The Challenges of a Virtual Teamas an Organizational Constraint

Note that dispersion of team members becomes a communication constraint whenever electronic communication replaces F2F conversations. For instance, team members located on different floors of the same building encounter some degree of physical dispersion resulting in communication and coordination challenges nearly as great as teams located in different countries (Siebdrat et al., 2009). As physical distance increases, team affiliation declines due to a lack of social or F2F interactions.

Because of dispersion, most communication within a virtual team is technologically mediated, meaning that the team's work is supported primarily by various information technologies. Unlike a traditional team that develops normalized practices by sharing a common work space, virtual teams are separated by time, space, organizational function, and culture. Pure F2F NPD rarely exists in today's globally competitive environment, where time to market for new products is critical and in which developers must consider a worldview in designing new products or services.

A Model for Effective Virtual Teams

As gleaned from our own experiences and those of other virtual teams, we have framed a model for virtual teams that drives knowledge sharing and active communication to support efficient product and process development. The model presented in this chapter is built from the authors' firsthand experiences, observations, research, and implementation of work practices. The model was refined based on application to different real-life virtual teams as well as literature and management case studies, as indicated in the “Driving Virtual Team Improvements” box.

Specifically, the key elements in the VTM are:

• Initiation and Structure
• Communication Practices
• Meetings and Protocols
• Knowledge Management
• Leadership

Each element of the VTM is accompanied by several supporting practices that have been revised and refined over the years as application of the VTM evolved and improved. An NPD team can immediately realize enhanced communication pathways by implementing any of the elements or practices in whole or part. However, the VTM is most successful for NPD teams that establish the practices within each element and apply the model universally since the elements and practices intertwine with one another in the complex relationships necessary for successful NPD (see Figure 6.1).

The first element, Initiation and Structure, addresses team member characteristics, team formation, and goal-setting. The next elements, Communication Practices and Meetings and Protocols, define practices that help virtual teams overcome the natural barriers faced by people working outside of informal, F2F relationships. Of course, to meet the objective of a lean NPD team, virtual teams must find efficient and effective ways to share knowledge. Systems and best practices for Knowledge Management are presented in the next element of the VTM. Finally, no team can be successful without effective Leadership, and this last element of the VTM includes three practices that support unique skills to lead a virtual team. In this chapter, we highlight a subset of the practices to implement for successful innovation projects. An example application of the VTM is provided in the appendix to this chapter.

Individual Leadership

Conventional colocated NPD project team members are usually selected for project work based on functional ability and availability. While these are important characteristics of virtual team members as well, the successful initiation and structuring of a virtual team depends on the personal motivation and leadership of individual team members. Self-motivation serves not only to drive passion for the NPD project goals but also supports other elements and practices within the VTM, such as communication and individual leadership.

However, individual leadership goes beyond self-motivation and self-direction. Virtual team members with individual leadership carry out project tasks independently and value cross-functional relationships with other team members. While conventional team members participate in project teams as specialists, virtual team members cross the boundaries and fill roles of “generalist/specialist” as shown in Table 6.1 to support lean principles of knowledge transfer. Isolated team members direct their own work and do not necessarily need a strong central leader. (The role of the virtual team leader is discussed later in this chapter.) Individuals are frequently assigned project activities that leverage their strongest skill sets, such as planning, designing, or analyzing. Virtual team members demonstrating individual leadership work to complete their own tasks within their specialization but can support the team as a generalist as necessary (“T-shaped” people). For example, a team member in Japan may be a specialist in fluid flow but can represent the local customer's need to the rest of the NPD team in a general way. As such, the generalist-specialist capability deployment helps to reuse knowledge and communication to drive the project goals.

Individual leadership on a virtual team is contrasted with task-oriented membership in a traditional team. Colocated NPD team members tend to act as subject matter experts working piecemeal on a project. Traditional teamwork includes bounded hand-offs between functions while team members represent a single skill set (“I-shaped” people). Project inquiries are referred to the project manager who represents the overall team. Virtual team members serve multiple functional roles and represent the whole project within their geographical region or market sector. This requires both breadth and depth of product knowledge rather than solely functional expertise.

