Fix for Google Calendar Sync Issue

I’ve had a problem with Google Calendar Sync for awhile. While trying to sync my work outlook account to my google calendar account the process seemed to only sync the appointments and not the meetings. I’ve tried multiple things over time to no avail. Today however I found a fix.

Apparently Google Sync needs to resolve the names it finds on your meetings. To do this it tries to access the address list, but does not look in all your sources. So when JohnDoe@mycomany.com sends me an invite Google Sync tries to find Joe in my address book. The problem is Joe is in the company book not my local copy. Since my address book is first in the list, Google doesn’t find Joe there and errors out, thus leaving the invite unsynced.

 

To resolve this you need to set your global address book as the first source for address resolution. In Outlook 2007 go to Tools > Address Book > Tools > Options. Update your outlook settings so the Global list is first. Restart outlook, and perform a Sync. Voila! All your meetings and invites are now loading into Google Calendar

For more details on this fix please check out: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=3f87a989c560e850&hl=en

 

Best of luck, let me know if it worked for you.

Building High Performing Teams

Introduction

Successful teams exhibit elements that can be utilized and fostered by leaders in their own teams to increase performance and collaboration. There are six components leaders should consider when fostering team development. These components include Size, Composition, Governance, Identity, Interaction and Culture. There is not one right composition of these elements rather a unique blending that each group requires to become a high performing team. An example of the impact of these elements can be viewed in the cases of two real teams. The first team, CodeMonkeys, was a software development team assembled to fulfill the coding needs of a major software initiative. The second team, Pixelators, were also software developers but were filing more of a support and maintenance role for a single application. Both of these teams exhibit characteristics from each of the six core elements. The ability of these teams to perform at their maximum was driven by this composition.

Various Elements of Team

Size

The number of members of a team impacts many of the other elements. Smaller teams trend to communicate better and require less governance. Conversely as the size of these teams grows, members tend to collaborate less (Gratton & Erickson, 2007). The Pixelators included 8 core members located in the same office space. The CodeMonkeys on the other hand varied between 30-80 at any given time and were spread between onsite and offshore locations. The smaller Pixelators team clearly collaborated much more frequently than the larger CodeMonkeys team.

Composition

Teams are built for various reasons and those needs dictate the various types of people the team needs. The composition of the teams extends beyond the technical skills of its members and includes some of the softer skills such as managing people and interpersonal communications. When building a team leaders should be mindful of the composition and makeup of the group. The Pixelators was a small team composed of individuals with unique skill sets. At most, two people would be a master of a particular skill. The team also had a breadth of leadership, interpersonal, and management skills to complete the structure. The CodeMonkeys on the other hand was comprised of individuals with similar skills. Members were interchangeable and common. The team lacked a sense of leadership or interpersonal skills and relied solely on the technical makeup to satisfy the needs of the project.

Governance

The governance of teams also varies based on size and makeup. Teams may be managed formally or self-managed. The larger and more sophisticated the monitoring and measurements become the more skilled the managers need to be (Liang, Rajan, & Ray, 2008) which can result in additional levels of skilled resources within the teams. Teams that are able to self govern tend to be given an objective and are able to figure out the means to accomplish it without being told. Managed teams are told not only what the objectives are but how and when to do each component. The CodeMonkeys had many levels of management and tools for tracking performance. The individuals felt no personal empowerment to make decisions on their own. When faced with an unexpected situation members would wait for direction rather than find a solution. The Pixelators represented a rather self directed team structure. While the group had formal management members were given objectives and were able to work out the solutions on their own. This built levels of trust and collaboration within the team making them ultimately more self sufficient.

