Leading Virtually

The unexpected results from our studies comparing virtual team collaboration in virtual worlds to that in instant messaging (see previous post in which we discussed this) have prompted me to rethink the value of virtual worlds for virtual team collaboration. I have so far been focusing on the potential of virtual worlds to add value during the collaboration event itself. Examples of collaboration events might include meetings, problem-solving discussions, submissions of one’s document for review, or anything that involves interaction between team member to move the team’s project forward. Some of our earlier posts (e.g., Building Trust in Virtual Teams) as well as some of the articles I re-read recently reminded me that the happenings BETWEEN collaboration events also may add value to virtual team collaboration and that I should focus on such happenings as well. The happenings between collaboration events include casual conversation, observation of team members as they interact with others on matters unrelated to the team’s work, or any other interactions that don’t pertain to the team’s task or don’t move the team’s task forward.

One does not usually think about what happens between collaboration events in virtual teams because interactions among virtual team members are typically about the project and, thus, collaboration-oriented. It is atypical for a virtual team member to call or email another member just to chat. Interactions tend to be deliberate, focusing on the team’s tasks and moving the project forward. However, in a traditional setting (i.e., one in which team members are physically located in the same place), there may be interaction between collaboration events in the form of social chit-chat, observation of team members, etc. These interactions facilitate future work and help build relationships, and it is possible for virtual worlds to enable such interactions. Before we explore that possibility, let us briefly look at the work of Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson and Martha Feldman, who discuss these interactions in their paper “Electronic Mail and Organizational Communication: Does Saying ‘Hi’ Really Matter?.”

Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman say that in a traditional setting, there are two types of interactions between collaboration events. The first type is the casual social conversations. Social conversations may occur, for example, when we happen to meet someone in the hallway. One aspect of such interactions is that we signal to our communication partner that we are available or interested in having such interaction with her/him. Without such a signal, an engaging social conversation would not be possible. The second type of interaction that occurs between collaboration events consists of those in which we don’t wish to be engaged or it is not appropriate for us to be engaged. This may happen, for instance, when we are in somebody’s office talking and that individual receives a phone call. In such a situation, we signal our lack of interest in the conversation (the authors refer to this as signaling our unavailability) by looking outside the window. One thing common to both types of interactions that occur between collaboration events is that they tend to be unplanned and brief.

Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman argue that both types of interaction are crucial for team building and collaboration. Casual, unplanned conversations provide opportunities for organizational members to expand their network of contacts and their knowledge about other members. They enable gossip, which opens up channels that can be used for substantive work in the future. They are also important for socializing organizational members into an organization’s culture. In short, these casual, unplanned conversations are useful for facilitating work and social relationships in an organization. The researchers argue that such conversations are not possible in electronic media, such as electronic mail and discussion boards, because they (the electronic media) require planning or intent to communicate with someone, even if that someone is unknown or unplanned.

While casual, unplanned conversations are often recognized as valuable, the other type of interaction that Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman talk about is typically not even discussed. I believe a key point in Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman’s work is that interactions in which we don’t wish to be engaged or in which it is not appropriate for us to be engaged make an important contribution to collaboration, though in a less direct way. The researchers argue that how we signal our lack of interest in being engaged or engaging further is critical to the formation of our trustworthiness as communication partners. We may use a variety of nonverbal behaviors, such as appearing rushed in the hallway, remaining standing during a meeting, or edging towards the door to signal our unavailability for an engagement or to signal our wish to end an engagement. When, as we are passing by, we see A engaged in a conversation with B we may signal lack of our interest in that conversation through cues such as avoiding eye contact or scanning over a document that we are holding. By signaling our unavailability or lack of interest in engagement in a socially accepted way, we establish our social reputation (to those who can observe us) as trustworthy and valuable communication partners.

Based on their analysis of interactions that take place between collaboration events, Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman say (note their point about signaling unavailability):

We encourage managers to treat opportunities for casual contact as an important part of work. Our research suggests some reasons that the casual contact that occurs not only at conference resorts but also at such places as the coffee pot, the lounge, the hallway and the company picnic is important in building trust. Not only do such settings encourage casual conversation, but they also place people in circumstances in which they must signal that they are not available to chat. The ability to do so in ways that do not unduly embarrass the potential partner is an essential element in social interaction.

However, the interactions that Sarbaugh-Thompson and Feldman encourage are not possible in electronic mail, discussion boards, telephone/web conferencing, or shared folders, all of which are technologies that are commonly used by virtual teams. One is not a witness to the behaviors or activities of others in between the planned interactions enabled by these media. Could virtual worlds help us overcome this limitation of electronic media that are typically used by virtual teams?

