INSEAD recently started a new program for executives called “Managing Global Virtual Teams” and is focused on teaching managers how to manage distributed, global and virtual teams (there are many terms to refer to teams that are not co-located, or distributed across a number of locations physically distant from one another). Erin Meyer, director of the new program, wrote the following for Forbes:

In my own research, I’ve found that one of the most difficult tasks for leaders of global teams is to recognize that their styles of decision making may be deeply rooted in the cultures that they come from. Global teams therefore need very explicit descriptions of how decisions will be made, and the best global team leader is one who is willing to try out different kinds of decision-making processes at different points in a project.

RW3 CultureWizard’s survey report, The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams, found that…

…Virtual teams need to establish specific work rules (i.e., rules for respectful interaction) that are assumed in co-located teams. They also need to pay greater attention to team structure than co-located teams do. In addition, virtual teams must carefully monitor and adhere to the work rules they have created. Finally, they need to be aware of the influence of culture on work styles and to develop procedures to assure intercultural effectiveness.

This mirrors what INSEAD research has found.

Cristina Escallon, another faculty member in our new Managing Global Virtual Teams program, teaches that leaders of virtual teams need to concentrate on creating a highly defined process where team members deliver specific results in a repeated sequence. Reliability, aka trust, is thus firmly established after two or three cycles. Because of that, face-to face meetings can be limited to once a year or so.

How much do we take for granted that management, communication and collaboration in a virtual environment works the same as it does when in traditional, co-located teams?

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

With a title like “A Distressing Virtual Reality: 40 Percent of Dispersed Teams Underperform,” Chief Learning Officer raises awareness of an issue that potentially affects many of us. RW3 CultureWizard’s Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010 is the base of the argument targeting virtual work as something we must learn to be good at, and not something we can easily compare with face-to-face interaction.