Interaction

How members of the team communicate and collaborate plays an important role in the ability of the team to succeed. Face to face communication typically provides the best results but various technologies can be utilized to facilitate interactions. It should be noted however that teamwork most successfully occurs after team building, and too often this team building is lacking in online environments (Staggers, Garcia, & Nagelhout, 2008). This can be seen clearly with the CodeMonkey team. This larger group communicated regularly providing status reports and task updates to other members of the team. Little if any team building occurred and interpersonal interactions were minimal. Great distances and cold technology enabled individuals to isolate and function away from the team. The Pixilators worked in close proximity interacting both in person and through technology regularly daily. Team building occurred frequently as members discussed non work events building camaraderie and personal relationships

Identity

In order to build a team the individuals need to feel part of the group. To enable these teams need to be able to demonstrate boundaries of the team versus the rest of the world. This ability to identify the team can be address in multiple ways. Proximity and frequency provide the most straight forward means of designating groups. The closer individuals are to each other, the more likely they are to associate as a group. Additionally the more time these individuals spend together, through technology or in person, the more likely group tendencies will arise. To further enable the team identity leaders should consider a name for the group. Names promote a team atmosphere and support the bonding of a group into a team. The names used here are not the real names for these teams. Leadership however did provide CodeMonkeys with a name for the team. Unfortunately the high rate of turnover, great distances, and lack of interpersonal interactions left the group with a name and no identity. In reality the Pixilators did not have as strong a team name; however the proximity and shared purpose set the group apart as a team with a clear identity.

Ideology

Ultimately individuals bond with others who share similar traits. As teams form they build upon those shared values and ideals. Leaders have traditionally focused on three primary elements of team culture including Norms, Roles, and Goals, however these alone do not provide the means for a group to bond into a team. Norms, the rules and standards the team adopts, Roles each member holds and the Goals the team is working toward can be placed on the team or developed by the team. The CodeMonkeys had volumes of documentation clearly stating the norms of the team, how people should interact, how decisions were made etc. There were also scores of responsibility charts defining roles, and of course the project charter defined the goal. Yet with all these elements readily available none of the members really felt part of that ideal. One might suggest that the team culture needs to be developed and absorbed by the members rather than forced upon by outside entities. The Pixelators had no formal documentation stating role or norms but it was clear overtime that coming late to meetings was not acceptable and certain people were in more leadership positions than others. The team did not have a vision or mission statement but they all shared the same goals and objectives.

Conclusion

These six elements represent areas leadership needs to consider when developing teams. In most cases high performing teams bond on a personal level. Leadership needs to support team development by creating environments and situations with Size, Composition, Governance, Identity, Interaction and Culture that enable individuals to join and create high performing teams.

References

Gratton, L., & Erickson, T. J. (2007, Nov). 8 Ways to Build Collaborative Teams. Harvard Business Review , 85 (11), pp. p100-109.

Liang, P. J., Rajan, M. V., & Ray, K. (2008, May). Optimal Team Size and Monitoring in Organizations. Accounting Review , 83 (3), pp. p789-822.

Staggers, J., Garcia, S., & Nagelhout, E. (2008, Dec). Teamwork Through Team Building: Face-To-Face to Online. Business Communication Quarterly , 71 (4), pp. p472-487.

Give yourself a promotion, no one else will.

Are you happy with your current position in your company? No, what are you doing about it? I hear people complaining way too often that they are unhappy with their work and for whatever reason they put up with it. The overwhelming reason is that people are waiting for someone to pull them up through a corporation. They’re looking for a manager to create a development plan, waiting for an executive to offer them a promotion, waiting for a project manager to ask them to be on the next big project.

No one cares about you

The bottom line is none of this will happen. Sure there are the cases where people are really recognized for the value they provide but it rarely happens. Think about it, if you’re doing a great job in your current role, why would a manger want to pull you out of that roll and put you in something else, she needs a competent person in that roll.

Provide a successor

Sure you may think you have job security being the linchpin in a critical system, but if you’re the only one who can do it there is no way your managers will push to get you on something else. As for a development plan, most development plans are geared toward what the enterprise wants not what you want. If you’re a java developer and you want to be well rounded, ask your manager if you can take a class on C#. Best of luck with that.

Create your own development plan

We’re not talking about a development plan for HR, make one for yourself. Don’t just sit there looking at it, act on it. Truth is if you haven’t learned anything new in the past three months you’re not going anywhere.

Learn something new each quarter

The whole objective is that you need to work for what you want and where you want to be. Point in case, you want your managers job. How willing do you think your boss would be to stepping out of your way. Exactly, your manager has no interest in grooming you for his position. If you see no room for movement within your team look elsewhere.

