Dilbert is always nice. On Oct 17th 2011, the comic strip was about building a 5-year technology plan for the CEO.

How is technology evolving in your team nowadays?

What triggers new technology to be selected for a proof of concept, for some sort of research or even for an internal project?

Here are some options you can think about:

• Presentation events: build a morning or a night to get the team together and have lightning talks, 5-10 min talks about technology, management, out-of-box-thinking, things that can spark, trigger new directions to the team. Examples are TED talks or Desconf (in portuguese – this is an initiative I help).
• Coding Dojos: having a regular coding dojo agenda, can help the team to practice their programming skills, try different languages and frameworks. With this, new ideas will come up eventually and there you go, more options to use inside the team. You will also work on pairing skills, test automation skills and will find a better team integration.
• Hackatons: Think about initiatives like Rails Rumble or Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK). Think about days where people get together to solve a problem, trying some engagement in the local community.
• Blogs: tell people what are you learning and share knowledge. Telling what your team is trying, without violating some internal rule with the company. Creative Commons content. You will probably show something that is already online, but making it easy for someone else to find and use the documentation.
• Yammer or other internal social network like Chatter: show what are you doing internally. Motivate others. Create some groups where people with same interest can share ideias and promote. Create a more online and active team sharing what’s happening. It’s a way between IM (sync) and e-mail (async) communication. And a form of communication where you want to be short and concise.