Picture the following scenario:  A smartly dressed Martin is sitting in the main conference room, at a small office in the heart of Kensington, with the quiet hustle and bustle of the office in the background.  He taps into a conference call at 10am to hold his weekly meeting with his global team.  Marie is the next one to call in.  Based in Sheffield she was en route to see a client but managed to get to a nearby Starbucks to make the call.  However, the screaming children in the background are proving a bit of a distraction.  So when Pablo in Argentina dials in, he is finding it harder than usual to follow Martin's thick Scottish accent, which he struggles with anyway. Meanwhile an exhausted David in Canberrra has obviously had a really hard day and is contributing very little to the meeting.  He also hasn't delivered the presentation Pablo though he would have completed by now, without which Pablo can't commence work on it.  It's 10.30 now and the rest of the team are still waiting for Leanne in Hong Kong to call in.  It's becoming harder for Martin to fill the awkward silences.  Precious time is being wasted.

We can all think of a time have been in such a pointless meeting.  But when you're working in a remote team, these meetings tend to be the main points of contact between key team members and can mean the difference between a project delivering or failing.

Sopohisticated communication
Businesses are increasingly relying on virtual teams to get their jobs or projects done because it's considered to be cost-effective.  Working in virtual teams has become possible largely because of advancement in communication technologies.  Remote teams now have access to a whole array of tools such as WebEx, webinars, teleconferences, videoconferences, instant messaging and even avatars in virtual worlds, such as Second Life.  Some of these tools not only allow you to see each other, but enable teams to share documents and work on them in real time, and basically achieve almost everything they would in a face-to-face meeting, but with much less wasted travel time.

Yet, as illustrated in the scenario we started with, many virtual teams remain unproductive and valuable time is still being wated, despite heavy investments in new technology to enhance remote working.  Why?  The technology used is only effective if all team members know how to use it, so they are able to focus on the content of the meeting and not on which button to click.  Most businesses, however, do not tend to factor in this need for training.  If people aren't comfortable using some of these sophisticated platforms, technophobia can take hold, and these tools won't get used effectively.  That said, even when organisatitons do provide staff with the right training, their virtual teams still may not function.

Lacking 'human' agility?
In our experience of virtual team working, many firms have agile technology, but still lack 'human' agility.  Martin's team, for example, is struggling because they all have different perceptions of what their goals and responsibilities are.  This has led some individuals in the team to inaccurately make assumptions about what they should prioritise and what to expect from others.  Of course, sometimes language can be misinterpreted, especially in an international team, but these misinterpretations tend to occur because a team's culture and ways of working as a whole have been misunderstood.  Martin's team is suffering because there are no clearly defined objectives, roles, or targets.  In other words, due to lack of management.

Unproductive virtual team meetings also tend to lack conference call 'etiquette'.  This incudes how to ask questions of colleagues, giving or getting status updates that are not too brief or too detailed, muting yourself when not talking, avoiding deadly, silent periods, and so on.  Setting ground rules and conference call etiquette are essential if a virtual team is going to succeed in delivering on target.  This requires strong management.

According to many of our clients who currently manage remote teams, the manager's role is crucial to success.  "They need to actively build the team's identity, provide recognition for team and individual achievements, and orchestrate opportunities for team sharing and celebrating successes," said one public sector client.

Steering in the right direction
Like the teams competing in the Cambridge/Oxford boat race, virtual teams don't face each other, but rely on the cox (short for coxswain) to ensure cooperation.  In a boat race, the cox steers the boat, and coordinates the power and rhythm of the rowers.  The manager of a virtual team needs to behave like the cox - giving the right instructions, ensuring communications are clear and that all members of the team are fully engaged, participating as they should be, and steering the team in the right direction.

Another client highlighted, that in her experience, "effective virtual team leaders understand it is important to build time into the process, to help team members understand and appreciate diversity in interpersonal styles, to be a role model in versatility, and adapt your approach to others' preferred communication styles.  It's down to the team leaders and managers to make sure team members have these capabilities and awareness, and help the team build on and enhance their communication skills."

Of course, it's not easy.  It takes longer for diverse, remote teams to be productive, but when they are (through the right management support and training) they can produce great results.

In short, technology is only a tool for communication, and if a virtual team is not managed properly the sophistication of the technology will not compensate.  Managers need to adopt strategies that will not only enhance the bonds between virtual team members, but also improve productivity so teams are quicker to respond to problems, making your organisation more agile as a result.  Of course, it won't be easy, and will take time, but an investment in human agility will result in an agile team the delivers on time.

Creating Agile Virtual Teams:  ER Consultants' Approach
Managers of virtual teams need to be aware that technology is just an enabler, and they still have to manage people to get the best out of them.  Here are a few strategies you can employ to enhance human agility and improve your team's performance:

1. Establish the ground rules early.  It is essential to establish ground rules.  They are useful in determining how team members interact, when they interact and what kind of behaviour is and is not acceptable.  This is an opportunity to gain clarity around the types of language used, particularly beneficial for team across the world.  ER Consultants recognises how critical it is for teams to discuss these ground rules, and identify work and time management styles that could differ due to personal or cultural reasons.  We facilitate building trust and acceptance around those differences.
    
2. Social face-to-face interactions are a must.  Ensuring a team gets together in a single physical location can help to create those unstructured human bonds.  Travel therefore is a critical tool to help build social relations in the team.  This can be as often as once a fortnight or as little as once a year - the key is making these sessions count by creating a team culture where everyone feels a sense of belonging.  ER Consultants can facilitate team events to help create a definite sense of team and identify a clear purpose and goals.
    
3. An awareness of each others responsibilities and accountabilities.  Like any other team, virtual teams must develop a sense that their actions have implications on the team's success or failure.  Therefore, it is crucial to be clear about the shared responsibilities of the team, as well as individual accountabilities.  ER Consultants helps to create effective teams through insightful team evaluations, and individual and team development.  We can support teams in building their performance through evaluating current team effectiveness and running team development programmes to help define clear roles, accountabilities and capabilities.
    
4. Who's making the decisions?  Decision making is crucial in virtual teams as the members may have very different experiences with decision making.  Team members therefore need to understand the different ways decisions can be made and establish a new team decision-making process.  To ensure decsions made are high quality and represent the best thinking of the entire team, our organisation development team can help tackle poor decision making using a wide range of diagnostic and development tools and techniques; we create ownership, build capability and develop the behaviours to improve business performance.
    
5. Face the music and manage conflict early.  Managing conflict early and addressing issues proactively is essential in virtual teams.  As much of the communicating is through e-mail or over web-based meeting tools where body language is missing, there is a greater chance of information or intention being misunderstood.  How many times have you received an email that you wrongly interpret as being inappropriate or offensive?  Email etiquette can fly out of the window when our emotions get the better of us and the urge to send back our point of view whilst copying in the whole team is tempting, yet risky.  Instead of dealing with the problem at face value, we look to the cause of conflict, which isn't always easy to spot.  By working through conflict, we can help to build trust and improve team cohesiveness.
    
6. Personality profiles provide deep insights about the team.  Our personality profiles can help team leaders and members attain a better understanding of others in the team so they work more effetively together.  By having a basic understanding of personality profiles, managers and team members can recognise and deal effectively with personality types.  These insights into human behaviour can lead to tangible results.

For more information, contact:  zara.seager@erconsultants.co.uk