Yael Zofi's Blog, page 13

Virtual teams will work if they have the best people. Myth or Reality?

Posted by Yael Zofi and Perin Colah on April 3rd, 2012

 

Last week we introduced the Five Myths and Realities of Virtual Teams and explored the first myth of this series.

 

This week we are moving to:

 

MYTH 2: VIRTUAL TEAMS WILL WORK IF THEY HAVE THE BEST PEOPLE.

 

Reality: No team is guaranteed success, even when it has the best virtual players. Teams fail for various reasons, including setting unrealistic expectations, falling short of deliverables, not engaging in conversations.  Don't underestimate the important planning element that needs to go into setting the virtual team up and making it work across different cultures and countries.

 

Advice: One client, a Manager at a Computer Systems Company, summarizes it best:

 

"It really helps during the non-virtual times to address issues that come up and set up the team for success later on. You must address how we work together, what we will do to call each other on it (permission to be honest with each other when things are not as they should be), how we will engage and stay virtually committed to each other, and how we as a team get things done.  Having clear charter and team norms about what we do and how we do it really accelerates relationships." Manager, Computer Systems.

 

Look out for Virtual Teams Myth #3 next week!

 

 

Virtual teams are similar to traditional teams with people located in different places. Myth or Reality?

Virtual teams are becoming increasingly popular and with this popularity we continue to learn more about them and the distinct way they operate. Although there are similarities to traditional teams, virtual teams differ in a number of ways. Some of what you believe about virtual teams may not be reality. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing five myths and realities of virtual teams.

 

Let's get started!

 

MYTH 1: VIRTUAL TEAMS ARE SIMILAR TO TRADITIONAL TEAMS WITH PEOPLE LOCATED IN DIFFERENT PLACES.

 

The Reality: This has some truth but virtual teams are not the same as onsite teams. They present different challenges and team dynamics.  Don't make the mistake of simply transferring what you know about teams to virtual situations.  These teams are a lot more involved. While all teams need to have goals and operating principles, virtual teams face the greater task of building agreement with a group of people who work across time zones and may never meet.

 

Advice: While interviewing virtual team members and managers in preparation for this book,  a virtual team manager at a business communications organization gave the following advice:

 

"Treat virtual teams differently. Don't assume they are the same. You need to be more upfront and more open about challenges and about contracting with your virtual staff. Remote employees, multiple time zones, communication mechanisms and accountability continue to be the top issues for virtual teams."

 

Stay tuned. We will be exploring more myths in the upcoming weeks.

 

Virtual Teams Book Launch Party Highlights

Six months ago we celebrated the publication of my book, A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams. As you can imagine, a great deal of effort went into its research, writing and editing. The book launch party was the culmination of these efforts, and it was an exciting night. Looking around the room filled with colleagues, peers and friends made it even more special.

 

Below is a short video of the book launch party, created by one of our talented team members. Enjoy watching it!

 







 

 

THE VIRTUAL LANDSCAPE

Adapted by Perin Colah from A Manager's Guide to Virtual Teams

 

Remember the days when you could actually walk down the hall and "drop in" on members of your team? You could look into their offices, see family photos or awards, and be prompted to ask about the kids or favorite hobbies. As a manager, you could observe how your direct reports ran meetings and watch them interact with subordinates.

 

Nowadays, organizations are aware that the marketplace is increasingly multicultural and diverse. Greater diversity in the workforce is a by-product of virtual teams, since professionals with different backgrounds, styles, and languages "work at the same table." As a virtual leader, you are responsible for the team's results and that means you need to excel at multitasking in this ever-changing virtual world.

 

Before you even begin, here are a few of the challenges of virtual leadership:

 

Relationships. How will you get to know your virtual team members?
Performance. How will you assess what kind of job they are doing? 
Communication. How will you keep your direct reports updated?
Delegation. How will you delegate assignments and track their deadlines?
Team Building. How can you build a strong team when your people have never even met each other?
E-Mail. How will you use e-mail effectively to manage your staff?
Conflict. How will you know when members have a conflict with each other?
Promotion. How do you evaluate when someone is ready for promotion?
Teleconferencing. When will you have time for longer teleconferences?
Walking the Talk. How will your direct reports observe you and your management style?
Travel. How often are you going to have to fly around the country (or the globe) to meet your team?

 

In this new business environment, the old skills of yesterday are no longer sufficient. Welcome to your virtual reality; welcome to the virtual landscape!

 

How do you successfully navigate through the virtual landscape? This will be something we will explore in a series of blog postings that we plan to launch in the next few weeks.

 

To get started, think of navigating the virtual landscape as going on a road trip. First, you must plan your destination and properly align your team. Setting up your virtual team for success includes clarifying your Team Destination, setting the Rules of the Road, and conducting a Test-Drive. As a virtual team leader, it is your responsibility to open the lanes of communications and drive accountability within and across your virtual team. In business terms, this involves the communication, trust, conflict and deliverable mechanisms that you implement to carry out your plan.

