Group Support Systems Patterns: ThinkLets and Methodologies

Group Support Systems (GSS) emerged as a rich, flexible toolbox for facilitators to help move a group toward a goal. Research shows that groups using GSS can be far more productive than teams using other means to accomplish their tasks. However, experience in the field suggests that organizations do not tend to become selfsustaining with GSS until they incorporate the technology into their daily work practices, in support of mission critical tasks that are conducted over and over again by the practitioners themselves, rather than under the guidance of an outside facilitator. This suggests a new, perhaps higher role for GSS facilitators: to create and leave behind well-crafted, well-tested repeatable processes for others execute on their own.