Leaders of virtual teams often talk about having to deal with cultural challenges in their teams. Yet, they have been offered little to help them think systematically about how to adjust their leadership when dealing with such challenges. Things are beginning to change, however. During the recently held International Conference on Information Systems in Montreal, I had the pleasure of… Read more →
A recent Wall Street Journal article “Boeing Scrambles to Repair Problems with New Plane” (December 7, 2007) underscored the importance of controls in virtual teams. Controls are mechanisms used by companies to ensure that the individuals working on their projects act in accordance with their plans. When Boeing embarked on the production of its new 787, it did two things… Read more →
In my last post I suggested that simply copying and pasting the real world into a virtual environment is likely not enough to optimize virtual world collaboration. Sun Microsystems is a company that seems to understand this and is utilizing the company’s virtual world in an interesting way. Rather than make everything a carbon-copy of the real world, Sun is… Read more →
People in organizations have known for a long time that trust is an important antecedent of effective teamwork. So it would make sense for this to hold true not only in face to face groups, but also for virtual teams. This week the Leading Virtually team came across a posting by Bridge the Distance offering help in building trust in… Read more →
Last week, a friend (I’ll call him Al) was telling me about the challenges he’s facing in his virtual team. This team was assembled for a specific long-term project to reformulate information-sharing processes across groups in his financial services company. Team members were recruited because they are high performers and have expertise in their functional areas, so the official team… Read more →
I demonstrated Second Life a few days back to an MBA class on e-business. There seemed to be some confusion about what something like Second Life is for or what people can do there, and for that matter, why they would want to. This confusion seems to exist even among businesses that are building a presence in Second Life. Some… Read more →
I recently heard from a virtual team leader facing challenges in building ownership in his team. It got me reflecting on my own experience with virtual work and the importance of ownership. I have found that when team members think of the project as “their project,” they have a positive attitude towards it and they put in a lot more… Read more →
Being that English is considered the language of commerce and most businesses require us to interact with people from different parts of the world on a daily basis, it is important to realize how what we say can be interpreted differently by dissimilar cultures. Proper business communication skills are becoming even more vital to an organization’s success with the growing emphasis on virtual teamwork, cross cultural learning, and working from home.