Of course, a team leader will consider individual leadership during team formation, and individual leadership is interwoven throughout the other elements of the VTM. In particular, we see how individual leadership helps to build broad communication pathways and creates efficient Knowledge Management systems. Further, individual leadership establishes the foundation for knowledge transfer when the virtual team disbands and transitions to new roles on other projects.

Shared Goals Initiate Virtual Team Communications

Choosing the correct team members with appropriate characteristics is crucially important for the success of a virtual team. Virtual teams must be even more proactive, deliberate, and disciplined in their interactions than traditional colocated teams. Therefore, team formation must include team member selection to represent all areas of technical expertise required to complete the project as well as evaluation of personalities and abilities for individual contributors, such as self-discipline, motivation, and leadership. Forming the team is an exercise that brings together the diverse team members from around the world to join in a common cause. The mission of the NPD team is reviewed and revised through the practice of team formation in the VTM.

Technology

Technologically mediated communication is less rich than F2F interactions. It can lead to a source of confusion and misunderstanding that negatively impacts the virtual team. However, the use of technology allows an organization to realize the benefits of distributed workers to identify local customer needs and bring a global perspective to the product development project. We suggest a few team collaboration tools later in this chapter.

Any technologies that will be used for team collaboration, communication, or knowledge management should be introduced at the project kick-off meeting. Adequate training on new tools and expected usage of these technologies should also be provided at the kick-off meeting. To increase productivity of team members, this same tool set should be utilized continually throughout the project. New or improved software should not be introduced during the project unless all team members have received training and have agreed on communication protocols to utilize the new technology.

Communication standards and meeting protocols are critical for success of a virtual team and are established up front for a virtual team. Team operating rules set expectations for communication and team member interactions. Again, these communication standards overlap with the second and third elements of the VTM; however, establishing general and specific expectations during the team formation process will reduce conflict during team formation and ensure later successes in team performance. For example, setting initial team protocols regarding meeting format and attendance allows every team member, regardless of his or her location, to be prepared for and responsive to group norms.

As indicated, the best members for a virtual team are self-starters who are motivated by the task and have high degrees of emotional intelligence and cultural awareness. Individual leaders will maintain a focus on customers and stakeholders throughout the project. Moreover, shared goals drive commitment to the work and is the number one measure of success for a virtual team. Establishing shared goals is a key practice in initiating and structuring a virtual team. Commitment to shared goals results in successful team performance. Shared goals should be disseminated at the kick-off meeting and reinforced frequently by the leader in order to balance work distribution and enhance team member cohesion.

According to Hoegl and Proserpio (2004), successful virtual teams focus on the shared goal by

• Open sharing of information,
• Task coordination,
• Balanced distribution of work,
• Mutual support with cohesion, and
• Task effort.

It may take more energy and time for a virtual team to initially agree on the mission and goals of the work. Yet the problem definition should occur synchronously for the virtual team to enhance commitment to the project. The team must also share a common understanding of stakeholder expectations. Maintaining a relentless focus on the customer leads to higher success rates for virtual teams and drives the lean principle of customer-centric, continuous improvement.

Initiation and Structure: Action Steps

In order to successfully meet product development and knowledge transfer objectives using a virtual team, an organization must be deliberate in initiating and structuring the team. The VTM includes several practices demonstrated to establish team characteristics and behaviors for successful NPD project execution. The first element, Initiation and Structure, is perhaps the most important element of the VTM because errors and omissions in setting up the team are not easily overcome later. Table 6.2 illustrates the scenario of a new team leader setting up a lean, virtual team for product development work, focusing on the Initiation and Structure of the team. As the elements of the VTM naturally overlap, you will begin to recognize the value of the other elements – Communication Practices, Meetings and Protocols, Knowledge Management, and Leadership – and their influence on the Initiation and Structure of the virtual team up front, as discussed later in this chapter.

Email as a Primary Communication Tool

Virtual team members typically work in different time zones around the globe. One team member may be just logging onto the computer for the first time that day while another is shutting down to head home. Texting and instant messaging are common tools for communication today but can be disruptive for virtual teams. Nothing can be more frustrating than answering a “beep” on one's cell phone in the middle of the night and finding a simple, nonurgent message such as “Thx for sending the docs.”

