Oh sure, everyone loves it when a plan comes together.

With successful collaborations, the rewards are great, the high-fives and back-pats are plentiful, and you can go to sleep at night knowing that your team did a fantastic job.

But then there are the times when, in spite of valiant efforts, an attempt at teamwork goes down the toilet. Take a look at some of these famous failed collaborations, and the lessons we can learn from them.

Learning from others can help you get to where you want to go. I know this is true for our team.

Imagine trying to drive to a new destination without a GPS system today. You just might get lost. Now, you can thank others for figuring out the shortest and/or easiest route to get where you want to go (so you don’t have to pull out the old paper map).
By learning from others lessons, you can save loads of time.

During this time of year, we often reflect on what we have learned. And at Teambox, we have learned a great deal from our customers. So, we would like to thank our users who help us and you take online collaboration and project management to new heights.

Check out these lessons. Here’s to a productive 2014!

Together, teams can do incredible things! Check out these motivating quotes from world leaders, coaches, inventors and more on the power of collaboration.

Recently, we reached out to the author of an insightful new collaboration book – Creative Conspiracy: The Rules of Breakthrough Collaboration. The author, Professor Leigh Thompson, is the the J. Jay Gerber Professor of Dispute Resolution & Organizations in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Her work has been referenced by NBC News, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and many others.

Creative Conspiracy provides groundbreaking insight into the world of creative collaboration. In her book, she dispels many commonly held beliefs about creative teams. According to Dr. Thompson, collaboration that is planned and focused on creating new ideas produces excitement and builds a “creative conspiracy” within your team.

Professor Thompson was kind enough to share a few excerpts from her book. Check out this sneak peek into breakthrough collaboration.

Gantt charts facilitate collaboration. Everyone sees the same plan and has a common understanding of what needs to be done to accomplish the goal.

Last month, we interviewed the team at Pyrrhic Studios on how they are utilizing our project management software in an industry (mobile app development) with a lot of moving pieces.

Pyrrhic Studios is a startup video game developer focused on mobile apps. Their development team is based out of three different countries, with the closest team members living over 1000 miles from each other. Their biggest challenge – managing their virtual team who are spread across the globe.

Check out their story.

This was no time for play.

This was no time for fun.

This was no time for games.

There was work to be done.

— From Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back”

Is your team feeling a bit like Sallie and her brother shoveling mountains of snow with no end in sight? Maybe so. Are they chugging along? That’s good.

Maybe the team needs to get to know one another better. Maybe an issue arose that needs to be highlighted and resolved in a clever manner. You may say ‘ok’ but what do you do? Be the Cat! But, instead of unleashing “Little Cats A-Z,” you should pull out a timely and appropriate team building activity.