![Who We Are ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (17)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (16)
Similar to Staying On Track With Virtual Teams- Web Version 092010
Similar to Staying On Track With Virtual Teams- Web Version 092010 (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Staying On Track With Virtual Teams- Web Version 092010
- 1. Staying on Track with Virtual Teams Presented by Bottom-Line Performance, Inc
Editor's Notes
- KRISTEN – Per our meeting, I think you are creating labels with team names on them. You’ll then be at registration table to ensure that each attendee gets a label on his/her badge. Perhaps Shelby could help you with this task – you could do labels and she could do dots??? In addition, can we use colored dots to identify remote members of a team? This way we wouldn’t have to kill time during the session by having team members try to decide who is going to be remote. Teams: Andretti Green Racing Penski Racing Rahal Letterman Racing AJ Foyt Enterprises Chip Ganassi Racing Petty Enterprises Cheever Racing Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
- Introduce team members to group. (Team – in the interest of time Leanne and I agreed it you can be off the hook for introducing yourselves – unless you really want to.) Explain that BLP’s expertise in virtual teamwork comes from living it every day for years…every team member works in a separate location, and we are all used to working with client teams who are also virtual. We’ve learned from experience what works…and what doesn’t.
- Before we go further, we want to find out about you – our audience for today. Poll the group to find out how many people either currently function or have functioned in the past as a: Member of a work or volunteer team (no sports teams) Leader of a work or volunteer team. How many people work virtually at least part-time? How many have been on a team that has struggled – a lot? How many of you have been on a team that you would say was really successful as a team?
- Somehow link this slide with what was learned from audience in polling as the purpose of the day is explained:. This session is designed to explore both the challenges and the possibilities of virtual teaming. During the session, people will actually experience virtual teaming. Because this session is an abbreviated version of a full-day workshop, we’ll abbreviate the debrief by prioritizing what you want to talk about in terms of lessons learned. Let’s get started by talking briefly about why virtual teamwork is such a hot topic.
- Review key facts that make this a hot topic: More and more people/companies are working virtually! More and more people are telecommuting at least a day a week. 63% increase in the last year in telecommuting. Other people function on teams that are not in the same geographic location. Still others work in corporations that are so vast that even though they are on the same “campus,” people are not really together. Best Buy and IBM are going virtual in a big way and reporting huge productivity and profitability gains as a result. Hype and promise key points: Technology makes all this possible. We have email, IM, web conferencing, application sharing, collaboration tools, cell phones, Blackberries – woo –hoo it’s a cornucopia of tools! The problem is that we can have the tools…but do we have the TECHNIQUE? Do the same techniques that work when we’re all together work when we are virtual? Do the problems that aggravate us when doing non-virtual teaming become huge barriers when we’re virtual?
- Key points: This isn’t about being an effective telecommuter. For a team to exist, a task has to exist. No task means no team. This session focuses on people in different locations who are collaborating on a project that’s focused on completing a specific task – for us, that’s always completing an e-course, an ILT, a needs analysis, or a competency model.
- Quite logically, two key competencies emerge as required for teams: People must be competent at DEMONSTRATING teamwork. People – especially team leaders – must be competent at FOSTERING teamwork. When I wrote the book Teamwork Training, I started by formulating and validating competency models associated with each one of these. I’m betting you can identify a lot of the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required to demonstrate or foster teamwork. What does good look like for each one – let’s start with demonstrating teamwork? What about fostering it? Where are the challenges? How do challenges get magnified or changed when the team is virtual?
- Virtual teaming presents lots of the same challenges as teaming when people aren’t virtual. However, the difficulties arise for different reasons, and the solutions need to be different.. Examples: Communication IS a challenge for most of us, regardless of the type of team we have. In a virtual environment, the lack of F2F and the constant use of email and IM can cause problems because without the nonverbal cues (facial expression, body language), people can misinterpret. People also get lax about communicating – out of sight = out of mind or they over-use one mode and under-use another (email vs. phone, IM versus email, etc. Environment – how do you cultivate an environment for teamwork – when there IS no common environment? Everything is virtual. How does trust grow? How does the team leader create an environment that fosters teamwork when you don’t SEE your team-mates or their work environment? Environment becomes about attitude, technology, emotion, etc. Efficiency and collaboration – balancing efficiencies of home office (less distractions) against efficiencies of collaboration – getting group together to brainstorm ideas/designs/etc. We find we’re always better on creative tasks when we partner. Partnering in the right way is the challenge because bringing 5 people who work in separate geographic locations is much more expensive than doing a phone conference with the same 5 people – or just relying on one or two people. In virtual world, where getting together always requires thought, a team can opt to repeat a design, a technique, etc. because it’s most efficient. We can fail to challenge each other to come up with the more innovative, effective idea because we already have an efficient idea.
