I just finished reading an interesting story on cubicle culture and teams. They gave some interesting explanations on why teams just don't work.

Naturally, we are all familiar with the committee process... a bunch of people sit in a room, hoping to get something done, but just wind up bickering. Politics rears its ugly head, people attempt to sound smart to impress peers and supervisors, good ideas from the grumpy guy are shot down, bad ideas from the lackey are promoted... and in the end it was pointless because the boss made the decision an hour ago.

Apparently a successful meeting is all about rules. You need a facilitator. You need people to contribute ideas without fear of retribution or ridicule. There must be follow-up on all good ideas, otherwise people feel the entire process is a waste. You need to guide the team to be a wise crowd, and not a dumb committee.

I guess the ideal collaboration software system will have to totally break the mold. These days people are all fussing about video conferencing, web conferencing, and making you feel like you're in a meeting.

Bad move.

Instead, we should be analyzing people to learn what makes a good meeting work, and coding those rules into software. Strongly encourage people to follow these rules... even in a face-to-face meeting.

Of course, that's a lot harder to write than a team wiki or a project blog... but it has a ton more value.