maximizing the power of virtual...

Maximizing the Power of Virtual Teams

Lee S. Johnsen, Principal and Founder Partners in Development 889 S. Dwyer Ave. Arlington Heights, IL 60005 PH: 847-255-1031 [email protected] www.partnersindevelopment.net


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http://www.partnersindevelopment.net/


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Thank You! Thank you for joining me for this session. I hope you found it both informative and inspirational. At Partners in Development, we look forward to assisting you and your virtual teams in getting on the fast track to high performance. We can support you by providing tools, assessments, training, and coaching to take your team to the next level. If yours is a new team, we help you get started and on the right path. If you have a team that’s been together for a while, we can help you assess performance and identify strategies and tactics to engage your team members and pull them together.

Contact Us

Contact us today for a free consultation. [email protected] We look forward to creating high performance on your team.

Maximizing the Power of Virtual Teams Lee S. Johnsen, Principal and Founder

PH: 847-255-1031

[email protected]

www.partnersindevelopment.net

Opportunity

By 2015, 40% of the world’s workforce will be remote¹

By 2020, 62% of employees are expected to work in virtual teams²

Leading cross-cultural teams is in the Top 10 of global leadership development competencies³

What is a Virtual Team? A team whose members …

Work remotely or even if in a similar vicinity

Communicate via largely electronic means

Never, or very nearly ever, meet face-to-face

The Issues

Maximizing the Power ofVirtual Teams

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Facilitator:

Lee S. Johnsen

Principal and Founder

Partners in Development

889 S. Dwyer Ave.

Arlington Heights, IL 60005

847-255-1031

What is a virtual team?

A team whose members …

•work remotely, or even if in a similar vicinity

•communicate via largely electronic means.

•never, or very rarely, meet face-to-face

3

The Issues

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We will explore … Opportunities & Challenges Best Practices Performance Improvement Opportunities

Virtual teams are decidedly different from their more traditional counterparts.

Case Study: High Price for Good Intentions

Discussion

What’s the take-away from this story for you?

Lessons Learned

Know your team members

Cultural awareness

Communicate thoughtfully

Build trust

Plan recognition

The Daily News: When Well-Managed… Virtual Teams Outperform

50% Budget performance

80% Satisfaction

93% Innovation

Case Study: High Price for Good Intentions

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Two Great Truths

The greater the spans of time, distance and culture, the more complex it

is for team members to work effectively together.

The more that team members must rely on one another to achieve results, the greater the need for trust and alignment behind team purpose.

Complexity & Reliance of Teams

Complexity = time, distance, technology & cultural differences

Complexity Includes… 1. Physical distance of 2+ countries 2. Times zones 6+ hours apart 3. 2+ national cultures 4. 2+ native languages 5. 2+ different functional areas 6. Differences in access to communication & collaboration technology

Complexity & Reliance of Teams

Reliance = the level of interdependence among team members

Reliance Includes… Team members’ need to … 1. Communicate often to make decisions 2. Rely on others to complete tasks 3. Share documents & information 4. Collaborate on projects 5. Provide information in another language 7. Compensation based on team and individual performance

Virtual Team Types



Poll Which type of team(s) do you lead or are a member?

High Complexity/High Reliance

High Complexity/Low Reliance

Low Complexity/High Reliance

Low Complexity/Low Reliance

How do complexity and reliance impact …

Team leadership?

Building trust?

Productivity?

Decision-making?

Let’s just say it… Leading virtual teams is more complicated and more time consuming that co-located teams.

Virtual Team Leadership

Inconsistent or inappropriate leadership is seen as a serious impediment

to successful teams.

Nearly 2/3 of respondents reported to a high extent, the virtual teams in their organizations suffer from poor leadership.

Leadership Skills

Virtual

Foundational

Best Practices for Team Leadership Plan more time for virtual communications—task-based and people-

based Leverage virtual technology to engage Make the implicit, explicit Create a Team Operating Agreement to specify team work processes Learn about team members and their cultures




Team leadership?

