skills to push ideas forward;
- Knowledge management, data gathering, and information access skills; and
- Developing ways to advance one's career in the virtual workplace.
