BIONIC eTeamwork

One of the world's leading experts on virtual teamwork, Jaclyn Kostner, takes readers step-by-step through the process of creating fast, effective, Bionic eTeams that use technology's power to extend their human capability and touch. Kostner notes: "Being on the same e-mail system doesn't make a team. People make a team. Communication makes a team. Trust makes a team." In BIONIC eTeamwork, Kostner includes best practices from SAS Airlines, Dow Chemical, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and more.

BIONIC eTeamwork teaches: the three-step evolution to bionic eteamwork; four key ways to transition your team quickly to bionic eteamwork; best practices for creating trust in teams that communicate virtually; moments of truth to enhance a leader's power to guide behavior from afar; three kinds of emotion that build a sense of team, even from across the globe.

Her main point is: technology without the human element can never reach its potential. But if we merge human priorities with technology, you can achieve the "super" leverage of the bionic. Not all of us will be Steve Austins, obviously, but we can certainly use this book to make our team collaborations much more effective -- faster.

Another significant point is the challenge of speed - how can distance teams work as fast as teams sitting within the same conference room? Dr. Kostner shows how distance teams can achieve at least the same speed of decision making and collaboration as on site groups - and may even work with greater productivity.

Dr. Kostner's style is well paced - she gives down to earth, doable guidance. This is a must read for leaders and team contributors who are looking to up their own ante in terms of their collaboration and team effectiveness.


We have the technology   October 9, 2001
William Pittman (Canton, Ohio)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Dr. Kostner latest book, Bionic eTeamwork is much different from her last one, Knights of a Teleround Table. In the last one she wrote a business novel about King Arthur mentoring someone across time on virtual teams. A quick and entertaining read, it delivered a good message, but lacked the practical application I look for.

In her new book, Bionic eTeamwork, she has abandoned the business novel and gone to telling stories of successful eteams that have really achieved extraordinary results. Her theme is similar (the importance of the human element), but she seems a lot more inclusive of the technology. As she states at the beginning "we have the technology" ala Steve Austin and she goes on to tell us we need to humanize the way we use it.

I'm more of a left brained person so let me tell you what I really like about this book. Whenever I go through a business book I like to highlight it and then I pull all the highlights out and type them out for later review (sort of my own cliffnotes). Almost every page has a a sentence or two of an important statement on the margin in a grey box. Basically she has done it for me. Just by reading this you get the jist of what the message is and after you've read the book, you've got a quick review.

The message is still keep the humanity going, but she has added some features I really found useful. Almost every chapter has one or more summaries entitled "Things you can do today to..." or "eteamwork Checklist." From these we get such suggestions as "Designate a technology champion" to "stop trying to collaborate by e-mail with attachments. Those methods are in the Dark Ages. Get up to speed with Adobe Acrobat Exchange." In summary, you have a quick easy read with a lot of practical advice.