Tips and Tools

Collaborative Alliances

The OCP publishes a series of practical articles written and/or adapted for the CGIAR entitled "Tips and Tools Series on Collaborative Alliances".

Our newest edition is "Tips and Tools Series: Collaborative Alliances. Strengthening Virtual Collaboration and Teamwork, Series #4".

Teams and partnerships are cornerstones for the CGIAR. Given the complexity of problems being addressed and thus the need to draw expertise from across many disciplines, Centers are relying more and more upon research teams and less and less upon individual researchers. Whether working on a multi-disciplinary research project in a single Center or a system-wide initiative involving several, teams hold great promise while also facing significant challenges.

For example, members of these scientific research teams are typically posted around the world, scattered across numerous time zones and representing different cultures. To complicate matters, team members may see each other face to face only once or twice a year, relying heavily upon email and telephone for their primary communication.

Another challenge for these teams arises when highly qualified scientists, who may nonetheless have little training or experience in leadership and management, suddenly find themselves leading these virtual teams and having to manage tasks and team dynamics from afar.

The purpose of the guidebook is to provide team leaders and members with practical tools and concepts to help them work together as effective virtual teams. Specifically, this guidebook -

" Reviews the critical success factors for all teams and identifies what is unique and important for virtual teams.
" Outlines the team start-up process including working agreements, leader responsibilities, and technology audits.
" Explores team leadership styles and responsibilities, highlighting the unique demands in leading a virtual team.
" Provides tips for facilitating virtual meetings.
" Explains the stages of team formation and what leaders and members can expect in each of the stages.
" Provides a trouble-shooting guide that will help diagnosis problems and identify possible interventions.
" Discusses the significant benefits and opportunities for diverse teams and ways team leaders and members can leverage that diversity to increase innovation and creativity.

Throughout the guidebook, we use a rigorous definition of team while realizing that some groups will not conform to a definition this narrow. We believe, however, that the tips and tools provided in this guidebook can be very useful and relevant to virtual working groups and others working in geographically dispersed collaborative relationships.

Because the information and knowledge on leading and managing teams cannot reasonably be presented in a single guidebook, our approach has been to present an overview of key concepts and to highlight what is unique for virtual teams. Thus, we have pulled from and referred to many different publications that we believe provide a much greater in-depth discussion and guidance on teams. These are listed at the end of each chapter. 

Click on the title to download the Tips and Tools article.

  1. Starting and Maintaining Effective Teams: A Guidebook for the CGIAR
    This Guidebook is intended to offer simple tips and tools you can use, with minimal time investment, to establish or fine-tune your team's performance. If you are a team leader, this guide can serve as a starter kit to get your team off on the right foot as well as a map to keep your team on track. For team members, it can provide concrete ideas on how to most effectively participate in and contribute to the overall effectiveness of your team.
  2. Practical Considerations for Forming Partnerships
    Now, more than ever, the skills and resources many organizations need for their survival are found in partnerships with others. For an organization to realize the full potential of partnerships, it must be skilled not only at finding and selecting partners, but also at forming and managing the partnership. This handbook provides valuable information on characteristics of successful partnerships, sample assessment inventories, and questions to help you determine whether your organization is ready to engage in a partnership.
  3. Partnership Self-Assessment Tool
    This document draws from the literature to develop a framework for successful partnerships and explains the elements essential to success. It provides a self-assessment inventory that can be used by an intact partnership to look at areas of strength and weakness.
  4. Developing and Managing Collaborative Alliances: Lessons from a Review of the Literature
    This document was the first to summarize the diverse literature on strategic alliances and inter-organizational collaboration, giving particular emphasis to collaborative R & D. It has been used as background reading for the CGIAR course on Leading and Managing for Collaborative Advantage.
  5. Team Rewards and Incentives: Lessons from the Literature
    Trying to remain competitive in today's rapidly changing environments, organizations are scrambling to become more flexible and nimble in work structures; respond more quickly both to innovations and to demands from clients; keep costs down and do more with less; and solve complex problems that often cross functional and technical areas of expertise. Some companies are addressing these challenges through the use of teams. This publication will explain enhanced performance management and team rewards as documented in the latest literature.
  6. Strengthening Virtual Collaboration and Teamwork
    Teams and partnerships are cornerstones for the CGIAR.  Whether working on a multi-disciplinary research project in a single Center or a system-wide initiative involving several, teams hold great promise while also facing significant challenges. Members of these scientific research teams are typically posted around the world, scattered across numerous time zones and representing different cultures. To complicate matters, team members may see each other face to face only once or twice a year, relying heavily upon email and telephone for their primary communication.  The purpose of the guidebook is to provide team leaders and members with practical tools and concepts to help them work together as effective virtual teams.