Virtual teaming has been on radar screen a lot lately. It
was a hot topic at a recent management consulting
conference I attended, and it popped up in the Wall Street
Journal a few weeks later. I'm feeling a little like an
avatar myself these days -- I lead a virtual team,
participate on virtual teams, and advise on virtual teams,
often having little or no personal contact with the other
members.
Virtual teaming has its own challenges, and they grow
bigger when the team is truly global and no matter what
time you meet, one location is in their pajamas.
To my fellow leaders of virtual teams, I salute you and
offer this advice, culled from my own experience and
discussions with people who are in the same boat, either as
leaders of, advisors to, or members of virtual teams.
The easiest mistake to make is to assume that building this
group of individuals into a high-functioning team will take
twice as much effort as it took to build your co-located
team. Try four or five times as much effort, particularly
if the team is global. Plan accordingly.
When team members are far away, everything dysfunctional is
amplified once the honeymoon is over. When something goes
wrong, we're far more likely to assume that the people in
another location are at fault, incompetent, not pulling
their weight, mean-spirited, selfish, back-stabbing, and on
and on.
In these moments, of course, we're fully convinced of how
reasonable, competent, perfectly honest, and apolitical we
and our local team members are. That's why it helps to get
an outside perspective, from someone other than your
spouse, on what's going on and how you might be unwittingly
contributing to the problem.
That's also why it's essential to do whatever you can to
help the team members be with one another in person or at
least feel like they are. Here are some techniques that
have worked:
* Bring the team together in person at least twice a year.
If the team is huge, at least bring the leaders together
twice a year.
* Use a technology that allows you to see one another. The
crème de la crème would be Cisco's new
TelePresence technology, which produces an incredible live
meeting experience, and is just plain cool, but will set
you back about $300,000. Check it out here:
http://cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7060/index.html
Other
options range from webcams and videoconferencing systems to
my personal favorite -- a team found themselves with only
one virtual member who was chronically forgotten and left
out, so they put a web cam and dedicated screen in each
location so everyone could see each other at work. Whenever
he wanted to talk to someone or vice versa, it was as
simple as turning to the screen and saying, "Hey, got a
minute?" A dirt cheap solution for a relatively simple but
important challenge.
* Add a personal aspect to your meetings and web space. One
team opened their early meetings with a "getting to know
you" time. This naturally morphed into a personal space
(nicknamed "Our Virtual Water Cooler") on their shared site
in which one member posted pictures of her new puppy,
another shared photos of his remodeled basement, and a
third shared pix from a recent vacation. The goodwill and
humanity that was built was of great help during bumpy
times.
More tips:
* Involve the team members in "offshore" locations in some
of the more interesting work that's typically reserved for
US, Australian, and European offices. Those of you who have
call centers in India and programmers doing nothing but
legacy systems maintenance in suburban Shanghai have access
to a talent pool that is intellectually outgrowing the
typical offshore responsibilities and may be eager to take
on more. One of my clients tells me he has been doing this
for a while now. He's highly respected for the results he
gets, and he has yet to face political resistance for
making the offshore/onshore boundaries fuzzy.
* I hate to keep pushing my clients' products, but if
you're not using an inexpensive technology like Webex
(http://webex.com) for meetings that involve documents,
you're missing out on an opportunity to maximize shared
understanding and minimize the errors and pointless
arguments that come from only talking with one another
instead of sharing real-time documents.
* When in doubt, first assume your non-local counterparts
are both competent and honest. Assume the best and enter
the conversation from a mutual problem-solving perspective.
Insist that your team do the same.
* Most importantly, whatever you want them to do, also do
it yourself. If you include "getting to know you" time in
your early meetings, but all you share are your career
highlights, there's little hope anyone will know you
better, extend more goodwill your way, or open up so others
get to know them. Likewise, post your own pictures at the
virtual water cooler and others will follow suit.
----------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Selby Long, Founder and Principal of Selby Group,
provides executive coaching and organizational development
services. Jennifer's knack is helping clients navigate the
leadership and organizational challenges triggered by
change and growth. She knows firsthand that great plans
often fail because companies don't take into account the
human factors that come into play when implementing them.
Visit Jennifer at: http://selbygroup.com
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