Excerpted from  

Focus on Virtual Teams

Members of virtual teams live and work in different locations, have different work styles, and often speak different languages. So what can companies do to ensure that virtual team members work together productively despite their differences?

Team Foundations

At the core of any successful team is a set of shared foundations. In Meridian's work with clients and in the Global Teams Online web tool, we focus on several of these fundamental areas of teamwork. In this Newsletter, we will discuss three:

1. Team Start-up:

   The start-up phase is arguably the most crucial in a team's development. Teams that "do" start-up well tend to perform better when problems arise.

    

   One exercise a team leader can perform at the beginning of his/her team's formation is to run through a quick checklist of success factors. This list might include the following:

If a team leader finds that several of these items cannot be checked off at start-up, it is worthwhile to spend some time resolving those issues early in the team's life cycle.

2. Common Goals

   The fact that a team has a set of goals connected with their mission as a team does not mean that all members share a set of common goals that drives their behavior on a day-to-day basis.

    

   For example, functional differences among members can result in goal misalignment. A team member representing the sales function is likely to be most focused on streamlining administrative processes to expedite sales and increase customer satisfaction, while the staff lawyer on the team will stress legal review and compliance, even if these measures require additional time and effort.

    

   Some teams have their goals pre-determined; for other teams, goal setting is primarily the leader's responsibility. In other settings, team members set goals together. Here is one goal-setting method that a team can utilize:

3. Rapport and Trust

   Although this may sound like a "soft" factor, it is vital that virtual team members share a high degree of rapport and trust. Here are some actions that a team leader can take to build rapport and trust among members:

    

   • Circulate biographical information of each team member before the team is launched, or when new members enter.
   • Hold a face-to-face kick-off meeting. Although it is an added cost, gathering team members in one place has been proven over and over again to be the best way to begin a team effort.
   • Position team members with one another; look for ways to describe the unique abilities and prior experience of each team member to his/her colleagues on the team.
   • Consider Context. By discussing what modes of communication will be best for different situations, team members can avoid automatically defaulting to just one style (e.g., e-mail) when, in fact, it might be more appropriate in some situations to insist on a 1-1 phone call, a conference call, or a face-to-face meeting.

     This can become an issue particularly when a team includes both members from cultures that are comfortable with "low context" communication (typically the U.S. and Northern Europe) as well as people from countries that favor "high context" communication styles (Asia, Latin America, Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Meridian's Global Teams Online webtool includes 180 best practices for teams. We invite you to view a limited demo or contact us if you'd like more information or a personalized online demo.