Virtual Team Dynamics - The Ulfire Podcast

Working across multiple timezones can bring many challenges to those involved, not least of which is how to maintain a healthy work life balance. In this article we consider some of the major issues to be addressed when a project manager is faced with leading a distributed team. We identify some things to avoid and offer suggestions of ways that a balance can be achieved that lets both the Project Manager and their staff survive the project. The post Work Life Balance In International Projects appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding the relationship between outsourcing and the use of virtual teams is important to facilitate strong working relationships between offices. When a business starts to outsource its work it needs to plan for how it will manage its relationships, many of which will move from face to face to virtual. Some businesses will simply assign work to another location and await its completion and return, this is a very high risk approach however. Experience has shown that the greater the level of planning and preparation that goes into establishing communication between locations, the more predictable the outcomes will be. This predictability reduces the risks to the business and improves its chances of a successful outcome. This article considers the relationship between outsourcing and virtual teams and introduces some of the issues to be considered. The post Outsourcing And Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Corporate culture is a critical part of building and maintaining a brand. Matching employees and business partners to a business's culture will ensure that the business has a clear public image and will help clients and future employees determine if your business is right for them. The challenge of building a corporate culture in a virtual team based organisation is a complex one, particularly when the business is established as a distributed team model from the start. This article attempts to unpack some of the challenges facing both new and established businesses when establishing a corporate culture in a virtual environment and sets out some of the steps that need to be considered along the way. The post Building Corporate Culture In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

There are a number of scenario's to consider when thinking about the future of work. Clearly technological evolution and indeed revolution will have a major impact, that is very much a given, the big question is how will society respond to the technological changes, at the personal, corporate and societal levels. Will there be resistance or acceptance of the technologies and their impact on the status quo, how will large corporates and developed economies respond to the disruption to their traditional place in the pecking order, and how will we prepare the next generation to gain the most benefit from the changes. This post considers several different scenarios then introduces three different options that may be possible, options of defence, allowance and embracing of the changes. The post The Future Of Work appeared first on ULFIRE.

Delivering and receiving feedback in cross cultural teams is a relatively high risk, but high reward endeavour. Done well it can help built strong and dependable teams who understand each other and are committed to supporting each other in their work. Managed badly, the feedback cycle can destroy working relationships through seemingly innocent comments, misunderstandings and reactions. Feedback may either be seen as overly critical or overly praising dependant on the expectations and cultural norms of the parties involved. This article attempts to set out a few points to consider when planning for a cross cultural feedback exercise. The post Employee Feedback In Cross Cultural Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Effective workshare planning is imperative for the success of any virtual team project. Planning the way in which the work to be undertaken will be shared, who will be responsible for the outcomes of the project and obtaining the full engagement at the overall business level will ensure the project is given every possibility of success. This article discusses some of the major factors to consider when embarking on a workshare planning exercise. The post Workshare Planning For Project Success appeared first on ULFIRE.

Building trust across cultures is a complex and difficult task that is critical to the success of a virtual team. Without a fundamental level of working trust between individuals and groups it is not possible to establish or maintain a high performing team. There are several different ways in which individuals are culturally programmed to build trust, through transactional experiences, relationship building or through working with those who have a strong shared common interest or history. Each of these will readily understand how to build trust with like individuals but will struggle to do so with those who have a different culturally programmed way of building trust. This article discusses both the differences between the different ways trust is built and offers some methods to build trust across cultures. The post Building Trust Across Cultures appeared first on ULFIRE.

Team building is one of the keys to successful virtual teams. With the teams forming to undertake a specific project or deliver a change to an organisation it is often easy to overlook the bonding phase between virtual colleagues, when this happens the team will take longer to form and the bonds binding team members will usually be weaker, leading to fragile relationships that will break down under tension. Undertaking well planned and structured face to face or remote team building will help to avoid these weaknesses and instead build a team that is cohesive and interdependent, that will survive the inevitable internal conflicts and ultimately deliver the best outcomes for the business. This article discusses ways that team building can be planned and undertaken in virtual team environments. The post Team Building Tips For Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding how to balance the different team attributes of personnel from different cultural backgrounds can unlock a broad range of potential synergies in a virtual team. Team members from individualistic cultures, where often teams are made up of specialists, are best suited to some work while those from more collective cultures, where teams tend to be built to get the best overall outcome from the group are stronger in other areas. This article considers how to go about establishing the right balance and introduces some of the factors to consider. The post Team Composition Diversity Between Cultures appeared first on ULFIRE.