Information in popular press about the use virtual worlds by virtual teams (e.g., see interview with Nicole Yankelovich, primary investigator or Sun Microsystem’s virtual world, MPK20) suggests that virtual worlds may enable useful interaction between collaboration events (see a video of Sun Microsystem’s MPK20, which demonstrates the informal encounters possible in virtual worlds used in an organizational setting). Virtual worlds may enable casual bumping into a team member and sharing reactions to last night’s championship game. If there is a gathering in the hallway that you should not interrupt, you may be able to show disinterest tactfully. Or, if you are having a meeting with someone, you may be able to shoot a quick “I will get back to you via email” to a team member who stops by looking for an answer s/he had requested earlier. Sure, some of the informal encounters in virtual worlds may help you conduct useful task exchanges and directly build relationships as has been previously recognized (see results of a survey on the use of virtual worlds for collaboration), but in others you may simply be signaling your unavailability for or lack of interest in engagement in a socially acceptable way. When these signals repeat over a period of time, they may contribute to the formation of an impression of you as someone who adheres to social norms and can be expected to carry out her/his role expectations and, thus, they may contribute to the formation of trust and collaboration within the team.

It may be interesting for researchers and designers of media for virtual teams to explore the combination of virtual worlds with social networking technology. Social-networking technology can provide transparency about what others have been doing between formal meetings or collaboration events. This may show how well an individual follows social norms when that individual engages others virtually. While virtual worlds rely on synchronous events to learn about others, social-networking technologies don’t and, therefore, may be an interesting complement to virtual worlds for teams that span distant time zones. However, it is not clear how signaling of unavailability when one is present occurs in social-networking technology, what it means, and what impact it has on the formation the impression of someone as worthy of communicating and working with. We need systematic research studies to evaluate the benefits of informal encounters enabled by virtual worlds and the increased transparency of others’ behaviors/activities enabled by social-networking technology to be able to arrive at useful prescriptions about which technology to use when. What this means is that it is time for me to get back to research!

Popularity: 31% [?]

What: Wall Street Journal article “Managers Learn to Bond with Remote Workers.”
Posts to which it is related: Virtual Teams - Beneficial or Detrimental, Manipulate Perceptions to Improve Virtual Team Performance, Implicit Communication and Culture: What it Means for Leading Virtual Teams, Building Trust in Virtual Team
Bottom Line: Article indicates that it is becoming more critical for managers to understand how to oversee remote employees. One of the ways in which managing remote employees can be made easier is to hire or recruit people who are ready to work in a virtual environment. Our take on this suggestion is that this is easier said than done. This suggestion also goes against why you set up virtual teams - very often, your aim is to find individuals who have the domain knowledge that you need for your project and these individuals may not have the experience of working virtually. Other suggestions offered by this article include the following: (1) Go and meet the remote members of your team to open up communication channels and to build relationships and trust; (2) Communicate each person’s role and business objectives regularly and set up agreed-upon ways to resolve conflicts and solve problems early on; (3) Train the remote employees in technology if needed; (4) Put yourself in the shoes of the remote workers you are working with; (5) Learn as much as possible about the remote workers (e.g., check for personal web sites and profiles on the corporate intranet or on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.); (6) Use clear language in your communication.

What: CIO Australia article “Running an Effective Teleconference or Virtual Meeting.”
Posts to which it is related: Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology, Building Trust in Virtual Team
Bottom Line: Article provides various tips for running an effective teleconference. These are: (1) While typical ground rules for ordinary meetings (e.g., sending information in advance of the meeting) apply here as well, there are additional rules that you need to keep in mind (e.g., stay out of your email); (2) Be the eyes for other participants; (3) Encourage participation; (4) Consider using the mute button to cut down on background noise; (5) Stay conscious of time zones; (6) Technology can help but use it for good, not evil.

What: Wall Street Journal article “‘Telepresence’ is Taking Hold.”
Posts to which it is related: Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology, Building Trust in Virtual Team
Bottom Line: Improvements in technology and higher gas prices are making ‘telepresence’ technology more attractive for virtual team meetings. A telepresence system is a high-definition videoconferencing system with smooth video and high quality audio. Document sharing is possible and people in more than two locations can participate in the same meeting. Though most telepresence systems are costly (they range from $200,000 to $500,000 per room), their acceptance is increasing rapidly (1,000 telepresence systems were sold in 2007 compared to 200 in 2006). Hotels, which stand to lose from reduced business travel, are installing telepresence systems and making them available to business travelers. These systems have become easier to use and demand among users in organizations that have installed such systems is very high.

