Download - Effective Communication With Virtual Teams
WELCOME TO
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
WITH VIRTUAL TEAMS
Created by Aly Anliker and Rachelle Jacover
Agenda
• Welcome and Introductions
• Virtual Teams Overview
• Challenges
• Solutions
• Wrap-Up
Objectives
At the end of this session you will:
• Identify your virtual team challenges
• Implement a strategy for conducting virtual meetings
• Use resources to explore next steps for virtual communications
Virtual Team Definition
Individuals pulled together from various locations to serve on a group to achieve some important, urgent and specific objective such as:
• planning and/or launching event
• designing and/or running new program or initiative
• developing and/or testing new product
• running major campaign
• designing and/or implementing improved business processes
• planning and/or executing change management
• regular team meetings
Virtual Team Characteristics
What are some of the characteristics of virtual teams?
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Virtual Team Characteristics
• A collection of geographically distributed, functionally and/or culturally diverse entities
• Linked by electronic forms of communication
• Assembled and disassembled according to need
• Different work shifts or time zones
• Collaborative network of people working together, regardless of location or who "owns" them
Virtual Teams – Observations
• 41 million corporate employees worldwide work virtually one day per week and are likely to be part of a virtual team – Gartner Group
• 36% of virtual team members have never met their team members face to face
• 65% of virtual team members report they have never had an effective team-building session
• Productivity drops over time - virtual teams operating 1- 3 years are much less likely to be high performing teams compared to teams that had been together 6 to 12 months.
• In general, management still has an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” mentality when it comes to paying attention to virtual teams and giving them the support and resources they need to be successful.
Virtual Communication Challenges
• Leadership
• Team Development
• Technology
Leadership Challenges
• Underestimating impact leaders have on success of virtual team
• Manage expectations by clearly establishing and maintaining ground rules and assumptions
• Establishing and aligning team and corporate goals/objectives
• Importance of using tools to communicate effectively in a virtual meeting environment
Leadership Challenges
• Recruiting, introducing and including new members
• Assigning personnel with skills necessary to lead or participate on virtual teams
• Recognizing the importance of preparing and training people to be part of virtual teams
• Measuring, motivating and tracking progress of team
• Performance Evaluation - Developing performance objectives and expectations for team members
Team Challenges - Stages of Teams
Tuckman (1965) discovered that teams normally go through five stages of growth:
•Forming
•Storming
•Norming
•Performing
•Adjourning
Team Challenges• Retaining productivity, peak performance and
enthusiasm over time
• Establishing and developing a foundation for collaboration and relationship building
• On-going team building
• Accountability issues where the team find it much easier to break virtual commitments than verbal ones
Team Challenges
• Dealing with communication issues like culture, language, learning styles
• Not being face to face creates unique challenges and difficulties in managing the involvement, commitment and trust building of a team
Technology Challenges
Rapidly accelerating business environment with the “do it now” business culture
+Complexities in Virtually Networked Teams (Virtual, Network and Technology Factors)
=Getting things done is all that more difficult
Learning how to use technology to foster collaboration and effective meeting processes
Technology Challenges
Technology Challenges
• Introducing and using new technology –making it work for the team – can be difficult to adopt
• Accurately confirming and recording meeting agreements, next steps and ownership
• Technology problems can derail or distract meetings
Leadership Solutions
• Conduct initial meetings to establish team process
• Learn about new team members, share their information or ask them to share their background with team
• Virtual meeting to focus on how team work aligns with corporate goals and objectives
• Onboarding employee to virtual environment – find buddy or mentor
• Ask team members to lead a meeting or take a topic of the meeting
• Share copies of presentation, agenda
• Decide on roles, note taker, time keeper, etc.
Team Solutions• Set guidelines\meeting protocols with teams participation
• Create team notes – disband with action items and persons responsible, share with team
• Rules when team member can’t meet commitment, ask “how can team help”
• Round Robin – Make sure you have heard from everyone at least once during meeting
• May need to coach a member offline
Technology Solutions
• Provide different ways participants can use tools, raise hand, type on slide, chat
• Initial meeting to teach tools and application. Provide tutorial, training or mentor
• Ask team member with technical challenges to just listen in. Troubleshoot later. Provide a copy of the presentation beforehand
• Manager\Facilitator use tools, games, polls, visuals
• Keep virtual meetings to an hour or less
Meeting Tools
• Webex
• Microsoft Live Meeting
• Elluminate
• Adobe Connect
• GoTo Meeting
Interactive Meetings
• Raise Hand Feature
• Chat Feature
• Use Annotation Tools
• Allow team to see who is attending, gives sense of team
• Participation is key!
Sample Team Meeting Guidelines
• Quick check in
• Contribute 1 idea per meeting
• Assume positive intent
• Identify problems and focus on solutions
• Make sure objectives are realistic in scope
• Keep to timelines
• Leave with next steps and task assignments
• Expect work outside meeting via sub groups and task forces
Summary
• Most teams are virtual in some way in our world today
• There are some similarities in team dynamics and challenges between virtual and face to face teams
• Skills needed for virtual teaming are different than face to face teams
• Focus on People first: Continue to “learn” about others and how they learn
• Focus on Technology second: Continue to embrace technology as a resource
• Focus on accountability and team engagement
Resources• The Gartner Group
http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp
• Quality Digest – Leading Virtual Teams
http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/teams.html
• Information & Management Best Practices Study on Virtual Teams – PDF
• Tuckman, Bruce (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups
• Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams, Nemiro, et al
Thank You!
503-891-1108Strategies for Success and Working Creatively