2015 Nonprofit Technology Conference

The story that vendors, service providers, and the business press like to tell goes like this: All you need is a high-speed connection; some cloud-based communications, collaboration, and file storage tools; and a little bit of magic pixie dust in the form of trust exercises at an annual retreat, and—poof!—you’ll have a distributed team that functions just like a workgroup in a single office. But as anyone who has ever actually worked on a distributed team knows, this story isn’t true.

Collaborating across distance—whether one coworker telecommutes two days a week, or you’ve got offices scattered across multiple time zones—is anything but simple. Making it work requires the right tools, because you can’t afford to get your information systems wrong when you rely on them to hold your team together. But more important, it demands new work habits and organizational practices. If either is missing, your organization and its effectiveness will suffer.

This session will explore best practices for both of these aspects of distance collaboration through a panel discussion that includes concrete tips for correctly setting up and effectively using videoconferencing tools, intranet software selection and design, setting organizational habits for communications availability, and more.