- Okay…you have some context. Now, let’s try being virtual teams. Team name is on sticker. These are the teams, which should each consist of 6-8 people. We should have a minimum of 4 teams and a maximum of 8 teams. We should end up with the same number of observers as we have teams. (i.e. if we create 4 teams, then we should assign 4 people to be simulation observers): Andretti Green Racing Penski Racing Rahal Letterman Racing AJ Foyt Enterprises Chip Ganassi Racing Petty Enterprises Cheever Racing Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Observers go directly to Indy Car table. (There should be one observer for every team we have. Observers are NOT associated with a particular team. Their job is to rotate among all teams to make observations. After the simulation, they will identify a team to sit with and provide their insights to the team.) Once people are at tables, give them 1 minute to select a leader. The leader will be the person who has the newest car. The tie-breaker will be the person with the sportiest car –as voted on by the team.?
- SHARON and LEANNE : Take observers and leaders out of the room. Leanne preps observers; Sharon preps leaders. Before sending leaders back to teams, Sharon should encourage team leaders to gather cell phone #s from team members . Meanwhile…. GAYLE : Review slide info with participants. In addition, cover these points: Inform each team where the remote location is located for their team so they are ready to move as soon as their team leader enters the room. Emphasize that there is no “trick” to the task or the simulation. It’s not designed so people fail and it’s not designed to “force” people into certain behaviors (which exercises sometimes do to make a point). Emphasize that this isn’t a competition between teams. There’s no prize for finishing first. Encourage people to share cell phone #s.
- Time clock should start as soon as team leaders arrive at their tables. Remote members should move along BEFORE task gets communicated. In the real world, people would be in remote locations when the task was assigned. BLP TEAM: Help me make sure this happens. We may want to instruct Gayle to make the remote team members move before the team leader can return to the team.
- There’s LOTS you could talk about. This simulation brings out lots of issues related to project management as well as issues related to teamwork. Our focus today, though, is teamwork so our debrief will focus on that aspect of the simulation. Furthermore, because time is limited, we’ll do a vote on which areas you want to assess, discuss, and come up with strategies for handling. We’ll have you do a small group assessment and discussion of the entire group’s top 2 priorities. We’ll then allow you to share your teams’ top challenges and strategies in these areas, as well as share some of BLP strategies – but only on the two areas you identified as priorities. Have everyone vote one time. Then select the top two vote getters as the areas that teams will assess. Allow 15 minutes for teams to talk amongst themselves. Allow 10 minutes for sharing in a large group setting. At this point, BLP strategies should be biggest topic so people feel like they definitely walk away with solutions.
- If I think I’m designing a Toyota and you think we’re designing a Mercedes, then we have a problem. We always start with the outcome – what does success look like – and work backward. If I think slipping the days is okay, and you think it’s catastrophe, then we do not have goal clarity. If I think coming in at budget is success and you define it as coming in UNDER budget, then we do not have goal clarity. If I think being innovative is a hallmark of success while you think innovation is the driver, then we do not have goal clarity. It’s really not enough to say WHAT the task is. You also have to spend time thinking about the how, and making sure everyone agrees.
- TEAM – Please feel free to add strategies that you want to include in any of these debrief slides. Leanne and I brainstormed these, and we can think of examples to support them. Since this is a team presentation, you may want to add others. Also, I really like the idea of different BLP folks sharing examples for the bullet points on each slide – rather than just hearing me do all the talking. If you have an example you want to share – and you feel comfortable doing so – then let me know. I’ll mark my copy and defer to you if the audience chooses a priority in which you’ve marked an item.