This document provides an overview of effective communication with virtual teams. It begins with an agenda and objectives for the session. It then defines virtual teams and describes their key characteristics, such as being geographically distributed and linked by electronic communication. It notes challenges virtual teams face, such as leadership, team development, and technology. Specific challenges are listed, like establishing goals and trust. Solutions are then presented, such as setting guidelines, using technology to foster collaboration, and providing training. Resources for additional information on virtual teams are also included.

1. WELCOME TO
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
WITH VIRTUAL TEAMS
Created by Aly Anliker and Rachelle Jacover

2. Agenda
• Welcome and Introductions
• Virtual Teams Overview
• Challenges
• Solutions
• Wrap-Up

3. Objectives
At the end of this session you will:
• Identify your virtual team
challenges
• Implement a strategy for
conducting virtual meetings
• Use resources to explore next steps
for virtual communications

4. Virtual Team Definition
Individuals pulled together from various locations to serve
on a group to achieve some important, urgent and specific
objective such as:
• planning and/or launching event
• designing and/or running new program or initiative
• developing and/or testing new product
• running major campaign
• designing and/or implementing improved business
processes
• planning and/or executing change management
• regular team meetings

5. Virtual Team Characteristics
What are some of the
characteristics of virtual teams?
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•
•
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6. Virtual Team Characteristics
• A collection of geographically distributed, functionally
and/or culturally diverse entities
• Linked by electronic forms of communication
• Assembled and disassembled according to need
• Different work shifts or time zones
• Collaborative network of people working together,
regardless of location or who "owns" them

7. Virtual Teams – Observations
• 41 million corporate employees worldwide work virtually one day
per week and are likely to be part of a virtual team – Gartner Group
• 36% of virtual team members have never met their team members
face to face
• 65% of virtual team members report they have never had an
effective team-building session
• Productivity drops over time - virtual teams operating 1- 3 years are
much less likely to be high performing teams compared to teams
that had been together 6 to 12 months.
• In general, management still has an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind”
mentality when it comes to paying attention to virtual teams and
giving them the support and resources they need to be successful.

8. Virtual Communication Challenges
• Leadership
• Team Development
• Technology

9. Leadership Challenges
• Underestimating impact leaders have on success of virtual
team
• Manage expectations by clearly establishing and
maintaining ground rules and assumptions
• Establishing and aligning team and corporate
goals/objectives
• Importance of using tools to communicate effectively in a
virtual meeting environment

10. Leadership Challenges
• Recruiting, introducing and including new members
• Assigning personnel with skills necessary to lead or
participate on virtual teams
• Recognizing the importance of preparing and training
people to be part of virtual teams
• Measuring, motivating and tracking progress of team
• Performance Evaluation - Developing performance
objectives and expectations for team members

11. Team Challenges - Stages of Teams
Tuckman (1965) discovered that
teams normally go through five
stages of growth:
•Forming
•Storming
•Norming
•Performing
•Adjourning

12. Team Challenges
• Retaining productivity, peak performance and
enthusiasm over time
• Establishing and developing a foundation for
collaboration and relationship building
• On-going team building
• Accountability issues where the team find it much easier
to break virtual commitments than verbal ones

13. Team Challenges
• Dealing with communication issues like culture,
language, learning styles
• Not being face to face creates unique challenges
and difficulties in managing the involvement,
commitment and trust building of a team

14. Technology Challenges
Rapidly accelerating business environment with the “do it
now” business culture
+
Complexities in Virtually Networked Teams (Virtual,
Network and Technology Factors)
=
Getting things done is all that more difficult

15. Technology Challenges
Learning how to use
technology to foster
collaboration and effective
meeting processes

16. Technology Challenges
• Introducing and using new technology –
making it work for the team – can be difficult
to adopt
• Accurately confirming and recording
meeting agreements, next steps and
ownership
• Technology problems can derail or distract
meetings

17. Leadership Solutions
• Conduct initial meetings to establish team process
• Learn about new team members, share their information
or ask them to share their background with team
• Virtual meeting to focus on how team work aligns with
corporate goals and objectives
• Onboarding employee to virtual environment – find
buddy or mentor
• Ask team members to lead a meeting or take a topic of
the meeting
• Share copies of presentation, agenda
• Decide on roles, note taker, time keeper, etc.

18. Team Solutions
• Set guidelinesmeeting protocols with teams participation
• Create team notes – disband with action items and persons
responsible, share with team
• Rules when team member can’t meet commitment, ask
“how can team help”
• Round Robin – Make sure you have heard from everyone
at least once during meeting
• May need to coach a member offline

19. Technology Solutions
• Provide different ways participants can use
tools, raise hand, type on slide, chat
• Initial meeting to teach tools and application.
Provide tutorial, training or mentor
• Ask team member with technical challenges
to just listen in. Troubleshoot later. Provide
a copy of the presentation beforehand
• ManagerFacilitator use tools, games, polls,
visuals
• Keep virtual meetings to an hour or less

20. Meeting Tools
• Webex
• Microsoft Live Meeting
• Elluminate
• Adobe Connect
• GoTo Meeting

21. Interactive Meetings
• Raise Hand Feature
• Chat Feature
• Use Annotation Tools
• Allow team to see
who is attending,
gives sense of team
• Participation is key!

22. Sample Team Meeting Guidelines
• Quick check in
• Contribute 1 idea per meeting
• Assume positive intent
• Identify problems and focus on
solutions
• Make sure objectives are realistic in
scope
• Keep to timelines
• Leave with next steps and task
assignments
• Expect work outside meeting via sub
groups and task forces

23. Summary
• Most teams are virtual in some way in our world today
• There are some similarities in team dynamics and
challenges between virtual and face to face teams
• Skills needed for virtual teaming are different than face to
face teams
• Focus on People first: Continue to “learn” about others and
how they learn
• Focus on Technology second: Continue to embrace
technology as a resource
• Focus on accountability and team engagement

24. Resources
• The Gartner Group
http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp
• Quality Digest – Leading Virtual Teams
http://www.qualitydigest.com/sept00/html/tea
ms.html
• Information & Management Best Practices
Study on Virtual Teams – PDF
• Tuckman, Bruce (1965). Developmental
sequence in small groups
• Handbook of High Performance Virtual
Teams, Nemiro, et al

25. Thank You!
503-891-1108
Strategies for Success and Working Creatively