Find your own path

Better yet move someone out of the position you want. No I’m not talking about hiring a hit man. Pick a position you want and get close to that person. Understand what *they* want from their career and help them get there. Challenge them to be better ask them questions, compliment them in front of key people, help them get where they way to go. If you’ve played your cards right you’ve show you have the skills and have been visible enough to slide right in to the empty chair.

Help your obstacles move

You might find yourself in a place where everyone is very content and no one wants to move anywhere. First be careful you don’t catch what they have. Truth is there is nothing wrong with aspiring to be better than you are. It’s not a sign of weakness, rather is a sign of strength. Sure your developer buddies may laugh that you sound like you want to be a manager, but in five years they’ll still be there doing the same thing, you’ll be bringing in more cash, doing cool new things.

Embrace your dreams, they’re not nightmares

Finally it’s called the corporate ladder for a reason. You need to take the time and effort to climb it. You need to work at it, find resources, look for opportunities, be proactive. If managers and leaders really were to pull you up through the ranks it would be called the corporate elevator. You need to make it happen.

Give yourself that promotion

Social Media Primer

Recently I was asked “OK so what is the different between Twitter, facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Plaxo etc. which one do you think is best?” So here’s a little primer on the various social media and social networking tools available.

First off, what is social media? Wikipedia states “The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.” What does this mean to you? In short it means you can communicate with more people easier. These sites were originally used for entertainment purposes, but have been finding their ways into large enterprises as a core tool in facilitating business. Understanding these is important, not just to keep up with your teenagers, but to keep up with business in the new communication age.

Information and Content:

Our story so far. Email broke on to the scene and invaded businesses. The ability to communicate digitally significantly increased the amount of knowledge and information flowing around the enterprise. Soon we found chat programs such as AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, MSN Chat, and Google talk, which allow individuals to communicate real-time with another party. These two tools ushered in a change from local and national focused groups to a globally centric society. But you know that already. Lets move on to the fun stuff.

Blogs:

Blogs, short for Web Logs, is a sort of online diary of sorts. Originally, only web designers and technical individuals were able to publish content on the Internet for the world to see. Blogging applications opened up the web for everyone. These tools allow anyone with rudimentary computer skills, to simply type and click to post content online with no technical knowledge needed. The Internet saw a huge boom in content. Where once only large news companies could report on events, now anyone with a computer could post their thoughts ideas and information. Blogs are now used on the Internet as professional News tools, personal diaries, and reputable information sources. Companies are also incorporating blogs into their intranets to capture knowledge,manage internal communications, and generate ideas.

RSS:

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. The problem the Internet faced was that to get all the information you wanted you had to go out and find it. Sure you could book mark sites, but still you would have to go to them regularly just to see if there might be new content. RSS offers a way to have content sent to you when it has been updated, similar to how emails show up in your box after someone has hit send. When you sit down to your email program it tells you if there is new mail or not. You don’t need to go to all your contacts and ask if they have new information you should know about. You get it as soon as its ready without having to go look for it. RSS is typically used with a tool called an aggregator. These tools allow you to collect and organize your various RSS feeds and offer a central point to go for all the information you subscribe to. Google Reader is one of the most popular tools and allows online management of your feeds so you can access it from any computer you may be at.

People and Connections:

Business cards, Rolodex, Address books. The problem with these is keeping them updated and fresh. However you use these tools, be it for keeping track of family member addresses,professional networking or even initiating sales calls, making sure the contacts are kept up to date is always challenging.
Plaxo: Years ago Plaxo came on the scene trying to solve this problem. They offered a service where your contacts could come and update their information directly in your address so the information would be kept up to date. The early implementation of this concept was met with mix results. While the concept was interesting, the tools would email all your contacts in your lists asking for updates. People wanted more control, and while it eventually came, users had a bad taste from earlier experiences with Plaxo.

Networking:

Since the dawn of organized commerce, the mantra has been to expand your network. It’s not what you know it’s who you know. Six degrees of separation and more. You’ve heard all this, that’s why we’re members of professional organizations and why we go to conferences, heck that even why we go to lunch with some people at work. So it was no surprise that the Internet would come along to help us network.

