Best Practices in Virtual Teams

Collaborative Work Environments The scenario is that you have been assigned to lead a new organizational initiative to implement a system to help foster collaboration for those who are located at each of your four sites within the same town. You are the team lead and you must develop the proposal for presentation to your supervisor. To help get you started, I have proposed the project objective. Project Objective: To develop a team proposal to implement a system that will strengthen the organizational culture and enhance cross site collaboration.

A key attribute of such a system will be to enhance the transfer and sharing of knowledge. To help foster collaboration between the four sites in the same town, a cross-functional team should be created with leaders from different divisions who are adept in their roles in their specific departments and can effectively represent their business function. By having members with different areas of expertise, it can help overcome some of the functional or technical boundaries that may be present in the organization.

The goal will be to match the team design in a way that represents as much as the organization as possible. Furthermore, it will also be important to fill the team with leaders from the different departments and from the different locations so that these individuals can help disseminate information about and from the group to the different locations and/or departments. It is also important to get executive level support for the team from the very beginning.

Having the support of the highest level of leadership in the organization can facilitate progress towards the project's objectives at every stage. Furthermore, having this support can also be helpful in the selection process which should be as comprehensive as possible based on competencies and attributes. High level of support from the project can remove barriers to staffing the project with top talent from the organization.

Not only should the members of the project team be leaders in their departments, but it will also be beneficial to select an ideal leader (among leaders) for the project itself; having the leaders rotate in the position of project manager should also be considered if there is enough talent to support such a design. Given that the four locations are in the same town, it would be practical to have the team meet face-to-face for the kickoff meeting and much of the early project activities.

The group could engage in a range of team building activities in person to help quickly build trust and make the individual in the group to feel comfortable with each other and hopefully create some synergy. The team can define roles, create a decision matrix, and use the SMART model to create a common framework for aligning their objectives in person.

Although the team will get to meet in person, this framework can also help them later in the project overcome the disadvantages of not being able to meet face-to-face (Harwood, N.d.). However, given the fact that the project team will consist of organizational leaders from different departments, the project should shift to a virtual team format after the initial project phases. This will ensure that the project makes the best use of team members' time and does not take away from their primary responsibilities.

The team should meet virtually on a weekly basis (or even more frequent basis) to discuss the project's progress as well as meet on an impromptu manner whenever an obstacle or challenge presents itself. The project should also designate a "sensemanager" to guide the team's conversations using the 5C to allow the team leader and members stay focused on the purpose, content, and outcome of the team's project (Hinrichs, Seiling, & Stavros, N.d.).

The sensemanager can also suggest the mediums in which certain types of communication should take place so that it facilitates the conversations relative to specific objectives. For example, a project wiki might represent the best.