Popularity: 28% [?]

What: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle article titled “Supervising a virtual team is still all about basics.”
Posts to which it is related: Overcoming Virtual Team Challenges: After Action Review, Building Trust in Virtual Teams
Bottom line: The article talks about three things needed to manage virtual teams: (1) Communication - share all relevant information with the team and use appropriate channels; (2) Be sure to involve distant members in strategic planning, decision-making and negotiations; and (3) Celebrate successes with the team. The author recommends a new book, Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs and other Collaborative Tools (Wordware Publishing), by M. Katherine Brown, Brenda Huettner and Char James-Tanny for additional tips on how to manage virtual teams.

What: Medical News Today article titled “Experts At AGS’ Annual Scientific Meeting Determine ‘Virtual’ Interdisciplinary Healthcare Teams Improve Care For Chronic Patients.”
Posts to which it is related: Leading to Increase Commitment in Virtual World Collaboration.
Bottom line: This article talks about a study to be presented at the American Geriatrics Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting, on May 2, 2008. Rush University Medical Center conducted a pilot project (Virtual Integrated Practice or VIP) that coordinated care for diabetic patients by linking physician practices to pharmacists, social workers and dietitians via phone, fax, and email. As a result of coordinated care higher risk diabetic patients getting VIP care made fewer trips to the ER over a period of two years compared to similar patients without virtual team care. The former also reported better understanding of how to use their medications. Physicians who participated in virtual teams reported being better informed about how their patients were doing between visits than physicians who did not.

What: Chief Learning Officer article titled “Building Exceptional Virtual Learning Teams.”
Posts to which it is related: Building Trust in Virtual Teams, Helping Your Virtual Team Take Ownership of the Team’s Project, Difficulty in the Trenches of Virtual Teamwork.
Bottom line: The article recommends five things for creating virtual learning teams: (1) Adopt project management principles; (2) Use team inventory tools to access strengths and weaknesses of team members; (3) Use technology for a collaborative virtual work environment; (4) Enhance openness and trust; and (5) Encourage professional development of team members.

Popularity: 48% [?]

What: Chief Learning Officer article on leading in the digital age.
Posts to which it is related: Controls in Virtual Teams: The Case of Boeing, Culture Matters in Virtual Teams, Building Trust in Virtual Teams, Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology
Bottom line: The article reports results from a survey of 247 executives conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The survey, which focused on virtual team leadership, led to several conclusions. First, a communication strategy focusing on frequency of communication and how to communicate clearly and concisely is central to virtual team leadership. Part of this strategy includes creating a central database to store team’s documents and knowledge and using collaborative technologies. Leaders should stay in touch with remote workers via regular phone meetings and email updates of corporate news. Second, leaders must have collaboration and project management skills. Unless there is evidence that remote workers are not being productive, leaders should let go of excessive controls. According to Michael Kossler, lead senior enterprise associate at CCL, ” … the worst thing a virtual leader can do is try and micromanage from afar, especially if there are different cultures involved.” LeadingVirtually.com’s take on the last point is that a virtual team’s leader should take into account the culture of team members while deciding how much control and what type of control to exercise. See the following posts in which we have discussed controls and culture: Controls in Virtual Teams: The Case of Boeing, Culture Matters in Virtual Teams.

What: Wall Street Journal article on the challenges that Boeing’s CEO Jim McNerney is facing.
Post to which it is related: Controls in Virtual Teams: The Case of Boeing
Bottom line: One of the challenges that this article talks about is the delays faced by the 787 Dreamliner. We had analyzed Boeing’s problems as arising partly due to the lack of behavior controls in outsourcing arrangements. In this article, we see signs that Boeing is focusing more on such controls. According to this article, “Mr. McNerney gets almost daily briefings on the plane’s progress. He has insisted that Boeing managers take a more aggressive role in sticking their noses into suppliers’ operations, including stationing Boeing employees in every major supplier’s factory.”