LinkedIn: Many services have popped up in this arena. One of Plaxo’s rivals, a company named LinkedIn, came along and cemented itself as *the* directory to be registered in online. LinkedIn provided similar features to Plaxo in that you would register your information and invite people in your lists to join the service, however LinkedIn also spent a lot of time trying to connect people with each other (thus the name LinkedIn). After completing your profile, LinkedIn would suggest some people you might know based on things like your school or workplace. It also cross references the contacts you have to see if maybe your contacts have some people you might know. This ability to find the people you know, coupled with the added privacy and the simple fact that the contact information is very up to date has made LinkedIn a premier tool for managing professional contacts.

Plaxo: Plaxo came back on the scene but more because of the new service offing they added. A feature called Plaxo Pulse was one of the first tools to take full advantage of the emerging Web 2.0 integration that other sites were offering. Plaxo Pulse would give you a centralized view of what all your contacts have been up to recently. Bob, posted a new blog entry, Jane uploaded pictures, Jim updated his position title etc. This was a great feature for helping you stay connected to your network. It makes it easier to say, “Hey Bob, i saw you got promoted from director to VP way to go, how is everything going?” Plaxo even offers birthday reminders based on your contact’s profile. Even if you don’t know when the birthdays are of all the contacts in your list, if they entered it in their profile Plaxo will let you know its coming up. Sending a quick “Happy Birthday” has never been easier.

Facebook and MySpace: These two sites also allow users stay connected but in a more interactive way. As with LinkedIn and Plaxo, MySpace and Facebook start with your profile. Enter in who you are, what you’re interested in and some people you know and you’re off. These sites encourage more real-time contact. If you remember back the chat clients we talked about before required you to be online and in conversation with a person at the same time they were. The new age of communication is asynchronous. People don’t have one conversation at a time and they don’t have conversations at the same time as the person they are conversing with. Sites like facebook allow users to post messages and responses when they have time. Similar to email except that the information is open to the group of friends. Think about an email that has multiple recipients (family), “hey all jimmy has his first girlfriend”. Grandma replies to all, “that’s great”, aunt Becky replies to all at the same time “how sweet”, uncle john replies to all on grandmas email “way to go tiger”. All these people are communicating in their own time and with each other. One problem is this type of communication through email clutters up an inbox and offers a chance to lose a message. If I were to open up Uncle John’s email and saw grandma’s response in there also, that’s great, but I miss Aunt Becky’s response. Doing this online in a site like Facebook or MySpace allows everyone to participate cleanly and in a more organized manner. Yes companies are implementing internal Facebook sites also.

Twitter: This one is a bit harder to explain It’s commonly called micro blogging. The basic premise behind Twitter is that you can post content in 140 character segments. People who follow you will see your updates. This is ll just like blogging. Also as with blogging people can reply to you online for all to see. However it’s much more than blogging with less words. Looking at just the first page of the twitter site you start to see the difference. On the first page it says, “What are you doing?”. So I type “getting ready to head to the bar”. Sure I could do this in a blog but blogs have become more article oriented paragraphs of content. Twitter offers quick updates on the world around you. While twitter has a website where you can manage your updates and track friends, this is more of the old style of information management where you have to go out and get it. Using twitter clients allows you to get a constant feed (similar to RSS) on what your network is up to. many of the tools also enable you to see what everyone is talking about, what trends the masses are focused on.

Technology

Web 2.0: Web 2.0 has many connotations. Simply put however its the idea that sites and services on the Internet should be able to work together, share information and utilize features from other sites rather than having to reinvent the wheel for a great service. What you’ll find now is sites like twitter allow you to post updates into Facebook. You blog can pull Facebook information and display your twitter posts. Plaxo can let you know you contacts updated content on all these sites.

Mobile: As computing becomes ever more mobile, access to the Internet and all this online information becomes much more fluid. People can chat asynchronously via text messages, post pictures on where they are right now. The walls and barriers that kept information isolated are disappearing.

As we see the progression the Internet over time we see that people want to be connected with each other. They want to get and share information. They want to connect with new people. Social Media sites are allowing individuals and organizations the opportunity to share information like never before. Success in the future will be based on your ability to adapt to these changes today. So get out there and create a profile.