 

"But wait," you ask, "What about sharp turns, road blocks and potential accidents along the way?" Yes, the virtual landscape presents these challenges and requires you to refresh and realign your team to get back on the road to success!

 

THE EIGHT CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-PERFORMING VIRTUAL TEAMS

Levitra online
Levitra

Why do some virtual teams function more effectively than others? Virtual teams come in many varieties and working with people you never, or rarely see brings new challenges. Throughout my career I have worked with virtual teams from many types of organizations and noticed eight characteristics that emerge in those that are high-performing.

 

Here they are:

 

1. Global vs. Local Mindset

Members exhibit a global mindset whether or not they work globally. They look outward, not inward.

 

2. Mission/Common Purpose

Members share responsibility for achieving the mission.

 

3. Trust and Authenticity

A culture of tolerance facilitates trust among team members.

 

4. Meaningful Communication

Members engage in true communication with each other. They create a shared understanding around context communication, they have access to and utilize technology to their benefit, and they engage in ongoing dialogue.

 

5. Flow of Information

An easy flow of information exists and is communicated using various technology mediums.

 

6. Conflict Management Mechanism

A conflict management mechanism is in place to process and monitor virtual conflicts that typically create misunderstanding.

 

7. Effective Work Systems

Work systems are in place to produce deliverables within budgetary and time constraints.

 

8. Positive Attitude

Team members have a positive attitude that spans time and distance challenges.

 

Regardless of location, industry or level, these eight characteristics of high performing virtual teams influence results. Although it would be next to impossible to assemble virtual teams that perform perfectly across all eight categories, successful virtual teams work on creating systems and behaving consistently around them.

 

To learn more about the eight characteristics of high performing virtual teams see a article at .

 

AIM For Excellence: 8 Characteristics of High Performing Virtual Teams Presentation

Written by Monnica Honrade, AIM Strategies®

 

Today Yael Zofi presented at HRNY's Speaker Select Series. The event was sponsored by CCA and held at PricewaterhouseCoopers. There were over 60 people in attendance for Yael's AIM For Excellence: 8 Characteristics of High Performing Virtual Teams.

 

During this interactive session, Yael highlighted the common challenges we face when managing virtual or remote teams, offered tips on how to increase engagement through virtual team activities, and provided guidance for dealing with conflict. She shared key highlights from AIM's virtual team trends study and provided best practice tips around the eight characteristics of high performing virtual teams. All attendees received a copy of Ms. Zofi's book, A Manager's Guide To Virtual Teams.

 

Everyone enjoyed learning via interactive media, an entertaining video and key highlights around current trends that transcend virtual teams into current technology trends. Participants also appreciated the 'added value' of the recent publication, '12 Predictions For 2012′.

Top 12 Digital Predictions for 2012 by Millward Brown

Gamification
Mobile Wallet
Virtual Togetherness
Online Video
Mobile Marketing
Apps
CPG Ecommerce
Social Graph
Regulating Privacy
Seamless Sharing
Micro-Blogging
Real-Time Advertising


12 Digital Predictions for 2012

 

You can download the study in PDF here.

 

 

AIM For Excellence: 8 Characteristics of High Performing Virtual Teams

As I gear up for the busy week ahead, I am, once again, reminded that we all live in a shifting virtual world.

 

Virtual work is being embraced by organizations at an unprecedented rate. Fueled by technology and globalization, innovative and alternative practices help save costs, improve job satisfaction and boost productivity. Good news, to be sure, yet a change to these work arrangements comes with its own great challenge – how do you keep the human connection alive? Without the benefit of face-to-face contact, virtual managers must create productive work relationships and develop trust across cultures. Not easy, given issues related to distance, time and space. And yet, some virtual teams (VTs) function more effectively than others. As a partner in helping your organization achieve business goals, how can you integrate VTs and their benefits into your strategic plan? How do you successfully facilitate a change to this type of work arrangement and its many complex facets? What techniques and best practices can you implement to ensure that your virtual team achieves business success?

 

This week I will speak at Human Resources Association of New York (HR/NY), a division of Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), and share practical tips that will help the next generation of leaders bridge the gap between a culturally diverse and dispersed workforce to create the vital human connection. This session, entitled AIM for Excellence: 8 Characteristics of High Performing Virtual Teams, will focus on solutions to the unique issues faced in the growing virtual workspace.

 

During the session, I will share insights from my VT research and consulting work and:

Explore Key Virtual Team Trends
Share 4 Critical Elements of Virtual Team Success
Discuss 8 Characteristics of High Performing Virtual Teams
Suggest Techniques for Developing Your High Performing Virtual Team (HPVT)

 

We are expecting 70+ attendees, and each participant will be receiving a copy of my latest book, A Manager's Guide To Virtual Teams.

 

Blog Business Success Radio Interview

Recently I was interviewed on 'live' radio during Wayne Hurlbert's Blog Business Success radio show. I described how virtual teams are reshaping the way we do business and shared practical tips about virtual team management. Combining technology and globalization, virtual teams are the new face of teamwork in business. Mr. Hurlbert asked pertinent questions about best practices for Team Setup and ways to avoid the most frequent pitfalls and mistakes made in virtual team management.

