virtualteams - Bertrand Duperrin on Diigo

Apr

17

2012

Managing a Virtual Team

"Teams that are geographically-dispersed, or virtual, have now been used and studied for more than three decades — yet we all still wrestle with how to get them right. Managers frequently ask for best practices for managing their global teams, and recently we've noticed some common themes. Here are the three questions that keep coming up again and again, and what the research tells us about how to address them:"

blogs.hbr.org/..._to_manage_a_virtual_team.html

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teams teamwork management virtualteams remotework facetoface coordination collaboration

FTF interaction is especially important early in a team's life, particularly when the team is comprised of people who don't already know each other.
Second, Maznevski and Chudoba also found that repeated FTF meetings are best when occurring at predictable times and intervals.
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- With the relentless advance of technology, many managers ask us which platform they should use to support their virtual teams. As any suggestion we make will be outdated before the pixels are displayed —
- Simplicity: neither require complex setup time or a steep learning curv
- Reliability: despite the occasional service interruption, we spend very little time worrying about whether our messages will get through to their intended targets
- Accessibility: phones and email both work just about everywhere we might want to use them — meeting rooms, field offices, airports, even our favorite coffee shops.
- The net result was wasted effort by their colleagues, unanticipated rework for them, and frustration all around. They ask us: "Why does this keep happening, how can I avoid such coordination breakdowns?"
- So managers of virtual teams should have dual, complementary objectives: structure and socialize.
- First they must shift their teams' work practices away from the dynamic adjustment outlined above towards more structured coordination. Clear team-level work processes, output requirements, and group norms reduce the complexity of virtual team coordination from coordinating efforts across multiple sites to aligning one's efforts with a single, consistent set of expectations
- virtual team managers also work to support and facilitate dynamic adjustment when it's required by promoting and encouraging informal interaction.

Apr

29

2011

The Art of Collaborating Effectively in Virtual Teams

"Plenty of people say that collaboration is not an easy task, whether face to face or whether remote, but certainly it looks like collaborating effectively online still presents a good bunch of challenges and issues, and Aliza’s article surely highlights some of the most relevant ones. Worth a read, for sure, but is there anything else that we can do to help improve remote collaboration in today’s rather complex environment? … Maybe."

www.elsua.net/...g-effectively-in-virtual-teams

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collaboration virtualteams training processes knowledgemanagement leadership

The key messages here are being flexible and celebrate multiple working styles trying to accommodate them with one another in the best possible way through one key aspect most businesses haven’t exploited well enough: negotiation
The key message here is that for that negotiation to take place those processes would probably need to be put together, initially, by the remote, virtual teams themselves, the ones who understand the dynamics of having everyone working distributed with different needs and wants, but also different expectations and trying to accommodate to the vast majority of them.
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- the key message in here is to never underestimate providing enough, good, solid education, training and assistance to virtual teams in order to help them understand how they can collaborate and share their knowledge effectively by working smarter, not necessarily harder.
- And, to me, the key message here is to embrace that reluctance and look into it as an opportunity to introduce lower, common denominators in the social networking space, which, in most cases, would start with that well known low hanging fruit that we have all fallen in love, cultivate and nurture over time: Activity Streams.
- Ideally, those natural leaders should be a blend of traditional management and new radical leadership
- leading by example with their passion, wit, know-how, experiences and knowledge, more than managing by command and control.

Apr

26

2011

5 Reasons Why Virtual Teams Fail

"there are many reasons why a virtual team can fail. What can you do to ensure that your team succeeds?"

gigaom.com/...reasons-why-virtual-teams-fail

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virtualteams collaboration leadership onboarding process training management

1. Square pegs in round holes. Let’s face it: Not everyone is cut out to be a virtual worker. Not everyone has the personality to work completely alone, apart from the team, nor has the ability to be focused and motivated to do work without the looming presence of a manager over one’s shoulder
2. Lack of a clear process. A successful virtual team relies on a defined vision for desired outcomes and a careful breakdown of how it can accomplish those goals. In some ways, virtual work processes may need to be more rigid than those for co-located teams, with specific systems in place to cover time tracking, milestones, check-ins and knowledge sharing.
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- 3. Weak training techniques. If you’re running a team, you know the importance of “on-boarding” new team members. If you’re embarking on a virtual work process, getting everyone on the same page about how you want the team to work together and how to use the systems you’ve deployed is key.
- 4. Failure to capture knowledge. In an office space, you can more readily ferret out the data you need, but in a virtual team environment, the bread crumb trail to data may be more convoluted or harder to track
- 5. No glue to keep it all together. A good virtual team starts with a good leader. Whomever is managing the team needs to have a good grip on the dynamics of virtual work. Whether creating or communicating the vision, the team leader must be able to do so effectively, using tools such as Cohuman and Mavenlink to further a more cohesive team and work process.

Jan

24

2009

Top 10 PM Trends for 2009

ESI International just released a list of Top 10 Management Trends for 2009. Their most experienced consultants and Senior Management say these trends point to organizational need for expertise while coping with tighter budgets, fewer financial and human resources, and change. Do you believe that this is where your should focus in 2009 to drive project and organizational success?

www.gantthead.com/...1294

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Today’s economy will force organizations to confront the important roles middle managers play in the success of change efforts. Middle managers’ roles will shift from simple messenger of directives ‘from above’ to creating a positive environment to enable change
Powerful communication, key management strategies and new rules of engagement will be required to manage virtual teams
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- This year will see an increase in the understanding of the cardinal differences between projects and programs and the utilization of strategies to boost program managers’ effectiveness and increase program success.
- These informal communities will be highly prized for the lack of bureaucracy that increase the sharing and use of best practices, enabling increased dialogue to overcome challenges and growing future leaders.
- People Will Come Before Technology
- In 2009, many organizations will say goodbye to the ‘one number’ method for project outcomes and embrace a quantifiable range of potential results on which to base decisions

Jul

3

2006

Virtual team productivity - three action rules from nature - The Bumble Bee

www.bioteams.com/...virtual_team_productivity.html

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Bertrand Duperrin's Library tagged virtualteams → View Popular, Search in Google

Managing a Virtual Team

The Art of Collaborating Effectively in Virtual Teams

5 Reasons Why Virtual Teams Fail

Top 10 PM Trends for 2009

Virtual team productivity - three action rules from nature - The Bumble Bee

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