What Makes a Virtual Team Successful?
Virtual teams have helped alleviate the burden and cost of frequently flying around the world to attend company meetings. Corporations are making vast investments in communication networks to enable people from different locations to collaborate on projects, assisting companies in getting the most productivity out of their widespread workforce.
MIT Sloan Management Review’s recent article “Working Together…When Apart” studies virtual teams from various multinational corporations. They found certain traits and practices common among the most successful virtual teams and their employers. Here are some rules the researchers found, that if abided by, will increase the success of your virtual team:
- Physical separation is one of the biggest challenges virtual team members face. Companies should therefore invest in an online resource where members can quickly learn about one another.
- Virtual teams tend to be much more productive and innovative if they include some people who already know each other. However, be sure not to choose too many and run the risk of the team becoming stale and predictable.
- Ensure that at least 15% of the team is made up of “boundary spanners”, people with a lot of connections to useful people outside the team.
- Coordinating work across time zones can be very challenging, therefore assign tasks to team members in different locations that allow them to move ahead at their own pace.
- Create an online site where a team can collaborate, exchange ideas and inspire one another.
- Encourage frequent communication. But don’t try to force social gatherings.
- One of the biggest reasons virtual teams fail is boring subject matter. Assign tasks that are meaningful to both team and company, in order to ignite excitement among the members.
- When building a virtual team, solicit volunteers as much as possible. Virtual teams appear to thrive when they include people whose proof of commitment is their willingness to join the team on their own.
This research, which included case studies of successful virtual teams at companies such as BP PLC, Nokia Corp. and Ogilvy & Mather, in addition to surveys of over 1,500 virtual team members and leaders from various U.S. and European multinational companies, helps to identify why certain virtual teams are hubs of innovation and energy, while others are on the brink of breaking up.
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