featured articles

Eight Ways to Build a Collaborative Team
by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson

The article is made available with compliments of John Clements Consultants. Further posting, copying, distributing is copyright infringement. To order more copies go to www.hbr.org or call 800-988-0886.

As part of the John Clements-Harvard Business School Publishing partnership, we are offering the following Harvard Business Review article:

Executing complex initiatives like acquisitions or an IT overhaul requires a breadth of knowledge that can be provided only by teams that are large, diverse, virtual, and composed of highly educated specialists. The irony is, those same characteristics have an alarming tendency to decrease collaboration on a team. What's a company to do? Gratton, a London Business School professor, and Erickson, president of the Concours Institute, studied 55 large teams and identified those with strong collaboration despite their complexity. Examining the team dynamics and environment at firms ranging from Royal Bank of Scotland to Nokia to Marriott, the authors isolated eight success factors: (1) "Signature" relationship practices that build bonds among the staff, in memorable ways that are particularly suited to a company's business; (2) Role models of collaboration among executives, which help cooperation trickle down to the staff; (3) The establishment of a "gift culture," in which managers support employees by mentoring them daily, instead of a transactional "tit-for-tat culture;" (4) Training in relationship skills, such as communication and conflict resolution; (5) A sense of community, which corporate HR can foster by sponsoring group activities; (6) Ambidextrous leadership, or leaders who are both task-oriented and relationship-oriented; (7) Good use of heritage relationships, by populating teams with members who know and trust one another; and (8) Role clarity and task ambiguity, achieved by defining individual roles sharply but giving teams latitude on approach. As teams have grown from a standard of 20 members to comprise 100 or more, team practices that once worked well no longer apply. The new complexity of teams requires companies to increase their capacity for collaboration by making long-term investments that build relationships and trust, and smart near-term decisions about how teams are formed and run.

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Stepping Up To Management:
A First-Person Account
By Ludee T. Kudera

A new partnership with Harvard Business School Publishing gives John Clements employees an opportunity to learn the cutting-edge management practices developed at Harvard Business School. John Clements manager Ludee Kudera shares her experience of the Harvard Lunch & Learn series.

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Presentation Skills:
How to Engage Your Audience
By Grace A. Alcid

Making use of Harvard Business School Publishing’s Presentation Skills module, Grace Alcid gives a few pointers on how to give exciting, memorable, and attention-grabbing presentations. From determining the core message and starting with a hook to draw audiences in to proposing a course of action and incorporating visuals, she describes the entire process in easy-to-follow steps.

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A Wired, Wired World
By Vina R. Sy-Santos

As history enters the 21st century, millenials--people born within the last 25 years of the 20th century--have set various megatrends that cut across country borders and continent, utilizing one of the defining innovations of their time: the Internet. Based on a talk given by marketing expert Nestor Balce, Vina Sy-Santos writes about how millenials and creatives are taking on the world on their own terms and are setting their own goals.

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The Indian Economy: The Past, the Present and towards the Future
By Dipesh Ratna Tuladhar

Despite having recently emerged as a global hub for outsourcing with a distinct global footprint, India still has several challenge facing its economy. Dipesh Ratna Tuladhar of the Asian Institute of Management discusses India’s current economy in terms of its industries, its legal regulations, the opportunities available in the country, and its current pool of professionals.

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BPA/P’s Roadmap 2010
By Paul Catiang

This article is based on a presentation given by Oscar Sañez, CEO of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines. The much-awaited Roadmap 2010 provides a strategic approach towards the three key issues facing outsourcing in the Philippines: talent, the business environment, and next-wave cities.

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The Boeing Perspective on Performance Excellence
By Grace C. Sorongon

Grace Sorongon, Vice President and Managing Director of John Clements, talks about the presentation of Dr. David Spong, a former President of Boeing Aerospace Support, which was delivered at the 44th Annual Conference of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines. This thought piece recalls Dr. Spong's drive to lead his organization to performance excellence and how Boeing Aerospace Support won the Malcolm Baldridge Naitonal Quality Award twice.

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Talent Development: An Answer to the Rapid Rate of Attrition
By Heizel L. Malnar

What is the solution to the growing rate of attrition in the Business Process Outsourcing industry of the Philippines? Heizel Malnar recounts her conversation with Carol Dominguez on how John Clements addresses this issue through its partnership with Harvard Business School Publishing. Focusing specifically on Stepping Up to Management, she discusses how a recent survey revealed how many new managers face difficulties in people management, and how the Harvard-developed e-learning program can help them adjust to their new roles.

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