Visiting your partner offices as part of a virtual teal project can be brought with potential risks. Cultural, business and personal mistakes are relatively easy to make, but equally easy to avoid, or at the worst, to mitigate to the level that they may even help build relationships. This article gives some tips, such as avoiding a sense of intimidation during your visit, maintaining a level of cultural sensitivity and considering extending your stay beyond the time needed for business only, to consider when making those all important business trips. The post Tips For Visiting Virtual Team Offices appeared first on ULFIRE.

This article discusses some of the key virtual team problems that occur in organisations, it highlights the causes of the problems and draws out some ways in which these issues can be identified and avoided. Many issues will occur on project after project in organisations, some organisations will quickly learn how to build and run effective virtual teams, others will have very varied results with some projects being successful and others extremely problematic. A considered and planned approach will, however, usually help avoid many of the major issues. The post Common Virtual Team Problems appeared first on ULFIRE.

Getting the most from email in a virtual team environment is far more then just sending requests and receiving responses. Used well, email can be a good tool to help maintain a trusting environment and relationship between team members. Email is frequently treated as a purely transactional tool, resulting in a purely transactional relationship. With due consideration, email use can genuinely help build a team. This article considers some of the challenges and offers suggestions and solutions to doing things better. The post Email Use In Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Holding a regular distributed team review ensures that the host organisation is getting the best efficiency and value from its distributed teams, and that the personnel in the teams are receiving the support and leadership they need to perform at their best. Reviews should be performed, at a minimum, at each major change in the focus of a operationally focussed distributed team and, at each major stage change in a distributed team working on a project. The post Distributed Team Review appeared first on ULFIRE.

Empathy is a vital skill to build in a distributed team relationship. Virtual colleagues need to be empathetic to the cultural, social and temporal expectations placed on and experienced by their colleagues. The different pressures coming from each team member's working situation, social and cultural environment can be a major cause of misunderstanding between personne. This article discusses some of the challenges faced and introduces some ways to mitigate and manage the impact of these differences. The post Empathy In Distributed Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Issues around corporate politics are common in co-located organisations where they are generally well understood and managed, however, the issues associated with corporate politics extending beyond a single location into a virtual team are less well understood but can be equally destructive. This article discusses some of the common issues and challenges associated with corporate politics in virtual teams, the causes, impacts and some potential resolutions. The post Corporate Politics in Virtual Team Organisations appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding the impact of culture shock in an expat relocation, planning for the potential experiences and seeking and providing support through the process through corporate mentoring, local administrative and cultural assistance and accessing existing informal expat communities will make the experience easier for most expats. This article discusses some of the major issues that will be experienced during a relocation and provides a sense of the way in which the changes can be managed and understood. The post Surviving Culture Shock In An Expat Relocation appeared first on ULFIRE.

Undertaking an expat relocation contract is an exciting and risky experience in the career of many employees. Some will thrive in the experience, emerging as a more rounded, more experienced and more valuable employee, others will find the experience traumatic and may well suffer lasting personal and career damage. This article attempts to highlight some of the major areas to consider when planning an expat relocation, things to include when planing for the experience and offers some guidance to help things go smoothly. The post Surviving An Expat Relocation appeared first on ULFIRE.

A not for profit organisation operating in multiple locations will face different challenges to those of a for profit organisation. Among these are their limited access to funds to pay for technology and any training they may need, the relatively low level of control the organisation has over the level of commitment and turnover of personnel and the difficulties motivating staff, who are often volunteers, to do something that may not have signed up for. Many not for profit organisations do however have highly motivated and enthusiastic personnel, something that many for profit businesses sadly lack. The post Managing Not For Profit Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding the concept of temporal diversity, where individuals and teams will each place a different value on time, timeliness and schedules is one of the key skills needed to successfully lead a international virtual team. When team members place widely differing values on the time available it can lead to tension and conflict in the team, This tension in turn can result in schedule issues and failure to deliver the desired outcomes. The post Temporal Diversity in Virtual Teams appeared first on ULFIRE.

Understanding the impact of different language skills in virtual teams is a skill that must be mastered for the teams to work effectively. Language challenges can manifest in both the communications and correspondence and in the documentation requirements of any virtual team. These language challenges can be introduced through either multi national virtual teams or through standard contract languages imposed by client organisations. However they are received, the outcomes of getting your language planning wrong can be devastating for any project, leading to delays, rework and conflict among the team members. The post Virtual Team Language Challenges appeared first on ULFIRE.