What: New York Times article on self control.
Post to which it is related: Controls in Virtual Teams: The Case of Boeing, Building Trust in Virtual Teams, Overcoming Virtual Team Challenges: After Action Review
Bottom line: The article indicates that we have a limited amount of willpower and that we should use it judiciously for things that matter. The article reports an interesting study in which one set of people were asked to eat radishes while another set was asked to eat freshly baked chocolate chip cookies before solving an impossible puzzle. The radish-eaters gave up on solving the puzzle sooner than cookie-eaters or those who were excused from eating radishes. We have a limited store of willpower; radish-eaters depleted a significantly greater amount of their limited store of willpower than the cookie-eaters before starting to work on the problem. Therefore, the radish-eaters ran out of their willpower and abandoned the puzzle sooner than the cookie-eaters. What does this mean for leading virtually? As indicated by the Chief Learning Officer article and by some of our earlier posts (see the links to these posts at the top of this item), leading virtually requires discipline and diligence. It may be counterproductive for you as a virtual team leader to work towards multiple things at the same time if all those things demand discipline and diligence. You should focus on succeeding on a single “to do” (or a few “to do’s”) that requires discipline and diligence. With success and frequent practice, willpower becomes stronger over time. Another tip implied by this article: since the exercise of willpower reduces your ability to exercise future self-control in the short-term by depleting your blood sugar, boosting your blood sugar in between actions that require willpower (by drinking a glass of lemonade, for example) can boost your willpower for the subsequent action. Now that’s a tasty suggestion!

What: Scientific American podcast article on when the virtual self changes the real you.
Post to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web
Bottom line: This is a relatively older article but one that our team came across recently. It reports a study at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In this study, subjects did one of three things: they watched their avatar (i.e., their digital representation of themselves) running on a treadmill, they watched their avatar doing nothing, or they watched another person jogging. Those who watched their avatar jogging spent an hour more exercising within a 24-hour period compared to subjects in the other two conditions! The rationale: we are influenced more by those who are similar to us in looks, values, and education. Who is a better model to persuade us than our own self? What this means is that we may be able to use virtual worlds to train people on how to collaborate to make them collaborate more in the physical world. In fact, one may be able to think of all kinds of training activities in virtual worlds in order to change behavior of individuals in physical worlds. Of course, it will be useful to find out the boundaries of this effect before we follow it unquestioningly.

Popularity: 80% [?]

One of the benefits of virtual collaboration is that team members and leaders have a number of ways they can complete tasks, interact, and communicate. In this posting, I want to highlight this range of possibilities and draw from my own experience to demonstrate the broad range of leadership roles that can be accomplished virtually. I have a coaching and consulting practice, and much of my contact with clients is virtual. I have often used technology to help me be more effective in my coaching and consulting practice. In essence, I play the role of a virtual team leader when working with clients. My experience is relevant not only to coaches and consultants, but to many of today’s multi-tiered virtual teams (for example, there are many software development team consisting of both a manager and a team lead; in such cases, the manager acts as a coach for the team lead who is working directly with the software developers).

Let’s start by considering the nature of the work I’ve done with clients where I acted as a virtual team leader. Much of the consulting I do with clients consists of developing a work process of interest or concern to the client. The first step is to create a vision. Then we must create a concrete plan to implement the vision with the client’s work group. The last step deals with developing a system to monitor or assess how well the newly implemented vision is working. These three tasks vary along a few key dimensions such as the ambiguity or concreteness of the task, the number of people I’m actively engaging or the number of people who have input into the “task”, and the kind or scope of thinking skills needed to work through the task. Many types of tasks can be successfully accomplished virtually, as I’ll recount from my experiences.

Developing a vision virtually is a fairly ambiguous task, requiring global thinking and creativity. In most cases I have dealt with one individual in this step (an organizational decision maker), but team vision creation is also possible. The client’s vision may be simple or larger than life. I often find they have a “general” vision, but it may lack specifics. First, I prepare for our first meeting by getting a series of questions ready that will help lead clients to specific outcomes they would like to achieve in the future. The technologies I use are PowerPoint, Word, or some other format that can be easily shared. I often discuss this with the client over the phone, or in a virtual meeting (I use GoToMeeting or WebEx). Bear in mind that you MUST turn up your own emotions when leading virtually. Do not expect to get the same level of engagement you get in a face to face meeting over the phone without being in a peak emotional state. To start things in a positive mindset, I often start a meeting asking the client to share all of the positive things going for them lately. It’s a real challenge to express in a phone call or web meeting what would normally be communicated nonverbally with body language. I personally prefer standing up and pacing as I speak. Remember, you must turn your voice up a notch when you don’t have the benefit of a face to face meeting.

Next, I ask the client to use paper and pen to write down answers to the set of questions regarding vision development in the document I have shared with him/her. Again, getting the client involved physically as well as mentally and emotionally is needed when leading virtually. Asking them to write instead of just using a computer is one way of drawing people in. Now I go back and review the questions and start to put the vision statement together in software we are sharing via the Internet while on the phone. The key thing during the “vision creation” task, which is ambiguous and requires holistic and creative thinking, is that I try to incorporate several communication channels and work media and pay special attention to communicating emotion.

