Virtual teams are so commonplace today that we think nothing of the challenges of working with colleagues from halfway around the world. No handshakes; no chats at the water cooler, no body language to give us clues as to whether or not we’re communicating effectively.
Yet, many of us work on virtual teams almost every day. We use telebridges, web meetings, instant messages, collaborative software, never thinking how they impact the effectiveness of our teamwork. Of course, this is completely different from the way we worked with colleagues only a decade ago, but we often mistakenly attribute hurdles and difficulties to other causes.
Add to this, 41% say that over half of their teams have colleagues from another culture. This overlay of cultural differences makes it evermore important that we examine the impact of virtual teams on organizational effectiveness and make attempts to mitigate the challenges that compromise performance.
Since we can’t see each other, we miss non-verbal cues and the ways people are (or are not) absorbing information. We fail to take note of what some team members or colleagues need in the way of personal interaction and relationship-building for creating trust. We don’t fully understand how criticism and feedback may be taken.
In fact, team leaders may neglect the fountain of intercultural wisdom and overlook the potential contribution of team members outside their culture and non-native language speakers.
Since 2010, we’ve conducted research on these workplace trends, and share that information through our Trends in Global Virtual Teams Survey Report to help improve the quality and effectiveness of global collaboration
Please click below for our report!