Therefore, we agree with experts in recommending email as a primary communication tool for virtual teams. First, email is asynchronous and does not demand an instant response like a phone call or a text message. Second, email is inexpensive and can easily link group members together. Training is not required regardless of geographical location. Next, users normally are more careful in composing an email message, paying greater attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation in order to clarify the message. An email can be composed, reviewed, and corrected before sending. Moreover, email can be organized in project folders to enhance knowledge sharing – a goal of lean NPD.

While it seems a good idea to include all team members on all communications, some issues will involve only a couple of team members. A best practice for virtual teams is to include names in the “To:” list that need to take action on the message while the “cc:” list is reserved for information only. “Reply to all” must be used with extreme caution. Moreover, it is crucial to include an appropriate subject line. Sometimes email chains grow and the conversation morphs from one topic to another. Because the team should not lose historical conversation threads, a best practice is to simply update the subject line. For example, if the original topic was the project schedule, but the conversation has changed, the subject line should now read “Subject: Construction Materials (re: Schedule).” This alerts receivers to the change in topic and preserves its relation to prior conversations. (Please see an example of email best practices in the box.)

Virtual Teams Use Language and Diversity to Build Creative Solutions

Team members must be proficient in the common language of the project. They must be able to both speak and write in that chosen language. As we've seen, written communications dominate in virtual teams, so writing skills will slightly outweigh verbal skills. Regardless of the team's selected language, it is important for colocated team members to use the common language in all communications. For instance, virtual team members will quickly become disengaged during a teleconference if team members at another location begin conversing in their native tongue.

Because email is the primary communication tool for a virtual team, team members need to be tolerant of odd sentence structure or peculiar phrasing. Nonnative English speakers, for instance, may translate their idea from a Romance language to English, resulting in longer sentences with a lot of descriptive clauses. Words may appear out of order (e.g. “coat blue” instead of “a blue coat”). All of us need to have patience with team members who may struggle to communicate in a different language. We also need to be receptive to clarifying meaning and intent if we are not as familiar with the written language.

Furthermore, emails and other communications should remain task-oriented. It is hard enough for friends and family to recognize humor in a text message. Trying to convey humor across cultures in an email message can result in misunderstandings and lead to unnecessary conflict. It is a best practice to keep communications succinct, focused on tasks, and action-oriented.

While emails may not be the right place to share humor or personal stories, a virtual team should celebrate their differences and build on the inherent positive aspects of their diversity. A fundamental benefit of a virtual team is the opportunity to tap into local market knowledge and practices and to use cultural differences to benefit the outcome of the project. Virtual team members of different educational, national, and cultural backgrounds bring different perspectives to a project; and they bring the viewpoint of multiple customers to ensure world-class design.

Cultural differences can sometimes be a challenge to virtual teams, just as language and humor are. Instead of trying to force the culture of the corporation's headquarters onto the virtual team, virtual teams establish their own culture and climate. Team members learn from the different cultures represented, and these differences will drive creativity for NPD. Product usage under various conditions found across the world will enhance the development of simple features that serve the needs of a wide customer base. Different mind-sets and backgrounds introduce more and varied solutions to problems. As team members share and build on one another's ideas, unique customer-oriented concepts evolve.

It is important for team members in a colocated, traditional team to adopt a single culture, and it is normally one that reflects the organization's broader culture. Virtual teams, in contrast, will celebrate their differences and adopt a unique culture and climate that builds on their own purpose in that time and space. A characteristic of successful teams establishes strong cohesion among team members. Open dialog and meetings in which knowledge is shared build trust and common understanding regardless of native culture.

Because team members in a virtual setting don't know what someone else knows (or doesn't know), it is critical for members to share their professional backgrounds and work experience. While discussion forums are usually underutilized to share work in progress or opinions, a discussion forum is a great place to share team member biographies. These biographies include information to build trust and enhance sharing.

For example, Marvin posts a photo of himself decked out in Cleveland Cavaliers basketball gear. He writes that he obtained his degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and has three kids. He also notes that he worked at two other companies prior to this job and has 10 years' experience in the telecom industry, of which one year was in management training.

