Collaborating with difficult people
(Listen to my podcast)
The workplace draws all sorts of personalities, and in fact, some folks can be torture to work with, even though they can be downright great at what they do. And since the days of looking out only for yourself have passed, you must collaborate in order to get things done.
Luckily for all of us, several Office programs offer terrific ways to work around the issue of wanting to avoid stress yet manage to get the job done with a barely a scrape on you.
(To read more in-depth information about each topic, check out my column Collaborate with difficult people the Crabby way.)
SharePoint
Goal: Squeeze the most work out of our difficult coworkers as possible with the least amount of distress.
Solution: SharePoint Meeting Workspaces and Document Workspaces.
Result: All parties have access to agendas, documents and meeting notes, as well as the most recent version of the project they’re working on. And they’re not even breathing the same air.
OneNote
Goal: Work on the same notes together even when you’re not in the same room (or continent).
Solution: Shared notebooks and note-taking sessions.
Result: You stay on your side of the fence, and they stay on theirs. But everyone shares each others’ ideas by writing, typing, or drawing.
Live Meeting
Goal: Present and share your ideas with everyone in separate corners (of the globe…).
Solution: Web conferencing.
Result: Ideas are presented, thoughts are shared, participation abounds.
Other ideas…
There are many more ways to keep a working relationship alive and well while avoiding being cast in others' workplace soap operas (for example, take a look at Doug's demo about how he uses Office Live).
What are some of yours???
Collaborate with difficult people the Crabby way
— "The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials." — Chinese proverb
— Crabby
