S&B: First of all, could you please describe the specific character of your current pilot project?
Dr Yvonne Köster: Our pilot is running nine weeks and the participants of the project meet once a week with two tutors in virtuality. Our international team members work both independently and together outside of the sessions. They acquire a solid theoretical framework as well as practical hand-on experience facilitating teamwork live online. The aim is to prepare them to work in virtual space, organise this kind of collaboration and to master intercultural and virtual challenges.
Michael Tighe: In this project run by Bayer Business Services, Competence Training, we are preparing our team members for many of the challenges they face, or will face, when working internationally in virtuality. Because virtuality is a relatively recent phenomenon and so complex, some of these challenges can be new, unusual and quite unexpected. While we cannot anticipate every eventuality that may occur during virtual team interaction, we can demonstrate to team members that working in a virtual team is, in fact, very different from working in a conventional face-to-face team, and we can give them examples of good practice for both working on and leading international virtual teams.
S&B: What is special about virtual teams? What are the challenges and benefits?
Dr Yvonne Köster: The organisation of virtual seminars is quite similar to meetings in real life. Like in a face-to-face environment, the team members have to know each other and build trust. Trust is the basic element of teamwork in general and becomes more important, especially when working in virtual teams.
Not having the real, physical, face-to-face interaction means that the intensity and frequency of communication signals we would normally exchange when meeting physically are dramatically reduced. Basic elements of communication, for example body language, are missing. In this situation, trust becomes highly significant. After fixing some rules and getting to know each other, participants can go to the next level, the thematic one, and the proper project can be realised. Apart from this lack of physical communication signals, the team works as though in a face-to-face team; there is just a bit MORE of every element: more communication, more enhancements of trust, more feedback and more self-reflection.
An advantage of virtual teamwork, aside from the economic ones, is the aspect of time. Virtual groups can get in touch easier through the medium of technology and can react fast to specific situations. Working virtually also involves a different way of thinking. These differences often open up a space for a new, innovative way of thinking about a problem and interacting with peers.
I maintain: Virtual collaboration is a lot of fun for everyone who is engaged! And this is not just a nice welcomed side effect.
Michael Tighe: Let's start with a definition: Virtual teams are usually geographically dispersed groups of people who come together to form an ad-hoc team and who are united by electronic communication technologies. The team usually organises itself and usually disbands once the team mission has been accomplished. The virtual team situation is ambiguous at times: It is a little like being in the dark and trying to coordinate a group of people. It takes time for your eyes to adjust and for your ears to recognise each voice. Signals are reduced and there is lots of room for interpretation and misinterpretation, if the situation is not carefully and consciously managed. One central way to increase tolerance of this inevitable ambiguity and reduce uncertainty is, as Dr Yvonne Köster mentioned, to concentrate on trust-building measures in the team. It may seem difficult to build trust among people who have never met - and probably will never meet - but it can be, and must be done, if the team is to work together effectively.
The benefits are many. Virtual teams can work round the clock. When we go to sleep, our work packet follows the sun to the next time zone. In the morning, we find the project has developed as it has circled the globe and we can pick up from where our partner in the previous time zone left off.
Another advantage is that the global organisation becomes more tightly networked; employees in far-away locations, who otherwise would never have met, get to know each other and work together. Working together effectively across the world in an enjoyable environment is an excellent way to foster intercultural understanding and to improve integration of individuals from diverse backgrounds into a more unified organisational culture. The diversity of teams can result in increased innovation because alternative perspectives are valued and discussed.
And I completely agree with Dr Yvonne Köster that working virtually is really a lot of fun!
S&B: In virtual teams, people from all over the globe have to work and communicate with each other. Does the virtuality help in handling the intercultural differences more easily, or does the lack of face-to-face communication lead to more misunderstandings?
Dr Yvonne Köster: On first glance it seems that the virtual world helps in overcoming intercultural borders. But as already mentioned, especially in virtuality there are different possibilities to interpret situations - especially in an intercultural context. Technologies help us to conquer time and space, but still, we are working with human beings from different cultural backgrounds. The tutors of the international virtual seminars have to be skilled in cross-culture competency. They have to read between the lines and react attentively to possible misunderstandings. In my opinion, a trainer also has to "thematise" where something might be lacking and make the participants aware of it.
Michael Tighe: Well, as I mentioned, it is generally fun to work with these live web-based tools, so people seem to generally enjoy communicating with each other. In a live online session, the virtual session team leader will consciously orchestrate the socialising segments and ice-breakers. In comparison, in a face-to-face environment, foreign participants might be left more on their own. They might feel more insecure about how they look or what the cultural rules for small talk are. So, in some respects, the virtual live environment could be a little easier from a cross-cultural perspective.
On the other hand, in terms of cross-cultural interaction, virtual teams are a particular challenge. There is the common misconception shared by many that "people are people and we are all basically the same deep down inside". While on the surface this kind of attitude might seem open and helpful, it actually hinders productive intercultural interaction because it ignores differences in individuals and diversity in the team. We obviously are not all the same at all, so it is important to recognise and respect diversity in a team and exploit that diversity to our advantage. In both respects - virtually and interculturally - the type of interaction that goes on has to be explicitly and consciously managed. There are different views as to what is perceived as appropriate or inappropriate. Trust is essential again and that trust must be built up consciously. If the team itself develops its own code of conduct and sticks to it, many of these issues can be avoided. If the aims are clear and there is trust, conflicts can generally be dealt with, fairly and effectively. My experiences have been extremely positive.
S&B: At Bayer Business Services, Competence Training, you are working with the concept of moderator and co-moderator. The co-moderator helps to check the chat, keeps an eye on technique and tries to anticipate if every participant is totally involved. What are some further challenges they have to deal with?
Michael Tighe: We moderate the programme in tandem in this Bayer Business Services, Competence Training programme and I work with a very talented moderator and co-moderator, Juliane Wiktorin. We alternate between the two roles, depending on if we are working in the Bayer Asia/Europe group or the Americas/Europe group. She really makes our sessions all the more engaging, interactive and enjoyable. It is also better to have a male/female moderating team to increase diversity and to make interaction generally more balanced.
As moderators of the learning teams, my co-moderator and I are practically the team leaders in the eyes of our team member participants. This means that while we are teaching them best practice in managing virtual teams, we are actually managing them as a virtual team. We can't really afford to make mistakes. One real pressure is to try to be as perfect as possible in such a technological and intercultural environment all of the time.
Another challenge as a trainer is that when giving either reinforcing or corrective feedback to team members, we have to gauge the appropriateness of that feedback. There is a certain degree of gut instinct that you simply follow when interacting across cultures.
Sometimes people take on another identity when they are in virtual environments. Managing different types of behaviours in an intercultural context is not easy and requires frequent reflection on the group dynamics and intervention at times. Again, if a strong atmosphere of trust has been established in the team, these problems can usually be regulated by the team itself. It is important that team members develop the capacity to become aware of potential conflicts and reflect on what is causing them and how these disruptive behaviours can be channelled in a positive direction. Reflection is key and we emphasise reflection in this programme.
S&B: Which elements have a huge impact on the effectiveness of a virtual team?
Dr Yvonne Köster: Cross-cultural competencies are absolutely necessary for the effectiveness of a virtual team. It is important to "sensitize" all team members concerning intercultural conditions. To minimise conflict and increase the effectiveness of virtual teams, trust-building is the key.
Michael Tighe: I would just like to add that there are three key points to remember to make teams excel: trust, trust and more trust!
Dr Köster, Mr Tighe, many thanks for your time!
May 13, 2009
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