The second task is to implement the vision, which requires teamwork but is a more concrete and focused task than vision creation. Implementation begins with disseminating the plan to the work group, and there are currently lots of options for this. I suggest my clients deliver the vision/message in a PowerPoint document. This can be shared with the work group virtually in several ways:

• Using a virtual meeting platform like WebEx or Go to Meeting to deliver a live PowerPoint presentation over the Internet to as many as a thousand people at a time worldwide.
• The PowerPoint presentation can be linked with audio and watched like a movie and distributed anywhere in the world via e-mail.
• A client can be recorded delivering his/her vision presentation and the recording can be posted to a website and be available anywhere in the word, 24 hours a day.

Once the vision is disseminated, implementation needs to be a group effort. The first question that arises from the client’s work group is “how?” How do we get there, how do we change what we are currently doing, how will this affect me? An effective leader will help followers find the answers to these questions. I, as a virtual team leader, help clients get their work group in alignment by:

• Creating process maps using diagrams while interviewing the client’s work group over the phone. New employees can then post these diagrams in their work area as a reference to help them complete their tasks.
• Video recordings can be made of someone successfully completing the task and then be available to followers on a website.

One key challenge for this task is coordination. While vision creation is more ambiguous, this step might also require strong thinking skills in order to translate vision into feasible everyday work processes. Ultimately, accomplishing this task has a lot to do with team building and getting work group members to buy into the new processes being established. Lastly, the work group needs to develop a system of assessing whether the newly implemented vision is working. This task tends to be the most concrete, and often requires participation more than teamwork - this step is primarily about measuring activity. Clients need to follow up to make sure the tasks are being performed correctly and in a timely manner. I connect with the client via the phone and the internet for web conferencing, this time with the client playing the role of presenter so I can see their task assignment process on the PC screen. I have helped clients use various software applications to delegate and track tasks such as:

• Helping clients learn to assign tasks virtually through any of several software applications like Microsoft Outlook. Once a task is assigned the client can monitor when their staff indicates they have completed the task through the software. If the task is not completed by the assigned deadline the client can follow up with a phone call or an e-mail. This technology may help address timeliness but what about accuracy?
• If a client wants to monitor followers virtually in real time to provide feedback there are a couple of ways. Having the staff person use a webcam may help a leader observe the worker but not necessarily the task he/she is performing. Another choice is to create a shared workspace with the staff person on their PC using Microsoft Office Groove. Any documents being worked on in a shared Groove workspace are observable by everyone who has access to the workspace in real time.

I hope this blog post has demonstrated how virtual teamwork (even in a multi-tiered hierarchy) can be successfully accomplished for many types of tasks. The key is knowing how to implement technologies (particularly in effective combinations) and to communicate in a way that is appropriate for each type of task. My experience as a coach and consultant shows that virtual team leadership can be effective for ambiguous or concrete tasks, large or small teams, and broad or focused thinking.

Note: The technologies that I have described in this article come primarily from Microsoft. They are not necessarily the only technologies available to achieve the stated goals. They were chosen simply because I have experience with them.

Popularity: 99% [?]

What: Journal article synthesizing research on effective virtual teams.
Citation: Bergiel, B.J., Bergiel, E.B., & Balsmeier, P.W. (2008). Nature of virtual teams: A summary of their advantages and disadvantages. Management Research News, 31(2), 99-110.
Post to which it is related: Virtual Teams - Beneficial or Detrimental?,
Bottom line: This is a really nice overview article of the research about virtual teams that is broadly relevant to practitioners. The authors summarize the most crucial factors in only 9 pages of text, using very clear language without confusing terminology or jargon. And the fact that they also interviewed practitioners seems to focus the academic summary in a really useful way. They cite trust, communication, leadership, goal setting, and technology choice as the most crucial factors that determine whether a virtual team is effective. They also discuss the most common barriers to communication, with practical implications for virtual team managers and members.

What: Journal article investigating the effects of cultural diversity and technology on global virtual teams.
Citation: Schachaf, P. (2008). Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study. Information & Management, 45, 131-142.
Post to which it is related: Implicit Communication and Culture: What It Means for Leading Virtual Teams,
Bottom line: This article is much more academic and formal than the previous one listed in this digest. Although practitioners may be interested in reading about the study in this article, often the front end (intro and theoretical background) and back end (implications and conclusions) are most useful to non-academic readers. This article is particularly relevant to geographically dispersed virtual teams, functioning across cultural and spatial boundaries. Results show that cultural diversity has a positive influence on decision making quality, but a negative impact on communication (pretty intuitive). The most important contribution of the study might be that varied and frequent use of technology was found to lessen the negative impact of cultural diversity on communication, and to heighten the positive impact on decision making. This study shows how important the choice of technology (or combination of types of technology) can be for a virtual team’s success.

