Virtual Team Dynamics - The Ulfire Podcast

Trust, respect and fear are the three emotions that most impact the ability of a business or a project to be effective. Sadly, fear is always going to play a part somewhere along the way, but trust and respect must be strong and present in all relationships for a long, sustainable and productive relationship to be built and maintained. The post Trust, Respect And Fear: Emotions Of Getting Things Done appeared first on ULFIRE.

Businesses everywhere are struggling with whether to try to control the ways in which their personnel use social media in connection with their working lives. Some businesses are embracing the possibilities of using social media to support stronger and more resilient virtual teams, while others are still unable to let go of control of the message, insisting that their personnel don't use their social media accounts for any form of business relationship. In this article, we suggest that the time has arrived for companies to get out of the way and even encourage their personnel to use social media to build better work relationships. The post Social Media Use In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding and developing the skills to be a great leader of virtual teams is something that all members of these teams need to build. Leading virtual teams requires a skill set that builds on the skills of a leader of a co-located team. This article identifies eight of the skills that need to be developed to become a truly great leader of virtual teams. The post 8 Effective Virtual Team Leadership Skills appeared first on ULFIRE.

Maintaining the appropriate levels of simplicity in communications in virtual teams is an unending challenge. Resisting the temptation to write ever more complex, jargon filled emails or use multitudes of communication platforms is hard when there are so many tools to choose from and the jargon is such a part of our working lives. Yet, simplicity is key to maintaining clear and reliable communication, and effective communications are the glue that holds teams together. The post Simplicity In Virtual Team Communications appeared first on ULFIRE.

Attaining high productivity from virtual teams is a challenge for many businesses, this article introduces some steps to help get the most from your teams. From spending time planning for your virtual team venture to ensuring you have a suitable reward structure and avoid a blame culture there are many steps you can put in place to build a high productivity virtual team. The post How To Build High Productivity Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

There are many ways virtual teams can fail to deliver the outcomes expected of them. This article draws on all of our years of experience and research to identify the top 4 reasons virtual teams fail and offers some suggestions for ways to avoid the worst of the failures. The post 4 Ways Your Virtual Teams May Be Failing appeared first on ULFIRE.

Asymmetrical risks are frequently discounted in the estimation and management of projects, yet the impact of a risk with a high downside can cause major issues within any project. This article considers why we are so bad at conceptualising asymmetric risks and how the impact of disregarding them can have a disproportionate impact on virtual team activities. The post Understanding Asymmetrical Risks In Project Planning appeared first on ULFIRE.

In this article we consider how important it is to maintain a consistent message when leading teams. Having all of the project team leaders not just say the same thing, but act in a way that reflects their words, helps personnel maintain their focus and avoids un necessary distractions. The post Consistent Messaging In Virtual Team Communications appeared first on ULFIRE.

The recently released movie 'The Martian" contains some excellent examples of the difficulties of communicating in an extreme virtual team environment. Without giving away the plot to the book or film, this article tries to draw out the examples and bring them back to a more terrestrial virtual team environment where time zones, technologies, trust and empowerment are just as relevant. The post The Martian – The Ultimate Virtual Team Challenge appeared first on ULFIRE.

Engineering projects have been using virtual teams for over a decade to deliver major facilities and equipment, along the way they have had varied success in the outcomes of their projects. This article considers how the highly technical focus taken at the planning stage can lead to a lack of consideration of the human communication requirements for these teams to be really effective. The post Virtual Teams In Engineering Projects appeared first on ULFIRE.

The value of strong personal networks can not be underestimated in a virtual team environment. Having trusted colleagues and friends distributed around the organisation means you will get insights and support in areas you may not have ever considered previously. You will experience fewer surprises as work progresses and, in the event of any conflicts, you will be able to access your networks to get a deeper understanding of the background to the conflicts and culturally relevant solutions. The post Personal Networks In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Podcasts are emerging as a great addition to the selection of tools available for members of virtual teams to stay in touch with each other, learn about each other's cultures and be kept appraised of project status. With their ease of production and increasing simplification of delivery, audio files such as podcasts need to be considered as part of the mix when planning your virtual team communication strategy. The post Podcasts In Virtual Team Communications appeared first on ULFIRE.

For those undertaking an expat posting, the challenges of cultural assimilation are real and can be surprising and complex. This article considers some of the challenges faced by a new expat when they are working to blend into their new location and understand how things work. The post Cultural Assimilation appeared first on ULFIRE.

Choosing the right communication technologies to support your virtual teams is critical to their ability to interact efficiently. Having the right tools and knowing how to use them will make your teams more productive, their outcomes more predictable and should help avoid some of the conflicts typically encountered in virtual team environments. The post Comparing Communication Technologies In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Being aware of your personal beliefs and perspectives is a very important attribute in an effective communicator. Your personal beliefs will influence how you deal with others and how you communicate both one on one and in a group setting. Building self awareness is therefore a critical skill needed by effective leaders and team members. The post Self Awareness For Successful Communications appeared first on ULFIRE.

Failing to communicate in a robust and effective way has been the cause of many project failures. Issues fail to get the attention they need because of the reluctance of some in the project to communicate with others and to ask for assistance where needed. This article discusses a number of the causes of communication failures, offering suggestions for ways virtual team communications can be managed to make them more effective. The post Understanding The Costs Of Communication Failures appeared first on ULFIRE.

This article explores some of the communication skills needed to successfully lead a team through the use a series of metaphors written around hand tools. Learning to communicate in different ways, with different people. Adapting your communication style to match the needs of the situation, and the cultural expectations of the audience, is critical for effective cross cultural leadership. Those with a single style will suffer through a lack of flexibility and lack of empathy in their communications, it is important to learn to adapt. The post Virtual Team Communication Toolkit appeared first on ULFIRE.

Burnout is one of the less discussed, yet most destructive side effects of many virtual teams. Due to the global nature of many virtual teams, leaders, managers and team members find themselves continually engaged with the work at hand, working both their local core hours and frequently extended hours to remain engaged with their virtual colleagues. This article aims to discuss some of the causes of potential burnout in virtual teams and offers some solutions and suggestions for consideration. A well rested member of a team is always more productive and able to focus on the task at hand, fatigue and the inability to switch off lead to unfocussed and over tired personnel who will struggle to remain productive. The post How To Avoid Personnel Burnout In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Teleconferences are the backbone of communication for many virtual teams, yet they are often incredibly ineffective and unproductive exercises, resulting in wasted time, disengagement of personnel and for those participating outside of their core hours, are also a major intrusion into personal time. This article raises seven of the major problems with teleconferences and the symptoms and efficiencies they bring to the businesses using them. The post 7 Problems With Teleconferences appeared first on ULFIRE.

This article discusses how we all apply filters to our cultural experiences. These filters can either help of hinder our ability to work effectively in cross cultural situations. If our filters lead us to react badly to some of the experiences, that reaction may be interpreted by our local colleagues as representing disapproval, leading to a break down of relationships and eventual degrading of our abilities to collaborate. If however, our cultural filters allow us to experience different things as new, interesting and simply different we can use them to build stronger and more enduring working relationships. The post Cultural Filters appeared first on ULFIRE.