How to Make Virtual Teams Work Successfully

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In this modern-day reality of global corporations, outsourcing, and a vehement emphasis on productivity, virtual teams (also known as “geographically dispersed teams”) are commonplace; even small companies have embraced virtual teams as a result of their outsourcing operations to other companies. Technological innovation and the very low cost of communication have enabled companies to overcome physical distance as an obstacle to doing business, or have they?

There are multiple facets to making a virtual team work. This paper focuses on communication issues for a distributed team.

Scenario: A Virtual Project Kick-off Meeting

Imagine a situation in which you are kicking off a large project in a virtual setting. The project team is comprised of people from various parts of the United States, as well as other countries. This is the first time the team has come together. The team members have different backgrounds (truly a cross-functional team); they have different accents and, for many of them, English is a second language. The meeting is taking place at 9 a.m. U.S. central time. The team in the United States is fresh and ready to roll, but it is late evening in India and China and these people are tired and ready to go home. Some team members have other priorities on their minds because they are not too impacted by the project. Some members are …

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