Have you ever been on a team where things just fell apart? Or was dominated by complainers (or worse) or endless, circular talk or caused another risk? Or one person (perhaps you) got stuck doing most of the work? Wouldn’t life be more fun and productive if we understood how to create higher-performing and happier teams? Especially in a convergence culture.

Birds do it. Bees do it and so can we, as collaboration expert, Belfast-based Ken Thompson has proven. His methods have been been successfully use by groups as diverse as the Northern Ireland band Kharma45, a forum of day-traders, a hospital and WIMPS – a countrywide movement to get the youth re-involved in politics. After studying virtual and in-person businesses, teams and other groups, Ken discovered why some succeed and others fail. In fact he’s launched a new program, based on the principles of nature, called Swarm Teams. Consider it the next mobile step after Smart Mobs. You can use it to recruit mobile online groups to promote your cause, or product or community. It’s about turning audiences into communities.

Yet, in this podcast Ken describes the questions and steps he used to get individuals animatedly talking about how they could help each other – thus becoming a team.

Then hear how you can attract avid swarms of support. With Ken’s SwarmTeam technology:

1. Any group member can take the lead (Are you an Alpha Swarmer?)
Any member can broadcast to the group, create their own swarms, invite others to them and create links and content.

2. Integrated Messaging across phone and web
The ability to message every member of your swarm in one click on any device without worrying about how they are connected.

3. Small is Beautiful …..and Big is Powerful
“Swarm Communities” are multiple swarms on common topics of interest providing scale yet maintaining the small group dynamic.

4. You can reach the many through the few
Engage individuals within their communities via their trusted relationships.

Even when injured, Cody McKibben was a steadfast, creative and savvy teammate to launch this blog with his elegant design (thank you, again Cody!) so, from first-hand experience I recommend his insights on the power of teams and mastermind groups. I found his post via one of my heroines, Penelope Trunk who thinks us boomers stink at being team members.