Being Effective

1

• Being Effective
• Online
• - essential to the success of DGXIII/C1

Horace Mitchell European Telework Development
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Being effective Online

• Introductions
• What does it mean?
• Four elements
• Good practice
• C1 and NMW Cluster - setting the standard
• Next steps

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Introductions

• Your use of/view of email
• as a recipient
• as a personal communications tool
• Your use/view of the web
• as a passive user (searching etc)
• as an active user (publishing and sharing)
• Your use of/view of online discussion
• Your experience of online announcements

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Our experience

• Great - wonderful - positive - problem free ?
• OK, but . . . ?
• Mixed blessing . . . ?
• Pain in the fundament . . . ?

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• Optimum to aim for is OK, but . . .
• Most peoples experience is Mixed blessing
• For many (especially inside large organisations)
  it is Pain in the fundament
• . . . . . but why?

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Being effective Online what it means

• Personally
• being in control
• being an active user (web, email, discussion)
• understanding and using leverage
• understanding and avoiding pitfalls

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Being effective Online what it means

• For an organisation/team/project
• knowing why
• realisable goals
• building it into the way we work
• consensus as to practice, methods
• personal ownership by all

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Four elements of an effective online presence

• Effective website
• Effective outreach to people you want to reach
• (and effective handling of others!)
• Being in touch with what is happening relevant
  to your interests
• Effectively handling email
• (without it taking over)

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Effective websites 1 - your own

• Do you proudly point people to it?
• Can you add and change items readily and easily?
• Do you know who is using your part of it and how
  they are using it?
• Do you regularly get useful contacts and inputs
  as a direct result of it?
• Do you know who links (points) to it and are you
  in contact with them?

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Effective websites 2 - projects

• Do you use it? Do you point others towards it?
• Does it tell you what you want to know?
• Is it alive and changing/evolving?
• Does it provide ways to contact the project?
• How is it contributing to project goals?
• How is it contributing to/paving the way for
  exploitation?
• Is it linked effectively with other relevant
  sites?
• Does it actively seek feedback?

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Effective outreach Online

• Web site visits (hits, pages, download volume)
• Web site users (return visits, frequency, dwell)
• Feedback facility/facilities
• Community of interest facility/facilities
• Inward links - number, range, prominence
• Outward and collaborative links
• e-mailing announcement list(s) - own/others
• Active participation in relevant fora

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Effective outreach Online

• None of the initial NMW cluster of projects
  scores well on all aspects (but some good
  efforts)
• Most score very low on most aspects
• Some are unaware of their own online presence
• Many have sites that communicate negative
  messages about the project - and therefore about
  ACTS/Esprit/TAP/IST/NMW
• Little evidence that project managers and
  participants see online presence as relevant to
  their work and success

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• Project websites
• communicate negative messages
• about the project
• and therefore about ACTS/Esprit/TAP
• and about IST/NMW

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• This is not acceptable in the IST programme/era
• Where is the responsibility in FP5?
• Where is the responsibility in IST?
• Where will leadership come from?

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Being in touch . . .

• We already have information overload
• The market is seeking to add to this -
  and succeeding!
• But
• Are we fully in touch with what we need to know?
• Are we using the technology effectively to sort
  the wheat from the chaff?
• Do we have/are we developing personal/team coping
  mechanisms or just managing through?

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Being in touch . . .

• Appropriate combination of technology, team
  mechanisms and personal networking/networks
• Technology can now do a lot, but it takes effort
  to make it work effectively for yourself/your
  team
• Team mechanisms means sharing the effort and
  optimising time and skills - needs focus and
  effort
• Personal networks provide personal leverage

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Being in touch . . .

• The effort to develop and maintain these coping
  mechanisms will be amply rewarded
• In the team it needs someone to take team
  responsibility - it wont just happen
• Results will be clearly visible - within the
  team, within IST and the Commission, to the
  projects, and to the outside world
• Few organisations have really invested in this -
  and it works best in small teams!

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Handling the mail . . .

• Personal mechanisms
• mail filtering and sorting
• multiple addresses
• forum/list traffic
• Team mechanisms
• team addresses, eg nmw_at_dg13.cec.be
• topic addresses, eg cluster_at_dg13.cec.be
• project address, eg audis_at_dg13.cec.be
• autoresponse, redirect
• online forms à database autoresponse

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• Example of team/topic address techniques
• mailto cluster_at_dg13.cec.be
• received by several people
• head of section responsible for clustering
  activities (a)
• officer responsible for professional work on
  clustering (b)
• support person assisting head of section (c)
• support person assisting officer (d)
• support person (c) reads all mail and answers
  most
• refers exceptions to officer (b)
• others use filtering to store messages (not
  cluttering in-basket)
• all have access and audit trail
• if appropriate, messages archived for wider/later
  access

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Good practice (team/projects)

• Websites
• whole team is actively engaged
• each person owns some aspect/pages
• anyone who writes and reads own email can also
  write own web page
• Active communications
• effective use of lists and fora
• two way feedback through website
• Online fora
• discussion is actively post-moderated
• notices are pre-moderated

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C1 setting the standard

• New Methods of Work means
• mastery of current tools
• expertise in current good practice
• Effectiveness online will
• contribute to the success of C1/NMW
• make life easier for C1 team
• energise projects and cluster
• The opportunity is there - to be world class
  and to be seen to be world class

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Follow up suggestions

• Appoint someone to lead a C1 effectiveness
  online activity
• Appoint a team webmaster
• Establish goals and priorities
• Set up basic internal/external mechanisms
• Get help to ensure each individual is up to speed
  with the basics
• Arrange for regular critical/helpful
  confidential review using external expertise

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Follow up suggestions

• Focused effort by team (and especially project
  officers) to stimulate/encourage/support online
  effectiveness among the NMW cluster of projects
• Know and use the online mechanisms
• Institute online effectiveness metrics and
  feedback (easy, low overhead, effective)
• Make the NMW cluster an exemplar
• Deliver solid benefits for projects and
  participants

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Being effective Online
A generalised version of this presentation,
together with supporting commentary and links, is
online at
European Telework Online http//www.eto.org.uk (et
o-info_at_eto.org.uk)
Horace Mitchell horace_at_mta.I-way.co.uk