What: Irish Medical News article about the launching of a new virtual research health center.
Post to which it is related: Leading Virtually Digest, April 8, 2008.
Bottom line: This one relates to an earlier digest article about a virtual cancer research network. The success of virtual research networks seems to be encouraging governments to invest in building more of them. One interesting point from this article is that money goes straight to the main purpose, doing medical research, rather than expensive capital costs like constructing buildings. It seems to me that this can be a great advantage for the consumer, if the network is strong and important information doesn’t slip through the cracks.

What: Dinar Standard article about business strategies for managing virtual teams, with a specific focus on the Muslim business environment.
Post to which it is related: Culture Matters in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: We seem to hear so much about Western-based businesses implementing virtual teams, but hear much less from the perspective of other parts of the world. I like this article because in it one can see that the underlying principles of hiring for and managing virtual teams are similar everywhere, yet it also discusses specific challenges from a non-Western, Muslim perspective.

Popularity: 100% [?]

What: The Scientist article on virtual collaboration among cancer researchers.
Bottom line: This article is a little technical, but the part about a virtual collaboration tool is understandable even to someone outside the medical field. The author discusses the creation of an online platform, called as caBIG (pronounced see-a-big), that integrates data worldwide and provides tools for a virtual community of cancer researchers. With the help of this platform, cancer research and treatment will be accelerated when multiple members of this community (i.e., those from the fields of genomics, proteomics, pathology, imaging, and clinical trials), each with a different set of needs and perspectives, use and share research data. This article is relevant to organizations wanting to integrate across silos of data and tools that hinder collaboration. See useful videos.

What: Wall Street Journal article on technology companies offering their workers private workspace in virtualworlds.
Post to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web
Bottom line: The article talks about companies like IBM and Sun turning to virtual offices and landscapes as tools to help employees and business partners collaborate and learn. According to this article, IBM is expected to announce that it will run Linden software on its own servers to allow it to set up private Second Life environments.

What: eMediaWire press release announcing a new gaming virtual world called ourWorld.
Bottom line: This appears to be a blend of the usual massively multiplayer game and a virtual world - there are numerous things to do, and some of them have a goal or mission. It’s interesting to see a new idea emerge about what a virtual world can be.

What: Forbes.com Q&A with Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life’s Linden Labs.
Bottom line: This Q&A quickly sums up a lot of the growing pains of Second Life. Since it’s the largest virtual world, it seems to be the first going through a lot of the ups and downs that other virtual communities might also experience.

Popularity: 81% [?]

I have been thinking about what one can do in virtual team meetings conducted in virtual worlds to make participants feel and react as if they are face-to-face with other participants. Part of me says that this is an “ideal” that we may never reach. At the same time, I am aware of research (more) indicating that it is possible to create situations in which individuals react to computers as if they are reacting to other humans. So it may not far fetched to think that one day we will be able to create a virtual world environment in which participants interact with avatars of other participants as if they are face-to-face with them.

Recently I came across an article on BBC News that may be relevant for our discussion on how we could create more realism in virtual world meetings. This article, Massage Illusion Helps Amputees, reports a study by Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran of University of California, San Diego, with ex-soldiers whose one limb had to be amputated. In one experiment, the amputees put their remaining hand in front of a mirror in a device called as the mirror box (image). This device tricks an amputee’s brain into thinking that the mirror image is actually another working limb. When the normal hand of the amputees was touched, they felt the sensation of being touched on the missing hand. In a second experiment, amputees experienced a stroking sensation arising from their missing limb when they watched someone stroking a volunteer’s hand.

This fooling of the brain into thinking that the lost limb is being touched or massaged is due to the presence of mirror neurons in our brain. These neurons fire up when we perform an action (e.g., pick up something) as well as when we observe someone else perform that action. In the case of amputees, their mirror neurons and the mirror box trickery combined to create the sensation that they reported. Mirror neurons were discovered by accident in Italy during early 1990s when scientists observed that certain brain cells (i.e., those involved in planning and execution of motor action) in monkeys fired up not only when the monkeys brought a peanut to their mouth but also when they observed a human or another monkey carry out that action (see New York Times article titled Cells that Read Minds). Since then, we have discovered that humans too have mirror neurons. Moreover, there are different types of mirror neurons in humans and they are smarter, more flexible, and more highly evolved than those found in monkeys (see PBS’ informative video on mirror neurons).