Building trust?

Productivity?

Decision-making?

Building Trust in Virtual Teams

What are ways to build trust when working with people virtually?

Best Practices for Building Trust An initial face-to-face meeting if at all possible

Encourage trust building among team members

Include time for social connections

Understand that trust is viewed differently among cultures

Learn about each team member’s national culture and preferences


Team leadership?

Building trust?

Productivity?

Decision-making?

Poll How do you currently track virtual team performance and productivity? 1. Project management software 2. Written team member progress reports/updates 3. Regular team meetings (virtually) 4. Assessments to obtain team member feedback 5. Don’t have a good way to track If you have other ways that you track performance, please type them into group chat.

Best Practices for Tracking Productivity Differentiate between lead and lag indicators Hold regular one-on-one coaching sessions Periodically have the team assess progress and ways to improve Assess team dynamics and individual contributions Celebrate milestones




Team leadership?

Building trust?

Productivity?

Decision-making?

Discussion What decision-making challenges have you experienced within your virtual team?

Best Practices for Decision-Making 1. Focus members on team purpose & goals

2. Verify each member’s understanding of them

3. Define the processes for making decisions

4. Leverage technology

5. Engage stakeholders before key decisions

In Summary Virtual teams:

Are growing exponentially

Are different

Require additional competencies

In Summary Complexity & Reliance critically impact:

Team leadership

Building trust

Productivity measures

Decision making process

Consequently What are the implications for learning and performance improvement professionals?



My Top Three List 1. Educate yourself about the differences 2. In your organization, understand how virtual teams are used, measure

success, and identify the gaps 3. Develop virtual team leaders and members

Finally In a recent survey, over 73% of virtual team leaders and members have either not received any virtual team training or are not satisfied with what was being covered from training.

Your Turn

Lingering questions

Top take aways

Give Away 1. PDF of the slides today with additional Best Practices

2. “7 Cutting Edge Techniques for Managing the Complexity of Global Virtual Teams”

39

Listen to me!

Facilitator: Lee S. Johnsen Principal and Founder

Partners in Development 889 S. Dwyer Ave.

Arlington Heights, IL 60005 847-255-1031



7 Cutting Edge Techniques to Manage Your Virtual Team By Lee Johnsen, President of Partners in Development If you’ve ever led or been a member of a virtual team, particularly a global virtual team, you understand that leading virtual teams is more challenging and more time consuming than face-to-face teams.

Managing the complexities and differences related to time, distance, culture, and technology are enough to leave any leader wondering if virtual teams are as effective as face-to-face teams. Indeed, research supports that virtual teams face significantly more hurdles than co-located teams.

Yet, when “virtual distance” is well-managed and appropriate processes are in place, virtual teams:

can significantly outperform their co-located counterparts

significantly raise levels of innovation, job satisfaction, and on-time, on budget performance

offer tremendous opportunities Unfortunately, many leaders aren’t prepared to deal with the unique complexities and reliance issues that impact these teams’ ability to achieve their goals.

Virtual Team Complexity describes

the interactions of differences in time zones, national cultures, physical distance, and access to communication/collaboration technology. The larger these differences among members, the more complex it is for the team to perform well. These complexities highly influence the way team members communicate, build relationships, and accomplish tasks.

Virtual Team Reliance refers to the

level of interdependence among team members to accomplish team goals. The more team members must rely on one another to complete their tasks, the higher the degree of reliance. Team member reliance influences the frequency and nature of communications, levels of trust, decision making, and conflict resolution.

The fact is leading virtual teams is more challenging and

more time-consuming than leading face-to-face teams.