Similarly, Wei Lu posts her biographical information as in Figure 6.3. Because Marvin and Wei Lu both love the same sport, they instantly build social trust. Moreover, Martin feels free to use sports analogies in meetings since he is assured that team members will understand a culturally narrow reference. What's different in this situation versus a noncommunicative virtual team is that the team members have intentionally shared professional and personal information to build trust and establish professional competency. Discussion forums and collaboration tools offer means of knowledge sharing and cooperative communication that build trust to support common project goals.

Synchronous meetings for virtual teams start with a few minutes for members to share something about themselves to continue to build camaraderie. A good conversation starter will include questions about national holidays or sporting events. Another way to celebrate cultural differences is to ask one team member per meeting to share his/her biography in depth. Even without body language clues, other team members will be able to pick up a person's passions and energies.

Select an Appropriate Meeting Format for Virtual Teams

Naturally, F2F team meetings involve informal information sharing, problem solving, and decision making. But most of these meetings also include the social aspect of building a shared identity. Alternatively, virtual team meetings serve to clarify roles and responsibilities, verify task performance, and validate project deliverables. Meeting format best practices for a virtual team include rotating meeting times and places, varying the technology medium, soliciting active participation, and rigorous planning. Clear follow-ups also are necessary.

Collaboration Tools Eliminate Distance as a Barrier to Creativity

A wide variety of tools are available today to help virtual teams share information, transfer knowledge, and increase collaboration across distances. Groupware creates a common base for virtual team members and the virtual environment. New group collaboration tools are continually emerging as technologies continue to advance.

Document sharing tools, like Dropbox™, are a necessity for virtual teams to coordinate work and build shared databases and specifications for projects. Microsoft SharePoint™ is a common knowledge management tool for larger enterprises and traditional teams; however, the team should select appropriate collaboration tools based on its size and locations of team members. Other software tools assist indirect communication, like webinars and meetings. Whiteboard and desktop sharing allow virtual teams to collaborate across time and distance.

Robust project management tools are necessary for virtual innovation teams. These include traditional software tools like Microsoft Project™ to track schedule, budget, and resources. Many virtual teams opt for less expensive cloud-based project management tools such as Basecamp™, Wrike™, Asana™, productboard.com, Redmine, and the like. Software tools like Slack™, Yammer™, and I Done This (idonethis.com) engage team member communications as well as track project progress. Mindjet™, for example, provides a creative ideation tool that easily translates requirements into a Gantt chart so the team can focus on what matters most.

The advantage of cloud-based tools versus enterprise software tools lies in accessibility and maintenance of the tool(s) for the virtual team members. A team member with a home office does not have an information technology department on hand to troubleshoot software glitches. In addition to project management functionality, these cloud-based tools also provide a collaborative environment for the project team to work issues, store documents, and track email discussion threads while enhancing shared creativity, problem solving, and decision making.

The purpose of a lean innovation team is to develop a new product or service that is valued by customers around the world and to create reusable knowledge, not to learn new software. If a new tool is required by the team, it should be introduced with appropriate training at the kick-off meeting and not changed throughout the life of the project. The same technology should be used before, during, and after significant project milestones to increase productivity (Ketch and Kennedy, 2004). For instance, simply deleting the requirement for a passcode on conference calls improves accessibility for team members in remote locations or for those who are traveling outside of their home office. Communication and collaboration tools must be simple and easy for isolated team members to troubleshoot and access regardless of available technology capability. Tools and technology effectiveness are evaluated during a postproject audit. In addition to capturing specific product development information, the team should identify the most successful collaboration and knowledge management techniques.

Using Lessons Learned to Transfer Knowledge

Typically, lessons learned are collected after a project and are often discussed by a single team, then filed away with the project archives. In this common situation, lessons learned are rarely transferred between teams, and only a few outstanding items are captured by the project leader for future implementation. Traditional teams rely on word of mouth to transfer these practices and behaviors. Virtual teams, in contrast, rely on individual tacit knowledge and formal organizational practices for continuous learning.

