Practical Guide To Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Global Virtual Teams
Global virtual team members face many complex challenges
, such as those illustrated in the previous articles. Effective teams are a synergy of unique talents and more importantly, diverse backgrounds in approaching problems and decisions. Ineffective teams, on the other hand, not only create interpersonal tension among team members, but also undermine the benefits of these types of arrangements.For individual members, global virtual teamwork provides a unique environment to develop potential to effectively collaborate with others across different time zones. In order for team members to have an optimal learning experience and gain from this developmental opportunity, they should be prepared to enter the environment with self-awareness as well as recognition of other's perspectives. Based off of research on the ways to effectively manage global teams, the following four methods improve the function of global teams:
Culture and Language
1.Increase each individual team member's knowledge of his or her own cultural values. This can be accomplished through suggested readings and online resources.
2.Increase the team's collective knowledge of the range of cultural differences present in the group. It would be important for people to review details of the cultures present in their team, and think about where they might face challenges.
3.Encourage people to assess their own personal cultural styles and how those may affect the group.
4.Establish conversational rules from the beginning. Acknowledge differences in accents and encourage team members to be mindful of them. Remind team members to refrain from using words with multiple meanings, idioms, or slang, if possible.
5.Create multiple channels of communication, especially those that allow opinions and ideas to be communicated less publicly. Give team members time to consider the options being laid out, and allow them to express their opinions in writing or even anonymously if feasible.
Developing Trust and Relationships
6.Encourage some face-to-face interactions if possible, especially at the beginning of a project.
7.If they are comfortable, allow opportunities for team members to engage in informal conversations. It is important to keep in mind that not everyone is equally comfortable with, or open with, talking about his/her non-work life. Therefore, use this strategy only when team members are receptive to it.
8.Trust often develops when members establish credibility through demonstrating their abilities and competence. Give team members the opportunity early-on to engage in tasks that demonstrate their skills; or introduce team members to each other by highlighting their past experience and current expertise with the matters at hand.
Logistical Challenges.
9.Have the team work through process and logistical challenges prior to starting work as a team.
10.If it is possible, and if the nature of the task does not require much interaction, schedule and coordinate activities in a way that maximally utilize the "availability" of team members.For example, take advantage of time zone differences by arranging work in a way that team members in "earlier" and "later" time zones can finish a piece of work sequentially.
11.If the nature of the task requires interaction and discussion, plan and conduct online meetings or online collaborative tasks with techniques suitable to the group situation. For example, using a facilitator can help open-ended problem-solving sessions to be more organized and efficient.
12.Synchronize the pace of working across team members. Specify the amount of time to be spent on each task if possible.
Developing a Context for Decision-Making
13.Make conscious choices about the people who will be involved in each decision. Although the project may be collective, it is not necessary that everyone is copied on an email and asked for their opinions. Explicitly defining these guidelines may be helpful.
14.The distributed nature of virtual team's work sometimes calls for "distributed leadership." The formal leader of the group should oversee and monitor the core activities of the group, but he/she should allow flexibility for sub-groups to make decisions on their own, based on their specific situations.
Culture will affect your team differently than others, so you want to pay attention to how it expresses itself, and develop a plan for managing diversity on the team. Interestingly, while research can provide the template for creating an effective diverse team, each team has to make it work in their own environment. This is because you're not only dealing with different cultures, but with the complexity of different work styles, and corporate cultural values that create uniquely different situations. Look for more articles to help you effectively manage a global team.
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