President Obama’s State of the Union address last week set the tone for an ambitious second term. In the speech the President committed to push for modernizing the United States energy infrastructure, helping to deliver a clean energy future and safeguarding the environment for future generations.

Photo Credit: West Virginia University

With rapidly increasing production of natural gas and tight oil, the United States and North America are quickly becoming the most critical driver in the world of oil and natural gas production. So much capacity is being added in the Americas that Hart Energy refining expert Terry Higgins stated, “The rapid growth of oil and natural gas production in the Untied States will have a major impact on the world’s petroleum marketplace.” He also added, “The shift will allow the United States to surpass Saudi Arabia’s production, cause OPEC to lose market share and make the United States the world’s No. 1 producer of petroleum liquids.” That is alofty goal when you consider Saudi Arabia currently has a daily production of 10,846,107.17 bbl/day.

Businesses are constantly striving to increase efficiency. As a result, employees are continually being asked to accomplish more with less, making collaboration even more essential to meeting deadlines. Due to its importance, collaboration has become a highly sought-after skill. If better understood, collaboration makes each employee even more valuable to the organization. Merriam-Webster defines collaboration as, working jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor. I prefer a simplified working definition. Collaboration is working together to make possible something which cannot be accomplished alone. Everyday both at work and home, benefit can be gained from learning to collaborate more efficiently. Take for instance an Amish Barn raising. A barn is not the most complicated structure, but the sheer size of the project can be daunting if undertaken by one person. Building the barn with only one man would take many hours. Or if there are many men the same work can be divided and completed much faster. Since collaboration is about completing a project more efficiently, here are a few simple steps that we can derive from a barn raising that can help you collaborate on your next project. Always define your objective. Without a target a collaborative project may wonder endlessly trying to find focus. Set a goal. With a time frame in mind tasks will stay on target and the result will be the success of the overall project. Define the roles of each team member. Clear roles that cover each area of a project are essential. Know how you will communicate. Where and how you will compile the work and if an issue is discovered how you will inform other team members? Use technology when possible. Deploying an electronic system like geoAMPS that tracks progress, keeps document versions and logs the task complete can make a huge difference in performance. Monitor performance. Use a management system to keep the project team well informed. This enables road blocks to be dealt with faster and issues to be avoided that delay results. Agile is a good system. Collaboration is a great tool that is beneficial to any project when managed effectively. The simple steps listed above will help make a collaborative project run smoother both in the office and at home. If you have any insight on how to make this simple outline better or if you have an experience with a collaborative project you care to share, please do so in the below comment box.

geoAMPS is pleased to announce that the User Forum on our website is now open for current geoAMPS clients. This is an excellent opportunity for industry professionals to engage in dialogue, share business stories, industry trends and geoAMPS product ideas. The geoAMPS Team appreciates feedback from our users. To show our appreciation we are giving away $25 gift cards to the first 40 Forum users who signup and interact on the new Forum. We gain their unique perspective on industry concerns and experiences with geoAMPS products. This Forum is an excellent place to share ideas, stories and insights. geoAMPS Forum is reserved for current geoAMPS application users and is protected with a login. It is important to note that geoAMPS Forum should be treated like any other social media channel. Even though secure, members from different organizations who use geoAMPS products will be able to see posts in the questions and discussions. To start using the Forum simply follow this link to the Forum Login Page. Once there, new users must request login permission from the Administrator. A geoAMPS product (rowAMPS, altAMPS, etc.) login will NOT work, since the Forum is a separate application for security purposes. To request access, locate the Apply for Membership button. This button will take you through the steps to create a login. Once you have access to the forum we encourage you to share your ideas and to discuss how to make geoAMPS products better for you and your organization. For more detailed information on Forum etiquette, please see the Welcome to geoAMPS Forum post located in the forum questions section.