Amazon.com Review
From the Book: Visual Teams in Meeting Settings Same Time/Same Place—Face-to-Face Meetings The traditional, and historically most familiar way to work as a team, is face-to-face at the same time and in the same place. Many kinds of work groups are still located in the same geographic area or building and can meet together this way. The tools explored in
Visual Teams for this team mode are:
• Graphic recording on large paper
• Static and interactive whiteboards and multi-touch screens (and walls)
• Computer projection of idea mapping, flow charting, and other software
• Predesigned presentation murals and charts
• Wall and tabletop graphic templates
• Workbooks, worksheets, and handouts
• Sticky-note displays
• Decision-support software for electronic brainstorming, voting, and ranking
• Tablet computers for active graphic recording that is projected
Same Time/Different Place —Virtual Meetings Increasingly, teams are distributed in different locations, many times all over the world. But they still want to meet at the same time, hearing each other’s voices and perhaps seeing themselves on video and looking at shared drawings. Many face-to-face meeting involve a virtual component with several people calling in. Its tools are:
• Teleconferences with target documents
• Web conferences with shared whiteboards and interactive presentations
• Web conferences with active recording on tablets
• Video conferences with telepresence and interactive whiteboards integrated
• Interactive whiteboards and telephones
• Live chat with or without video
• Browser-based decision-support software
Different Time—Same Place Meetings This brings us back to a physical office or workspace. When teams are collocated they can communicate visually through the physical environment in ways that allow coworkers to see what is going on at different times. These tools include:
• Physical bulletin boards and project-management walls
• Posters
• Posted action plans and road maps
• Team rooms with displays
• Kiosks—physical and electronic
Anytime/Anyplace—Social Media and Cloud Computing With cameras on smart phones and tablets, wifi and other Internet connects becoming universal, and data access from the cloud expanding exponentially, the “anytime/anyplace” possibility is becoming reality. Some of the tools that specifically make this possible are:
• Texting
• Video and photo sharing
• Teleconferencing on smart phones
• All the above plus drawings on smart tablets
• Coordinating through cloud computing services
• Mobile appliances of increasing variety
From the Back Cover
Visualize team plans, processes, and results!Visualization provides teams with a common language and serves as a powerful tool for improving processes and communicating big picture contexts. Building on the bestseller Visual Meetings, Visual Teams offers graphic tools and strategies for creating teams and sustaining results, whether you are co-located or spread around the world. This book highlights the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model, a tool used throughout such companies as Nike, Genentech, and Becton, Dickinson and Company. The model is a "map" to creating and sustaining high performance in all kinds of teams.
Some of the most creative teams in business are found in the software, architecture, and information-design professions—and the "design approach" of these teams is the key to their creativity and productivity. Visual Teams presents a "design approach" for building and leading an innovative, high-performance team.
"All of us who help teams do systemic, creative work on complex challenges know that it is essential for these teams to make their thinking visible. In this excellent book, visual-thinking pioneer David Sibbet shows us how."
—Adam Kahane, Reos Partners author of Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change
"Like David's own graphics, this book layersconcrete practices and abstract theories, historical insights, and visions of future possibilities. The book is a master's course in a kind of teamwork that's uniquely suited to our times."
—Kathi Vian The Institute for the Future
"David Sibbet is the world's master teacher in graphic facilitation. In this landmark work he is insightful, entertaining and practical as he helps teams, team leaders, and consultants improve team performance by making it visual."
—Allan Drexler Quality Team Performance
"David is a pioneer in the field of visual thinking and team effectiveness. In Visual Teams, he shares both a hard-won wisdom and the nitty-gritty about what it really takes to ensure that your great ideas prevail."
—Hilary Austen professor, consultant, and author of Artistry Unleashed: A Guide to Pursuing Great Performance in Work and Life
"Visuals nurture the heart as well as the mind. In Visual Teams David brilliantly demonstrates the power of graphics to foster inspiration, alignment, and results—a unique and exciting journey into the joys and challenges of teamwork."
—Meryem Le Saget Meryem Le Saget Consulting, Paris