An important goal, perhaps the number one goal, in applying lean principles to product development teams is to effectively and efficiently transfer knowledge. A company-wide shared database captures lessons learned and can be searched by anyone in the organization. Similarly, a Project Management Office or innovation department records and disseminates project learnings. The Project Management Office may sponsor a virtual project leader network encouraging free exchange of ideas and learnings during independent project activities. Reusable knowledge helps NPD teams deploy new products and services faster and with a higher degrees of success.

The use of virtual teams to accomplish these goals is mandatory in a globally competitive world. We illustrate the fourth element of the VTM, Knowledge Management, in the case study (see Appendix). Knowledge Management is key to successful lean NPD so that teams are not re-creating practices or relearning problem-solving techniques (see Tables 6.4 and 6.5).

Using Paired Site Visits for Knowledge Sharing

Because there are fewer routine and casual F2F interactions among team members, site visits are critically important for virtual teams. Certainly the leader should visit each team member at his or her local office regularly throughout the project life cycle. The leader acts as a liaison bridging communication needs for the team as a whole and reinforcing team goals.

By visiting team members locally, a virtual team leader can also better understand independent challenges facing them. Team leaders acquaint themselves with local management to improve negotiations (current and future) for materials, equipment, and workforce needs. Moreover, if the site lacks infrastructure necessary for the project, the team leader can take steps to rectify the situation. For example, one virtual team member needed to review hard copy documents for customers, but the local office only had a shared printer, which restricted her ability to access and review detailed project documents. After learning this during a site visit, the team leader acquired a personal printer for the team member, and her productivity greatly increased.

Site visits should not be restricted to the leader alone. Site visits include exchanges and are alternated among team member sites. A design team member visits the representative plant site and vice versa. The team leader facilitates these exchanges by assigning small, subprojects to pairs of team members. The benefits of site visits between team members are many. Misperceptions regarding workloads and task environments transform to reflect a common understanding among team members at the conclusion of site visits. Working side by side creates camaraderie and builds future trust for team members that extends beyond their return to their own home site. The project budget must account for these important exchanges since travel expenses are not always carefully considered as a part of the project budget for a colocated team.

References

1. Aguanno, K. (2005). Chapter 1: Introduction. In: Managing Agile Projects (ed. K. Aguanno). Lakefield, ON: Multi-Media Publications.
2. Connaughton, S. L. and Shuffler, M. (2007). Multinational and multicultural distributed teams. Small Group Research 38 (3): 387–412.
3. Hoegl, M. and Proserpio, L. (2004). Team member proximity and teamwork in innovative projects. Research Policy 33: 1153–1165.
4. Ivanaj, S. and Bozon, C. (2016). Managing virtual teams. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
5. Jurgens-Kowal, T. 2016. Bridging communication gaps in virtual teams. In Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Management 2016 International Annual Conference, ed. S. Long, E. -H. Ng, C. Downing, and B. Nepal. Red Hook, NY: Curran Associates, pp. 517–525.
6. Ketch, K. and Kennedy, J. 2004. Unleashing the power of the group mind with dispersed teams. White Paper, GroupMindExpress.com.
7. Lurey, J. S. and Raisinghani, M. S. (2001). An empirical study of best practices in virtual teams. Information Management 38: 523–544.
8. Monalisa, M., Daim, T., Mirani, F. et al. (2008). Managing global design teams. Research Technology Management 51 (4): 48–59.
9. Siebdrat, F., Hoegl, M., and Ernst, H. (2009). How to manage virtual teams. MIT Sloan Management Review 50 (4): 63–68.
10. Ward, A. C. and Sobek, D. K. II (2014). Lean product and process development, 2e. Cambridge, MA: Lean Enterprises Institute.
11. Zofi, Y. (2012). A manager's guide to virtual teams. New York: AMACOM.

Further Reading

1. Loehr, J. and Schwartz, T. (2001). The making of a corporate athlete. Harvard Business Review 79 (1): 120–128.
2. Project Management Institute (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5e. Newton, PA: Project Management Institute.
3. Shah, H. (ed.) (2012). A guide to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge. Rolla, MO: American Society for Engineering Management.
4. Smith, P. G. and Blanck, E. L. (2002). From experience: Leading dispersed teams. Journal of Product Innovation Management 19: 294–304.
5. Tuckman, B. W. (2001). Developmental sequence in small groups (reprint). Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal 3: 66–81.