Technology affords virtual teams a number of ways to stay in touch. But utilising the best medium and sending the right message are essential factors in ensuring performance.

Working relationships need to be cultivated before they can be effective

Because the majority of virtual teams are also international, leaders and members of such groups need to be in tune to the cultural differences. Teams which actively address those differences are typically the most successful, said Stéphane Brahy, Cendant Mobility’s director of intercultural services.

“This is not a side dish,” said Brahy. “It’s not something we deal with when we have time. This is an ongoing piece.”

Relationship building

Brahy points out that in most cultures, relationships need to be cultivated before working relationships can be effective. This is in contrast to Americans, who are more task-driven and more inclined to put relationship building on the back burner.

“You have to be aware of it first,” says Carolyn Ryffel, senior manager of trainer development and curriculum design for Cendant Mobility’s intercultural services.

“Everybody has to understand that so that the relationship-oriented nationalities don’t critique the Americans as being rude and cold. There is no good or bad approach. It’s just different.”

Cultural awareness

Beyond relationship building, there are often different approaches to getting the job done across cultures.

Matt Simons runs operations in India for ThoughtWorks, a Chicago-based software developer. Working with clients and colleagues in the United States and Europe, Simons is familiar with managing distributed teams.

He’s noticed dramatic differences in the way feedback is communicated. Westerners are used to formal feedback from their superiors while in India, that would be taken as ‘quite rude,’ said Simons.

Virtual team managers therefore need a variety of ways to run a meeting, check in with their team members and problem solve, said Ryffel.

“How do you get people to commit to a time deadline or to tell you when they are not going to meet a deadline?” she said.

It is also important to ensure fairness when it comes to time zone differences. For example, the team in India should not always be on a conference call at an unpleasant hour. And the team in San Jose should travel to Paris just as often as the French team goes to the United States.

Staying on the same page

In order to keep everyone on the same page, managers of virtual teams need to rely on concise, regular and relevant communication, said Lonnie Pacelli, author of “The Project Management Advisor: 18 Major Project Screw-Ups and How To Cut Them Off At The Pass.”

“When you don’t provide this type of communication, the team in Seattle may be just fine but the lone employee in London may be completely out of sync with what is going on,” said Pacelli.

Team members at ThoughtWorks, for example, participate in a daily 10-15-minute phone call during which each person says what they did the day before, what they will do that day and what they need help with. Team members also rely on instant messaging and frequent phone calls to stay in touch. Email is frowned upon.

“We really try not to use email,” said Simons. “It’s just about the worst communication possible. It’s broadcast. It’s not interactive at all.”

Virtual work spaces are an ideal way to enable distributed teams to share files, discuss issues and manage deadlines, according to a study of virtual teams published in the Harvard Business Review under the title “Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?”

Pacelli recommends maintaining a solid paper trail, such as a spreadsheet or database of the decisions made so team members can ensure it reflects their understanding of the issue.

“It also helps avoid re-hashing issues already decided upon,” he said.

Keep it simple

Team managers at ThoughtWorks also break their projects into chunks. 

“We never do anything big,” said Simons. “We tend to break all of our work up into small pieces.”

And they measure progress frequently. “If we’ve gone astray,” said Simons, “all we’ve lost is a week.”

Pacelli says leaders of virtual teams need to be comfortable with “managing to deliverables.”

 “Being very clear about what work needs to be done, what the deliverable needs to look like, when it has to be done, and who has to do it,” he said. “Micro-managers that manage to activity versus deliverable will be very frustrated managing virtual teams because they typically can’t control activities.”

June 2005

Jennifer Hamm is a journalist who frequently writes about international business issues. She can be contacted through her website at www.JenniferHamm.com.

Subject: Virtual teams, mobile workforce, managing virtual teams