The mirror neurons in humans are believed to help in learning and social cognition. Scientists claim that the system of mirror neurons in humans enables social interaction by helping individuals understand the actions, intentions, and emotions of others. In the New York Times article linked to above, Dr. Rizzolatti, the Italian neuroscientist whose team discovered the mirror neurons, says “We are exquisitely social creatures. Our survival depends on understanding the actions, intentions and emotions of others. Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking.” Thus, when people say “I feel your pain,” it may be because their mirror neurons that usually fire up when they experience pain are firing.

The above model of mirror neurons implies that if for some reason our mirror neurons don’t fire when we observe something, then we will not reach an understanding of what we are observing. Indeed, a study conducted in Dr. Ramachandran’s lab with autistic individuals supports this idea. Autistic individuals are known to have difficulties with empathy and social interaction. The study found that the autistic subjects had a dysfunctional mirror neuron system — their mirror neurons responded only to their actions and not to the actions of others. Bottom line: We reach an understanding of what we are observing because our mirror neurons resonate as if we are engaged in what we are observing.

How is all of this about mirror neurons related to leading and managing virtual teams? Ideally, we would like to know what being face-to-face with others means in a neurological sense. Once we know that, we can begin thinking about how to recreate that neurological stimulation in a virtual environment. Knowledge about mirror neurons may be relevant because the firing of mirror neurons is likely to be a part of stimulation in face-to-face meetings; such meetings not only involve taking motor action (e.g., shaking hands with others, making nonverbal gestures, using the mouth to speak) but also observing actions of others. If we could create the equivalent of the mirror box in a virtual world to create the illusion of a face-to-face meeting and stimulate the mirror neurons to fire the way they fire when we are in a face-to-face meeting, then we may be able to recreate the feeling of being with others face-to-face.

How can we create the equivalent of the mirror box in a virtual world? What we have in the mirror box is an example of mixed reality - both virtual and real. The way the mirror box is constructed, one sees both the existing limb as well as a virtual limb in place of the amputated limb. The real arm is used to trick the brain into thinking that the virtual arm is real. A mixed reality virtual world, like the one created at Sun Microsystems and reported in an earlier LeadingVirtually post, might be one way to create the mirror box equivalent. In a mixed reality environment, one sees both the video of some participants (the real thing) and avatars of others (the virtual thing) who are unable to transmit a video of themselves. Another way might be to create an immersive virtual world using a head mounted display and letting the user interact using a haptic interface (see a recent Popular Mechanics article on haptic interfaces). A haptic interface translates a user’s physical actions into computer commands. With an ideal haptic interface, a meeting participant would take the same physical actions that s/he would normally take in a face-to-face meeting. The haptic interface would then translate those physical actions into appropriate actions in the virtual world. For instance, a user of a haptic interface would get up from her/his chair and walk a few steps in order to shake hands with another participant who is only present virtually. By mixing the real with the virtual and stimulating the mirror neurons to fire not only when we take a real action but also when we observe virtual action (e.g., someone extending her/his hand to you), we may be able to trick the brain into believing that we are in a face-to-face meeting. At this stage, these ideas are speculative and it will be worth researching if they are successful at inducing a sense of reality in virtual world meetings.

The ability to create a sensation of reality even though we might be immersed in a virtual environment should not be discounted. The New York Times article mentioned a study that observed children watching a violent television program. This study found activation of mirror neurons and of parts of the brain involved in aggression, thereby increasing the probability that these children would behave violently. At Hadasit, an Israeli company, scientists are employing virtual reality systems to let stroke patients, who are unable to move their arms physically, move them virtually on an LCD screen with the help of small movements of a mouse or joystick. According to the scientists, the virtual experience activates the mirror neurons and induces a therapeutic effect on the patient’s brain. Preliminary results have shown increased arm functioning. Similar improvement in arm functioning have been found in another study that employed virtual reality systems with stroke patients.

While what I have talked about might benefit us in the future as far as leading virtually is concerned, research on mirror neurons does offer us something that we might be able to use right now when we collaborate in virtual teams. A study by Lisa Aziz-Zadeh and colleagues showed that subjects’ mirror neurons responded to someone reading descriptions of certain hand, foot, and mouth actions (e.g., biting the peach) in the same way as when watching videos of those actions. If we accept that the firing of mirror neurons is critical in our reaching an understanding of something, then a corollary of the finding by Lisa Aziz-Zadeh and colleagues is that evocative language that re-enacts action may convey the same meaning or understanding to us as the observation of that action. In a virtual team, if we want others to reach the same understanding as they would reach when observing what we are describing, we should employ language that re-enacts what we are describing. For instance, to praise someone, consider using evocative words such as “I salute you for your efforts” or “Your efforts are worthy of a big hug!” How’s that for instant gratification from futuristic research on mirror neurons?

