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Far-flung Teams Virtual Teams Version 10.0 P
itfalls and Best Practices

Dr. Arvind Malhotra Kenan-Flagler Business School
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Arvind_Malhotra_at_kenan-flagler.unc.edu and Dr.
Ann Majchrzak Marshall School of Business The Un
iversity of Southern California
? 2004 Majchrzak and Malhotra
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Agenda

• What are Far-Flung Teams?
• What challenges do such teams face?
• Best practices of Far-Flung Teams
• Strategic Intent
• Technology Support
• Leadership
• Processes

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Example Automotive Engine Manufacturer
Co. Team Members
U.S.
Customer Main Office
U.K.
Co. Team Members
Germany
Customer Location
Mexico
Co. Design Engineering Group
Brazil
AIM Design New Engine at New Location for a New
Customer

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Example Telecom Infrastructure Provider
Ireland
Germany
MA
OH
NJ
OK
AIM Global Demand and Supply Planning
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Example Electronics Manufacturer
Cambridge
Berlin
Montreal
Italy
Boston
Beaverton
Bangalore
Tokyo
AIM Improving New Design Processes
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Far-Flung TeamsVirtual Teams Version 10.0
PURELY VIRTUAL
GLOBALLY DISTRIBUTED
FAR-FLUNG TEAMS
REGIONALLY DISTRIBUTED
VIRTUAL TEAMS
GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE
FACE to FACE
TEAMS
SAME LOCATION
SAME FUNCTION
SAME COMPANY
VALUE CHAIN
MEMBERSHIP
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Challenges of Far-Flung Team

• Far Flung Virtual Teams are extreme
• Communications challenged (conducting their
  core work mostly virtually through electronic
  medium)
  
• Culturally challenged (different countries,
  functions, companies)
  
• Task challenged (uncertainty in content of
  outcomes, process, or coordination because of
  team size, languages, time zones)

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BP 1 Far Flung advantage Intellectual capital,
not cost

• Take Away Benefits are in knowledge-
• sharing, not cost-savings

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E-Mail is Be All End All Rest is Just Fancy Shman
cy
BP 2 Successful Teams Ban the
Use of email for Team Communications
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What are the technology needs of FFT?
Things Could Be a Whole Lot Better
with Video-Conferencing
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BP 3 Multiple Tool Use w/o Video being Dominant
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What are the communication needs of FFT?
We only need regular conference calls
to stay connected
BP 4 The joint use of Real-time Synchronous
Persisting Asynchronous communication needed
to stay connected
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A Virtual Team Workspace
Instant Messaging
Synchronous
Discussion Threads
Audio Conferencing
Living Room
Living Documents
Web Conferencing
Asynchronous
Annotation
Templates
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Using the Team Workspace
Trust-building Own comments
Annotation
Web Conferencing
Discussion Threads
N-way realtime application sharing
Brainstorming Focusing efforts
Living Room
Living Docs
Knowledge shared in draft form visibility into
each others work
Audio Conferencing
Verbal clarification
Templates
Action items, Agendas, Minutes
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Will FFTs be as Creative as F2F?
F2F meetings are required for brainstorming
BP 5 Electronic brainstorming gives more time

for reflection and quality ideas
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BP 6 Instant Messaging Used Correctly Can Be a
Great Tool

• Teams that used it swore by it
• Why they loved it
• Immediacy expertise at hand
• Team visibility
• Water cooler
• Backchannel communications during meetings
• Unresolved issues security, loss of discussion
  content, no standards
  

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Example Telecom Equipment Mfr.
U.K.
Texas
Beijing
Hong Kong
Brazil
AIM Eating Your Own Dogfood
Best Practice Webcams, I.M. wildfire
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BP 7 Run virtual meetings like
events with a managed lifecycle
--Review discussion items to focus on
disagree-ment --Assign agenda items --Rotate
team facilitation --Visible timelines progre
ss tracking
Recreate feeling of inclusiveness

Clear allocation of action items, meeting
minutes posted rapidly

Visibly ensure follow-up with discussion thr
eads, progress tracking, postings

Member check-in through voting, IM, postin
g, application-sharing, verbal discussion


Activities
Pre
Start
During
End
Between
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BP 8 Frequency and Nature of
Virtual Meetings Depends On
ENTHUSIASM LEVEL
TEAM LIFECYCLE
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How to lead Far-Flung Teams?
Virtual means hands-off leadership
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BP 9 Far-Flung Team Leadership
Communication-Intensive
Frequent 1-on-1 Check-ins
1-on-1 mentor discussions
Leaders
Members
Establish team communication norms
Closely monitor intervene
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BP 10 Trust is built through
Clearly Specified ( Visible)
Timelines and Tasks
Individual Accountability
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BP 11 Trust is built through
Establishing Communication Protocols Early (and
being flexible)
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BP 12 Motivate Through Inclusion

• Structure inclusion activities during virtual
  meetings (e.g., balloting)
  
• Ensure everyone talks
• Encourage voluntarism creativity as motivators
  for inclusion
  
• Recognize contributions
• Share hobbies, rewards, life concerns

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BP 13 Create Interdependent Sub-teams
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Framework forManaging Far-Flung Team Challenges
PEOPLE

• Picking the people for the team
• Leadership for virtual teams

• Chartering virtual teams
• Challenges of virtual teams

STRUCTURE
PROCESS

• Corporate policies
• that support virtual teams
• Structuring and
• leveraging sub-teams
• Executive stewardship
• of virtual teams

• Establishing norms to work together
• Creating common procedures
• Planning conducting virtual
• meetings

TECH.

• Using technology for persistent collaboration
• Technology group processes
• Demonstration of software use

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Conclusion

• Far Flung Teams require a special culture in
  which knowledge management knowledge sharing
  are paramount