Virtual Teams Are a "Virtual Reality" for Businesses

• Reducing costs—by reducing travel cost and time and designing better digitally enhanced processes.
  • Shortening cycle time—by moving from serial to parallel processes, establishing better communications and more widespread trust.
• Increasing innovation—by permitting more diverse participation, stimulating product and process creativity, and encouraging new business development synergies.
• Leveraging learning—by capturing knowledge in the natural course of doing the work, gaining wider access to expertise, and sharing excellent practices.

Challenges Presented by Virtual Teams

• Keeping people “in touch” without daily face-to-face contact
• Managing cultural differences that are “virtually” guaranteed
• Working with time shifts and extra long days
• Establishing communication norms to reduce frequent misunderstandings
• Maintaining trust without formal socializing
• Learning new tools and managing the overhead associated with them
• Navigating your way without any existing blueprint
• Inventing a new field/style of leadership “on the fly”
• People are not likely to collaborate if they are more than 50 feet apart (from a study by MIT Professor Tom Allen)

Common Virtual Team Problems and How to Avoid/Solve Them

Problem: Being clear about the project goals and outcomes and “where we are.”
Solution: Set clear goals, mission, and time frame; develop communication plan and use shared workspace for updates.

Problem: Misunderstanding around individuals’ responsibilities and rights.
Solution: Make written agreements and establish clear relationships and network map.

Problem: Deciding and understanding how decisions are made.
Solution: Discuss different types of decision making and identify which you are using at each stage.

Problem: Managing conflict.
Solution: Get it out as fast as possible; pair people with differing opinions to work on a nonconflictual task.

Problem: Evaluating team and member performance.
Solution: Set realistic recognition and reward structures that acknowledge individual and group contribution; include all involved in the evaluation—beyond 360, meaning adding other circles of those who are involved on a part-time basis.

Problem: Lack of motivation.
Solution: Establish an identity; celebrate milestones.

Problem: Cultural misunderstandings.
Solution: Invest in cultural understanding work and have noninvolved party serve as facilitators when misunderstandings occur; visit other cultures either in person or virtually; encourage lots of intercultural, nonwork-related interaction.

Problem: Time shifts and long days.
Solution:  Be aware of everybody’s location and try to rotate times.

Problem: Lack of trust/candor.
Solution: Devote time to understand what builds trust and how destructive hiding things can be; encourage building of dense social networks.

Problem: Losing documents or having wrong versions
Solution: Use shared teamspace and develop document-naming conventions.

Problem: Long, boring conference calls.
Solution: Avoid status updates; ask high-energy questions; use teleconferencing or web conferencing where possible. Limit calls to 90 minutes.

Problem: Learning new tools.
Solution: Create guidelines for using new technologies.

Best Practices for Leading Virtual and Remote Teams

• Meetings
  • Always supply participants with an agenda.
  • Avoid status reporting during meetings.
  • Use Web collaboration/conferencing applications and screen sharing so everyone has access to the same information.
  • Rotate facilitator, note taker, timekeeper, and telephone buddies.
  • Keep notes and display them.
  • Have all participants check in and check out.
  • Get voices in the room with unexpected query.
  • Say your name each time you speak.
  • Generate heat: discuss, disagree, decide.
  
  
• Hiring and Management
  • Hold periodic face-to-face meetings (to build trust and review roles).
  • Regularly communicate each person’s role and business objectives.
  • Ensure that team members are comfortable using technologies.
  • Use simple and clear language.
  • Provide criticism in private but announce successes loudly.
  • Ensure that all team members are committed to the same goals.
  • Select a well-qualified team and leader.
  • Ensure commitment to the project by all members.
  • Define the project process/flow (including deliverables, defined milestones for tracking progress, systematic process).
  • Treat every person as an equal member of the team (regardless of employee/consultant/contractor status).

Managing virtual teams requires a new mind set and a specific rule set. Companies that don’t embrace this new reality may be at great risk. Linda Barrington, Research Director and Labor Economist at The Conference Board, warns: “The issue of whether or not to allow employees to work at a distance is no longer a cost benefit issue—it is simply the reality of doing business. And effective management of dispersed employees is a key to success in that new reality.”