VTeams - Building Virtual Work Teams |
In today's business environment, time and/or distance are often a challenge for getting people together. To meet this challenge: build Virtual Teams where email lists and discussion groups can take the place of frequent face-to-face meetings. Not only are time and expense saved, but more individuals within the organization can participate. The teams can be built around common interests and/or experience. And VTeams can be used throughout the planning process, not just in the implementation phase. Agreement to a shared vision is possible, as well as meeting the barriers to successful planning.
One successful use of Virtual Teams is to have a moderator assigned to each team. The role of the moderator is to ensure that the team objectives (set by the planning team) are being met and to keep the team focused and moving forward. The planning team should determine a minimum membership list from the stakeholder groups that are impacted by the Virtual Team. If active membership falls below the minimum from any area, the moderator should recruit additional members. Forward progress should be encouraged through seeding discussion topics in the discussion groups and announcing the topics through email lists. As the Virtual Team objectives are met the moderator should report back to the planning team on whether the VTeam is still needed.
Often the VTeam can be used as a jumping off point for the next phase of the planning process. If this is the case, it is important to have the planning team draft a new set of VTeam objectives and encourage new membership to gain further organizational involvement.
And don't forget: much of the work of the planning team can be accomplished virtually!
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Last modified: August 22, 2005