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Team Working That Overcomes Time and Space: More and more companies are going global. And more professionals are working from home. Because of this, businesses are increasingly relying on virtual teams to get their jobs or projects done. Like any conventional team, a virtual team consists of a group of people who interact to complete interdependent tasks and work towards a common goal. But instead of working in the same office, the team members work in different places, often at home, and in different time zones. And they may never meet their co-workers face-to-face. Virtual team working has become possible because of advancements in communication technologies. Members of the virtual team mainly interact electronically by email, messaging and Voice over IP technologies like Skype. They may also communicate by telephone, teleconference and, to a lesser extent, through video conferencing. See more on www.mindtools.com
Set project objectives and expectations for your team. Clearly communicate the project objectives, schedules and individual roles and responsibilities. It is important that everyone knows what they are doing, how their work contributes to the project, what other team members need from them, and why. Though everyone can work independently, it is important to constantly communicate the team’s objectives. Failure to do so can be catastrophic for the success of a project. Set the tone early. At the beginning of the project it is crucial to let the team members know what is expected of them. Status reports, participation in conference calls, hours of availability, and deliverable schedules are essential parts of managing virtual teams. Understand and respect different cultures. This is very important if you are managing team members of different religions and/or in different countries. Honor your team members’ right for personal and religious practices. Choose the right technology to foster communication. The anchor of every virtual team is the technology used to support communication. As gas prices soar, flying the team in for a meeting each week is not realistic. So in lieu of that, online chat, conference calls and webinars are ideal. There are a number of technologies available such as AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft LiveMeeting, GoToMeeting, and many other tools that support video and Web conferencing. In addition, there are collaboration tools that allow team members to share and collaborate on documents such as Microsoft SharePoint. Be specific about time commitments. Never leave something to chance. Make sure that all team members know when deliverables are due. You never want to remind them the day before and have them scramble to get something done before close of business the next day. In these instances the quality of the deliverable almost always suffers. Get the team together on occasion. Although it is expensive to bring remote teams together, it is a necessary element to managing a virtual team. In order to build and continue team chemistry, gathering the team together strengthens personal relationships and working partnerships in both the short and long term. Never underestimate the importance of team camaraderie and rapport. Three hundred and sixty degree communication. The bottom line is quite simple – get out of the way. Trust your team to make proper decisions by working with each other and not be the bottleneck by insisting that all communication be channeled through you – the project manager.
Virtual team is a number of expatriates coming together to work and achieve common goals who may not necessarily be in the same location but are rather working from separated distance. This is make possible as a result of technological advancement in communication and business tools.
