Virtual Teams

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: How to Manage Virtual Teams

Competency: team development

Who benefits: senior managers, team leaders, project managers

Consultant Usage: important background material for team building consultants

What’s it about? Sloan Management Review (MIT) has an excellent article in its Summer 2009 issue regarding the management of virtual teams.  (Registration and/or purchase required.)

We are talking here of “people who are based in dispersed geographical locations, come from different cultural backgrounds, speak different languages and were raised in different countries with different value systems.”  MBWA (managing by walking around) just isn’t an effective tactic! 

Here are some of the highlights of the article:

“The overall effect of dispersion (people working at different sites) is not necessarily detrimental but rather depends on a team’s task-related processes, including those that help coordinate work and ensure that each member is contributing fully.”

“Even small levels of dispersion can substantially affect team performance.”

“When assembling a virtual team, managers should carefully consider the social skills and self-sufficiency of the potential members.”

Which reminds me, Hey bosses, I am a virtual team with you guys.  Is it time for my performance review yet?

Catch you later.
[tags]teams, team building, team management, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.