Team Building and Virtual Teams

During the fourteen and fifteen class of Intercultural Management, the professor Heiko Schmidt explained the concept of how to build a team and virtual teams. First, I am going to explain how to build teams, then I will continue with the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teams and finally I will answer my research question, what are the principles of virtual teams?

Team Building 

In order to build a team, it is important to first identify the issues and the goals. This will guide to get in a more efficient way to the expected results. However, when dealing with teams works gets complicated because different factors such as division, not knowing the other person, communication, resistance to change, morale (related with ethics), team work and the most important of all Trust appears (Schmidt, 2015 ). Here in Colombia we try to do everything in teams because it gets easier and you always work with friends that you know they work and make suggestions. Nevertheless, when you do not know your teammates it gets complicated because as a Colombian I would say we do not trust in others, this is mainly for cultural and historical factors.

With the stated above we can say that in order to have a good team is important to maintain your mind open, communicate effectively and be prepare to deal with others opinions and suggestion, that is what a good leader should do to make other comfortable with the team.

Virtual teams

According to professor Heiko Schmidt we can define virtual teams as “Virtual teams are teams geographically disperse that works through communication technologies (Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Viber and others) in which communication face to face is limited” (Schmidt, 2015 ). Virtual teams are used to increase the respond to the changes of the market, in addition, helps the company to gain more knowledge about specific problems and solve through the interaction of different people from different backgrounds (Virtual teams are similar to multicultural teams).

Some of the advantages of virtual teams are (Managing Virtual Teams, n.f.):

1-      Time is flexible

2-      Money: you save money because there is no need to have a physical location.

3-      Comfort: you have the possibility to work at home and set you own schedule.

Disadvantages (Managing Virtual Teams, n.f.)

1-  The communication is made through devises, which affects the understanding of not verbal communication

2-     Multicultural teams: they are composed by different people with different backgrounds, beliefs and values which complicates the work

3-   Time: even though we have our own schedule, we have to plan meetings at night or early in the morning.

What are the principles of virtual teams?

According to the Harvard Business Review in order to have an effective virtual team is important to take into account the following advises (Michael Watkins, 2013):

1-      Get the team together physically early-on. It may seem paradoxical to say in a post on virtual teams, but face-to-face communication is still better than virtual when it comes to building relationships and fostering trust, an essential foundation for effective team work.

2-      Clarify tasks and processes, not just goals and roles. All new leaders need to align their team on goals, roles and responsibilities

3-      Commit to a communication charter. Communication on virtual teams is often less frequent, and always is less rich than face-to-face interaction, which provides more contextual cues and information about emotional states — such as engagement or lack thereof.

4-      Leverage the best communication technologies. Developments in collaborative technologies — ranging from shared workspaces to multi-point video conferencing — unquestionably are making virtual teaming easier.

5-      Build a team with rhythm. When some or all the members of a team are working separately, it’s all-too-easy to get disconnected from the normal rhythms of work life. 

6-      Foster shared leadership. Defining deliverables and tracking commitments provides “push” to keep team members focused and productive; shared leadership provides crucial “pull.”

7-      Don’t forget the 1:1s. Leaders’ one-to-one performance management and coaching interactions with their team members are a fundamental part of making any team work. 

Bibliografía

Managing Virtual Teams. (n.f.). Obtenido de http://managing-virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-articles/project-management/advantages-and-challenges-of-virtual-work-teams.html

Michael Watkins. (Junio de 27 de 2013). Obtenido de https://hbr.org/2013/06/making-virtual-teams-work-ten/

Schmidt, H. (2015 ). Virtual teams.