Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Teamwork and Collaboration

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Monday 12th March 2012

• Explorations in Corporate Zoology

  by Tim Hwang

  Normally, we think about businesses as a mere collection of people working together. But, organizations also collectively act as a unit, facing the needs of survival and competing with others for resources. To that end, could we think about corporations and organizations as a unique sort of living, breathing species onto itself?

  This talk explores the latest research in the field of “corporate zoology,” which brings evolutionary theory and ecological science to better understand how businesses evolve and interact with one another. We’ll delve into efforts by corporate naturalists to understand how different businesses evolve adaptations over time in the form of departments, professionalization, and the pattern of investment. It will also explore the insights emerging from the assembly of a comprehensive “animal kingdom” classification for businesses.

  It’s going to be Jacques Cousteau meets the Wall Street Journal. Dawkins meets Microsoft. Darwin meets Enron. It’s going to be awesome.

  • Business
  • Collaboration
  • Teamwork

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Monday 12th March

  In Salon C, Hilton Austin Downtown

  Coverage audio clip

• Credit vs. Collaboration: The Organization Divide

  by Azher Ahmed and Jonathan Sackett

  There's a stark contrast between “owning” an idea versus collaborating in an open structure. It's often the root of the divide between “traditional” and “digital/new media” people. Because good ideas evolve into better ideas through collaboration and open input, organizations that can effectively bridge these camps are the ones that will survive. Let’s Kumbaya with Azher Ahmed, SVP Director of Digital Operations and Jonathan Sackett, Managing Director and CDO of DDB Chicago.

  • Collaboration
  • Ideas
  • Teamwork

  At 11:00am to 12:00pm, Monday 12th March

  In Assembly Room, InterContinental Stephen F. Austin

Tuesday 13th March 2012

• Health As a Team Sport

  by Ahmed Calvo, Mei Lin Fung, Brian McCarty and Lisa Lott

  Initiated by the US Air Force Medical Services, the Federal Health Futures Group has brought together the Surgeons General of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States, the Veteran’s Administration and many departments within the Health and Human Services Agency to identify ways in which Health and Health outcomes can be dramatically improved. In exploring the idea of "Health as a Team Sport," members of the Health Futures Group joined forces with game designers to explore games that can help improve public health and create the environment within which individuals can thrive in good times and bad.

  Multiple dimensions were explored.

  At the individual level: Getting more exercise, improving diet, dealing with illness, preventing disease, recovering from trauma and illness.

  At the team level: Coaching groups of health professionals to work together amongst themselves to increase health, recovery, thriving.

  In the community: In improving teamwork and collaboration between the formal healthcare and the informal family and friend networks.

  At the government level: to improve the impact and effectiveness of policy, research and regulation.

  This interactive panel will include a thorough discussion of the games designed to meet these challenges, the results obtained thus far, and identify specific future steps that the panelists could take to better leverage games in improving Health outcomes.

  • Collaboration
  • Health
  • Military
  • Teamwork

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Tuesday 13th March

  In Classroom 204, AT&T Conference Center