Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
Hello All,
I have come across various challenges in dealing with globally distributed team as mentioned below. Can you please share your experiences and tips in overcoming those challenges
Cultural differences Team building will be difficult Commmunication problem Time differences Isolation Cannot maintain good relationships which is necessary for a high peforming team Language barrier
Having worked with several virtual teams, here are some points from my experience for each challenge:
Cultural differences - I took the time to learn beforehand about the other culture e.g. handshake or no handshakes, what words, gestures are considered rude, whether to talk about the issue with the individual or as a team, recognition of the team members as an individual or entire team and so on.
Team building will be difficult - definitely a challenge, some travel to the site helps; In other situations we tried video conferencing and introducing the team members. Along with the technical introductions, we asked the team members to tell one interesting fact about themselves or something interesting they did recently.
Communication problem & Language barrier - there were several situations where language, accents became a problem, we tackled these issues by having someone on the team translate if needed and we followed the verbal communication with a written communication to ensure the message was captured correctly.
Time differences - We had two meetings per week - one scheduled within work hours of the offshore team and one suitable for our local team''s work hours.
Isolation - Good communication habits is the key solution for this issue.
Cannot maintain good relationships which is necessary for a high performing team - While the team members were getting online for the conference call, we used to ask about the weather at the team members'' location, or if any holiday was coming, we would inquire about their plans. The small chitchat at the beginning allows for comfortable communication during the project updates as well.
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1 reply by Mike Solan
May 24, 2016 3:12 PM
Mike Solan
...
Great response!
Saving Changes...
Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
Thanks for all the responses. Saving Changes...
MAEN QADDOURAHProject Director| AJ SAUDIJeddah, Saudi Arabia
Fixed rules Saving Changes...
Anonymous
the key is to stay ''connected'' with the team. Saving Changes...
Chintan Jariwala, PMP, CSMProject Manager, IT Business Analyst| Sailfin Technologies India Pvt LtdSurat, Gujarat, India
Continuous engagement will be the best thing I can think of. I am working with a globally distributed team. We never miss a weekly team meeting. I encourage everyone to contribute in the discussions. We have started a practice in our Weekly Meeting, Each of the team member will share a new thing about their culture. It could be anything from food to clothes to language words. This help everyone to connect with each other. Saving Changes...
Nowadays we have a lot of tools available online which makes life easy in managing virtual teams. In the past i have managed virtual teams in different time zones. Following things need to be kept in mind
1.Reduce Noise and reiterate what you expect and what the team understood
2. Plan Meetings very early if some of the teams are in a earlier time zones
3. Have Check point meetings atleast a week to measure the team progress Saving Changes...
Krunal Naik, PMP,CSM,MBAProject Manager| https://www.linkedin.com/in/naikkrunalSouth Brunswick, Nj, United States
I work with geographically distributed cross-functional teams on weekly basis on my projects, and I have incorporated some practices which has helped a lot in past few years
1. Join or start meetings few minutes earlier, so that you can do a small chat or informal discussion with whoever''s online. Once the scheduled time-slot begins I prefer keeping meetings short and try to stay on agenda, as I always have someone attending during their out of office hours.
2. Prefer sending agenda with invites, this way team can align on any open questions, confusions or expectations beforehand, and potential surprises can be taken care of.
3. Keep meeting time-slots flexible for attendees, I encourage offering alternate week morning/evening time-slots with Asia teams. I personally feel its fair to offer such options as no one likes to attend calls at 9 pm!
4. Engage 1 on 1 or in person with every opportunity you get, I feel its extremely important to connect with your team on personal level. When we work on long term projects- trust and commitment plays important role for project success.
5. Language barrier is universal problem, patience and reiteration helps in such scenarios!
6. Have centralized tool- any PM tool which team or organization prefers, or at minimum have excel issue tracking list in shared locations to cover points which are missed out and/or key action items which requires visibility.
7. Once you have established rapport with your team, and you have made personal connection- good sense of humor always helps. It may help you yield some benefits of face to face conversions. Saving Changes...
Mike SolanHead of business development| SWISSTXT / Swiss Broadcasting CorporationSwitzerland
Dec 03, 2015 3:16 PM
Replying to Pawan Premi
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Having worked with several virtual teams, here are some points from my experience for each challenge:
Cultural differences - I took the time to learn beforehand about the other culture e.g. handshake or no handshakes, what words, gestures are considered rude, whether to talk about the issue with the individual or as a team, recognition of the team members as an individual or entire team and so on.
Team building will be difficult - definitely a challenge, some travel to the site helps; In other situations we tried video conferencing and introducing the team members. Along with the technical introductions, we asked the team members to tell one interesting fact about themselves or something interesting they did recently.
Communication problem & Language barrier - there were several situations where language, accents became a problem, we tackled these issues by having someone on the team translate if needed and we followed the verbal communication with a written communication to ensure the message was captured correctly.
Time differences - We had two meetings per week - one scheduled within work hours of the offshore team and one suitable for our local team''s work hours.
Isolation - Good communication habits is the key solution for this issue.
Cannot maintain good relationships which is necessary for a high performing team - While the team members were getting online for the conference call, we used to ask about the weather at the team members'' location, or if any holiday was coming, we would inquire about their plans. The small chitchat at the beginning allows for comfortable communication during the project updates as well.