Some of the questions explored during the interview include:

Why virtual teams are being ever more important for companies?
How to set up and manage a virtual team the right way?
How to ensure that teams produce results and deliver the goods on time?
What is the future of virtual teams for business and for management?
How can team managers know that the work is being done.

During the interview, I described the main steps for managers to take in order to develop a strategy and getting deliverables out the door, such as tracking and frequency mechanisms for virtual communication and feedback between team members. We also spoke about effective ways to maximize the long-term benefits of virtual teams, including how to develop trust, defuse conflict and manage projects more efficiently.

You can listen via the link below or on the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment.

 

 

"Virtual Teams Expert Interview: Part 2: Gamification, Jane McGonigal, Stewart Crabb & virtual training…"

By Karina Koloch

Q. In the previous post you reflected on the ASTD Tech Knowledge conference you attended and presented last month. Jane McGonigal was one of the keynote speakers you found interesting. To continue from where we left off earlier this week, I wanted to ask a few more questions:

 

Jane talked about the powerful positive emotions people show while playing games and how to bring this concept to real lives and workplaces. What is your take on this as a Management Trainer and Human Capital Consultant?  Do you think gamification can be applied successfully in workplaces? How would you apply it, and have you ever applied the gamification concept in virtual teams?

A. Back in the day when I used to run onsite training sessions, particularly around giving and receiving feedback, we created a board game called The Roadmap for Continuous Improvement. Participants had to give feedback in real-time. Because this occurred about 20 years ago, it was not an online activity.

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Today, the combination of technology and human connection brings a huge opportunity.  Organizational training games can be designed by a team to produce a technical piece, an organizational piece and a simulation piece. Since delivery is mostly virtual, the core concept must at its core be about keeping people engaged.

 

Therefore the key point I'd like to make is that every virtual team building game needs to combine the best of technology and organizational development, so that the product accomplishes what it was meant to do – create a virtual community.

 

Q. What did you like and learn from Stewart Crabb's presentation about Facebook?

A. Stewart Crabb shared Facebook's history and the importance of the Social Graph – people and the connections they have to everything they care about. Click here for the Social Graph.

 

Stewart indicated that people constantly look for any opportunity to share and connect, which is very much the core premise of my virtual teams book. Virtual or not, you still need to create a human connection with people. Another interesting moment in Stewart's Keynote was when he referred to Facebook as a social 'container' allowing for collaboration, wisdom and community. Facebook's growth has been exponential and they are extremely popular with Generation Z, also known as Generation I. People have a natural need to connect, and Facebook has become the social hub for millions. It stands to reason that there is a huge opportunity for using Facebook as a learning platform.

 

Q. Do you have any final points or a message to your readers?

A. Sure. To finish, I think the world of global learning and development will move with increasing speed to utilize technology. In the coming years we will join online communities which are designed by engineers who need to address the people side of technology. After all, training is about building bridges between people, and when people connect virtually there are many considerations, such as behavior, emotions, skills, communication, management, and all the human characteristics that make us personal. That is why, in order to succeed in virtual business and e-training environment, we have to think in terms of community, and consider what it means to become a "friend" in the newest sense of the word.

 

Interview with Yael Zofi: Part one: "Gamification, Jane McGonigal, Stewart Crabb and virtual training…"

By Karina Koloch

 

Q. You attended ASTD Tech Knowledge conference last week where you presented on virtual teams. Can you list some of the speakers you got the chance to meet?

A. Two really interesting and impressive ones were the keynote speakers. Jane McGonigal was humorous with an innovative presentation, full of astonishing facts about gaming. The second speaker was Stewart Crabb, Head of Training and development for Facebook, and he had a great deal to say.

 

Q. What caught your interest and attention in Jane McGonigal's gaming presentation?

A. Jane's presentation made me reflect on games, and the fact that games have been played by humans as long as we can remember. Also, she noted that in the workplace the concept and the amount of gaming has greatly increased. The idea of collaboration and gaming is quite incredible. Some of the facts Jane shared, such as that one third of the world's population is online and 45% of internet users are under 25 years of age, show that there is a huge opportunity for future gamification.

 

Again, it is incredible that an increasing number of individuals are online – the possibilities for growth are endless. As Jane said, there are 5.9 mobile cell users and 1 billion gamers worldwide as of September 2011. The use of gaming and the fact that so many people (young, old, employed, retired) play games on their phones or computers made me realize how great the opportunity is.

 

The important point here is that business leaders need to start taking games seriously as platforms for learning and interactions. Gamification is the way to build problem solving and to practice 21 century skills.

You can view Jane's slideshow below. It includes some interesting facts and data based on Gartner Research and Analysis.

 

Games as a Platform for Innovation

 

We will be sharing the second part of the interview with Yael on Friday, February 10.