As I was looking out of my office onto the Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, I contemplated my dilemma. I had to make a collaborative decision with my counterparts by 2pm. The problem was, they were located in San Francisco and Hong Kong respectively. My first instinct was to send an email, but I worried about their response time. I then thought of calling them via a conference call, but that did not allow me to discuss the process maps laid out infront of me. It seems more and more that these cases are becoming the norm in my working day.

As the concepts of telecommuting and virtual teams explode onto the scene, new teamwork issues come to the fore. How do you ensure that productivity and communication are not lost due to isolation of team members? How will the new way of working…work?

Watch Kids Play, and All Shall Be Revealed
Today technology in the corporate arena is finally taking note of these novel concepts of virtual teamwork. It's no longer just about a phone call, receiving a fax, sending an email or having a closed-door privacy of a conference room. Computer technologies will need to integrate the benefits of all of these elements into one solution.

Unfortunately, applications such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange were built for collaboration within a single company with a secure corporate firewall. This will not work when you talk about working with partners or clients from outside your company.

Back in the 90s, the Web was gaining incredible momentum, especially amongst teenagers, who were truly grasping the advantages of the Internet. Rushing home from school, kids would log onto the Internet and join in a real time game of Quake with teammates and opponents from all over the world. What they were doing was interacting and communicating with each other in a dedicated “space” via the Internet. What a novel idea! One such man who tagged onto this novel idea was Ray Ozzie of Groove Networks Inc.

Are we “jamming” as a band?
The key to working in this type of work environment is to work through collaborative tools that allow individuals to eliminate the boundaries of time; creating direct, dynamic connections between individuals that ensure teamwork independent of geography. One such solution is Groove – a collaborative tool created by Ray Ozzie back in 1997.

The concept Ray Ozzie used was one of a “jam session”. People could just drop into this special room and pick up the instruments they used, read the same music sheets and “groove” together as a band. In real terms, individuals from anywhere in the world will have a private room and a set of tools to discuss issues or post documents in a team environment.

Does this really work?
Just yesterday, I decided to pull my project teammates from Manila, London and Kuala Lumpur together for a discussion that has been going on for the past two months via telephone, emails and chats. It seemed that we were going around and round forever, inching along very slowly with each passing day. Last night, I had had enough.

We set up a private virtual room, armed to the teeth with all the collaborative tools we needed. At the arranged time we all headed down to this “meeting room”. The results were very satisfying. “Why didn't we do this earlier? We should do this again. I think we made more progress here than we have in the past months. It's really tough to do things on our own, isn't it?” said one of my teammates. [The quote being taken out of our discussion transcript – another advantage!]

Understand how technology can increase your productivity
For all the advances in technology, it all boils down to relationships and sociology. Business is all about relationships, and we need help to augment our business relationships in our ever-changing landscape. Understanding how we work and communicate will determine if the technology is actually a tool or a burden. But first, we need to recognise the kinds of tools that will make the time we spend working more productive and efficient. Once we recognise them, we need to use them.

Looking out for the new new thing
It can be daunting enough trying to get through a workday let alone worry about what technologies are out there. But from someone who has been there, done that and even bought the T-shirt, a little research on collaborative tools to optimise virtual teamwork would have saved my team two months of needless toil. Take the opportunity to learn about technology tools available and enhance your skillset using them. The sands of work are shifting right under our feet. If we don't stay alert, we might hit a patch of quicksand.

Who knows, if you watch carefully, you might find your 10 year-old niece showing you the new new way to work. I mean, it has happened.