Popularity: 73% [?]

What: Denver Post article about use of virtual teams and virtual worlds in education.
Post to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web, Building Trust in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: Educators are incorporating virtual teamwork in virtual worlds that are designed specifically for student learning.  Students find that this kind of learning is more interesting and engaging than simply using a text.  Teachers find that the virtual world simulates a lot of important training situations (negotiation, business deals, teamwork) with none of the risk of trying this in a “real life” situation.  Perhaps they could benefit from incorporating a team compact and After Action Reviews.

What: A Government Technology article about use of virtual training for emergencies
Post to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web, Building Trust in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: This is similar to the first digest item - it discusses the use of virtual worlds to train people for disaster recovery and emergency response situations.  Again, the point is that virtual worlds offer a newer form of simulation where the task being practiced is closer to real, but there is still no risk.

What: Business wire article about new IT-related programs at City University of Seattle.
Bottom line: We are starting to see virtual teamwork explicitly included as an element of higher education in IT-related programs.

What: An InfoWorld article about the adoption of virtual collaboration by US intelligence agencies.
Post to which it is related: Leading to Increase Commitment in Virtual World Collaboration, Controls in Virtual Teams: the Case of Boeing, Building Trust in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: US intelligence agencies are adopting a virtual world for collaboration, in order to make better use of dispersed expertise and knowledge.  Since the World Trade Center attack in 2001, US intelligence agencies have been criticized widely for an inability to get information across agencies or even departments where it could be put to use.  If virtual world technology is to be used to overcome this lack of communication, agency employees must buy into the change, and policies and agency culture will probably have to change significantly.

What: Information week review of Qwaq, virtual world software for business meetings.

What: Article in Processor about the increasing use of virtual worlds in business.
Post to which it is related: Virtual Teams: Beneficial or Detrimental?, Lessons from the Military for Collaboration in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: Although people may relate the term “virtual world” primarily to multi-player role playing games or “metaverses” like Second Life, this article points out that virtual worlds have a great deal of potential as a tool for organizations.  This depends upon them being utilized in an effective way.  This article gives some examples of how businesses are currently utilizing virtual worlds.

Popularity: 79% [?]

Here are some of the latest news or articles about virtual teams that we have come across.

What: CIO Whitepaper: Next-generation Collaboration (Novell sponsored IDG Research Report; registration required; also see PR Press Release). Report based on survey responses of 100 senior IT executives.
Bottom line: Though it is critical for individuals in their company to collaborate securely within and outside organizational boundaries, according to IT executives, majority of them don’t find their current collaboration tools to be effective. Most of the IT executives surveyed (52 percent) consider knowledge worker access to collaboration tools like wikis, blogs and online team workspaces as critical or highly important.

What: Times of India article about making cross-border teams work.
Post to which it is related: Implicit Communication and Culture: What it Means for Leading Virtual Teams, Overcoming Virtual Team Challenges: After Action Review, Culture Matters in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: Global organizations can truly benefit from cross-border teams in the form of Global Business Teams (GBT). However, creating value using GBTs is a real challenge. The performance of any GBT is primarily a function of three key elements: the team charter, team composition, and team process.

What: CIO Article offering wisdom on implementing flexible work arrangements(including virtual teamwork) in an organization.
Post to which it is related: Virtual Teams - Beneficial or Detrimental?
Bottom line: This CIO used to be generally opposed to flexible work arrangements, but has changed his mind largely because of improvements in available technologies enabling these arrangements to be effective (other factors are also discussed). This article offers specific details regarding the implemention of policies that support efficiency without undermining performance and discusses common issues relating to infrastructure requirements. The author also describes the many available collaboration technologies, reviewing a number of specific applications. He shares what he believes to be some of the potential benefits of flexible work arrangements and the major factors that influenced success for his organization in implementing these arrangements.

What: ScienceDaily from 2/29/08 reports on the European development of a platform for students from all over the world to collaborate on educational projects.
Post to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web
Bottom line: Most collaboration technologies are built to work for commercial enterprises, but scientists in Europe have developed a platform for students that is designed to integrate elements of e-learning and social networking. Educators are increasingly focusing on the benefits of project-centered teaching and experiential learning. This platform not only incorporates those elements of learning, but also has the potential to connect students from around the world in educational virtual teams.

Popularity: 89% [?]