Virtual Team Types

High Complexity

Low Reliance

High Complexity

High Reliance

Low Complexity

Low Reliance

Low Complexity

High Reliance

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5

4

3

2

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Co

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lexit

y

Reliance

Global product

development teams Global sales teams;

nonprofit teams

Customer service team

with shared goals

HR Generalists serving

different customers

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Why is This Important to Know? The structure of virtual teams has a huge impact on members and their leaders for developing trust and alignment behind the team's vision. Knowing the complexity and reliance of their virtual team, enables leaders to channel leadership and management practices to focus team members on the most essential success factors that lead to high performance. Teams that are high for both complexity and reliance (HC/HR) are the most challenging teams for leaders and members alike. Members of these teams must find ways to manage the influences of complexity and reliance in order to succeed. Here are seven techniques to address the complexity and reliance elements of your virtual team.

7 Cutting Edge Techniques to Manage Your Team’s Complexity and Reliance 1. Understand the Complexity and Reliance of Your Team. When you

understand the relationship between team complexity and reliance, you can be more intentional about the focus of your actions with individual team members and the entire team. Leaders of high complexity teams need to spend time building their relationships with each individual team member and facilitating communication and trust among team members. This takes time, but the payoff is team members who trust one another and communicate more. HR/HC teams are the most challenging and time consuming global virtual teams to lead.

2. Make the Implicit—Explicit. Never underestimate the potential of misunderstandings. In the absence of face-to-face communication, leaders must be crystal clear in defining, communicating, and clarifying their team’s purpose, goals, and the role of each team member. Create a team operating agreement with team member input to define in specific terms meeting protocols, how decisions are made, which technology will be used for what purposes, timeliness of responses, etc. Make sure the team operating agreement is accessible to all.

3. Culture Matters. When working with team members from different nationalities, learning about their cultural beliefs and practices shows respect and goes a long way to develop trust and avoid misunderstandings. There are resources available that offer valuable information about cultural dimensions and guidance as to how these dimensions influence interpersonal results and decision making. Two extremely helpful online resources are http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html and https://www.aperianglobal.com/login/.

4. Be Intentional and Invest Time to Build Trust. The key word here is to invest time to build trust. Often communications tend to be task-focused. While it is important to discuss goals, milestones, action plans, deadlines, etc., these discussions seldom deepen relationships and grow trust. Making time at the beginning of team meetings to share personal successes, something that happened over the weekend, a funny story, or even exchanging recipes, can entice team members to relate to one another on a more personal basis, discover common interests, and foster more open communication.

http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html

http://geert-hofstede.com/national-culture.html

https://www.aperianglobal.com/login/



5. Institute Regular One-on-One Coaching. Anything that goes wrong with face-to-face teams can go wrong with virtual teams—only faster and less gracefully. Leaders who hold regular, one-on-one coaching conversations with their team members are able to identify early indicators of performance challenges (such as misunderstandings, assumptions, or lack of trust) and address them before they impact results. Effective one-on-one coaching balances task-focused and person-focused conversation. Simply put, one-on-one coaching conversations can be a positive, critical technique to build trust and boost team member performance.

6. Execute More Effective Team Meetings. A typical meeting involves about 10% planning, 80% meeting time, and 10% follow-up. An effective virtual team meeting approach is 50% planning, 20% meeting, and 30% follow-up. Well planned meetings include agendas and other documents sent to team members in advance, an appropriate match of technology with meeting topics, gaining team member input on some topics in advance, and determining clear meeting outcomes. Leverage your technology to keep team members engaged (and avoid multi-tasking) by using polls, chats, webcams, and other methods to invite input. Institute meeting protocols for timeliness, discussing topics, decision making, and dealing with conflict. And never assume that team member silence is agreement.

7. Be Focused and Flexible. The complexities of virtual teams demand leadership and management techniques that go beyond those of co-located teams. Keep members aligned with the team’s goals. Focus their expertise on specific tasks and facilitate effective relationship that support team performance. And when it comes to communications technology, always have a Plan B.

Try these techniques and see what a difference they can make for your global virtual team.

Contact Us!

For more information, training, and resources to assist your virtual teams, contact us today!

Lee S. Johnsen

Partners in Development

889 S. Dwyer Ave.

Arlington Heights, IL 60005

PH: 847-255-1031

[email protected]

www.partnersindevelopment.net



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