Today, almost all of us are on a global or intercultural team. One way or another, we work with colleagues and clients from around the world, needing to communicate with, negotiate or manage people from different backgrounds.

There’s no question that this can be challenging. While global interactions are critical and technology makes global teams possible, intercultural differences present us with an array of unanticipated obstacles. These obstacles can often be mitigated if they’re understood, but conversely they can also be intensified if ignored or not taken seriously at the beginning of a team effort. Add the virtual constraints to the different cultural perspectives on a global team and you face some real challenges.

That is what motivated the Pennsylvania State University and Rutgers graduate school of international business Ph.D. candidates, Yang Zhang and Johanna Johnson, to approach RW³ to begin doing research for a white paper on this issue. With their strong academic backgrounds and their research skills, they have written a valuable article to add to the literature in this field.

We are happy to share the output of their work. Building Effective Global Virtual Teams: Challenges and Guidelines, by Yang Zhang and Johanna Johnson.

The research paper was prepared in conjunction with, and in preparation for, the Global
Teams Effectiveness Study that will be conducted for RW³ LLC. For more information or
if you would like to participate in the study, please email charlene.solomon@rw-3.com or
call RW³ at +1-212-691-8900.

When communicating by phone with people from different cultures–especially on a conference call when there are several people–it’s always a good idea to follow these two simple activities:

1. Send a brief agenda beforehand so people who are speaking a second language can prepare their thoughts, and
2. Send a follow-up email after the call to reiterate the key points of the discussion so that everyone is clear on the information they took away from the meeting.