A powerful collaboration method is to use the art of group sketching. Drawing up  the conceptual diagrams that express the ideas that are being presented and discussed in a group display, such as a flip chart or an interactive whiteboard, is useful to bring about shared visions concerning a given situation.

In this example we have outlined the intention for the last Educared congress in Madrid. During a preparatory meeting, participants expressed the major objective for the event, to target 1,000 innovators or opinion leaders that will then be influencing a larger community of 40,000 linked together by the congress web 2.0 platform.

If you use a flip chart, capturing diagrams with a digital camera can be your only option for sharing information.  If you use an interactive whiteboard everything can be instantly published in a shared space where group members can edit or add further notes.

Stop the press! groupVision was selected as a case reference in Radio 5,  Spain, in a programme dedicated to networking events. To listen to the broadcast in Spanish: more.

•    Avoiding eye contact and not looking at the person speaking to you or who you are speaking to. If you don’t make eye contact, the speaker feels like he does not have your full attention.
•    Not asking questions. This shows you’re not interested and that you’re not hearing what he or she is saying.
•    Interrupting. When you interrupt, the speaker feels you’re not valuing what he or she is saying and will be frustrated by the inability to finish a complete thought.
•    It is a great opportunity for you to take the time to listen by relaxing and opening your ears, thoughts and mind.
•    Changing the subject. This indicates that your mind is elsewhere. It shows you’re not concentrating on what’s being said at that moment, and this makes the speaker feel he or she is not important. It can also raise the impression that you’re avoiding the subject of the discussion because you do not feel comfortable with it.
•    Not smiling does not help either. A smile is a simple gesture that makes everyone feel more comfortable and at ease. We need to remember that most people show some constraints while verbally expressing their points of view, smiling just creates a nicer, friendlier, smoother atmosphere.
•    Avoid crossing your arms as this can be interpreted as a sign of being negative to the other person’s view.
•    If you’re speaking with someone who’s sitting, you should sit too. Standing over someone may be interpreted as somehow ‘authoritative’ and could create the wrong impression.

Paul Nunesdea, groupVision’s CEO has contributed a story (our story) to the MIX contest: Organising 2.0 it is the .0 that matters the most!

Our short term action proposal started with the creation of the Iberian Healthcare Forum expanding on the work of the Forum Hospital do Futuro in the Portuguese speaking countries. We have organized the first Iberian Summit of Healthcare Leaders in the city of Evora, earlier this year.

The second summit will be held  in Seville, Andalusia, 26 and 27 January 2012. It is our hope that the strategic debate about new forms of regional cooperation in Healthcare will be a strong contribution to public service effectiveness and quality: more.

“Some of our customers actually complained that we had too many web sites and too dispersed, so we felt that people would like to have a single URL where all SMART related product information in Spain could be easily found.”

This new web site - PizarrasInteractivas.com – is a great example of group collaboration. It is the result of the joint efforts of a dispersed team, with a programmer/web developer in Santiago de Compostela, webmasters in Lisbon and a web designer in Madrid. Using groupVision’s collaborative project management tools built on Google Apps it was possible to create this site with work being done within a 24 hours time frame, every day. The result is here and we are all very pleased with this accomplishment. Let’s hope our users will like it as well!

Whole MBA´s have been designed around it, seminars, workshops organized and books written, but what does that word actually stands for? I have been searching for several definitions, and I would like to share with you the one I found most suitable, the one that defines leadership as the personal ability to inspire and motivate others to achieve common objectives.

I believe that this is a powerful statement.

After all, isn’t that what we, (in organizations and society at large) have been looking for? John Luther, author of Madame Butterfly, once said:

“Authority is a poor substitute for leadership.”

The simple fact that one person is in charge of a department, division or a whole organization does not make her a leader. Great leaders are very good listeners, they take risks and
encourage risk taking they are not afraid to think outside the box and encourage followers to make mistakes and learn from them .

They have a vision and use their outstanding communication skills to share that vision with those they lead or need to engage.

Leaders have a passion for learning and sharing information; Leaders pro-actively foster team building and are genuinely interested in the psychological aspect of human behaviour.
(A core competency that should be developed at all levels and not onlyat the Top tiers of organizations).
Warren G. Bennis once defined a good leader as someone that make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery.
Everyone feels that he or she can make a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel in the core and that gives their work meaning.

Organizations won’t be able to attract and retain skilled and talented people if they don’t feel like they are part of the “game”, meaning that unless you are able to somehow involve people in the strategic design process, make them aware of the really critical issues and give people an opportunity to really be engaged, they won’t stay long term attached
and committed to that project.”

Actually, obtaining internal buy-in to a major operational change in an organization is easily the most overlooked factor in such enterprises, and it is often, the most important one.