It’s easy to set up a virtual team, but hard to get it right. Happily, there have now been enough studies of virtual teams, including my own studies, that we know a great deal about how to “get it right.” Here are some examples of what we've learned:
- Have an initial face-to-face kick-off meeting. There is strong evidence* to show that a team that initially meets in-person functions more effectively.
o At that first meeting, take time for the team members to get to know each other in terms of their work experience and their areas of expertise. That crucial understanding will 1) allow team members to make the best use of each other's knowledge when dividing up responsibilities, and 2) to agree upon the team’s goal. Typically, the team lead or manager assigns the team their task and goal, but that doesn’t mean they all understand it in the same way – in fact, Hackman’s research suggests that most of the time they don’t.** Hackman designed a three-part activity for an initial meeting to meet both goals.***
♣ Task 1 Getting Goal Agreement- Team members pair up with someone they don't know well. Each person jots down their own understanding of the main purpose of their team and the consequence of accomplishing or failing to accomplish that purpose (4 minutes). They then compare the descriptions and resolve any differences (10 minutes).
♣ Task 2 Exploring Experience - In pairs, Member A interviews Member B for about 12 minutes to learn what knowledge, skills, and experience Member B is bringing to the team that would be especially valuable in accomplishing the team’s purposes. Then they switch roles and repeat the process.
♣ Task 3 Making Introductions – The team is reconvened to have each team member introduce his or her partner, emphasizing the unique resource the partner brings to the team’s work (assuming 5 members to a team and 3 minutes each -15min).
- Keep teams small. The ideal size for a team is five. If a team needs to be larger to achieve the task, then divide the task and assign the parts to smaller sub-teams. Studies show that the larger the team, the more likely social loafing will occur. Also in large teams, members lose track of what others are doing and how what they are doing interacts with their own work.
- Build a rhythm of regular online meetings, rather than meeting ad hoc. Regular online meetings improve coordination and prevent issues from festering. Meetings need to occur at least weekly, and for some teams even more often. However,
meetings need not be lengthy. Some Agile teams meet each morning for just 15 minutes. If there are no issues to resolve, each team member simply says what they are planning to work on that day and what they accomplished on the previous day. That reporting keeps team member be accountable to each other.
- Establish peer coaching meetings to help the team problem solve and improve their skills. Every two weeks is a good interval. Bring together sub-teams or create coaching teams drawn from all the sub-teams. See previous post.
- As a team, establish and commit to a communication charter that describes communication norms. Norms might include, how quickly team members should respond to emails or notices on the team site, attendance at team meetings, disrespectful remarks to other team members, willingness to help others, what documents to place in a depository. Have team members be responsible for overseeing infractions; a quarter in the cookie jar when norms are broken?
- Bring the whole team together face-to-face at least once a year and more frequently if the group’s task has strong interdependencies. (see the oscillation principle) Such meetings allow the team to address issues that are too complex**** to addressed virtually, as well as to renew relationships and commitments.
- Take advantage of team members’ travel, to visit another member. Tack an extra day on to a business trip in order to spend that day with a member at another site. This develops more robust relationships but also explores the issues each member is working on and the environment in which that work takes place.
I’m currently conducting a study of a great virtual team at TechnipFMC - so more ideas to come.
*Josiane Kroll, Juho Mäkiö and Manal Assaad, 2016, Challenges and Practices for Effective Knowledge Transfer in Globally Distributed Teams; A Systematic Literature Review
** Interview by Diane Coutu, 2009, W, Why teams don't work, R.Hackman, Harvard Business Review- ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
*** Richard Hackman, 2011, Collaborative Intelligence
**** Martha Maznevski and Katherine Chudoba, 2000, Bridging Space Over Time. Organization Science.