Virtual Vs. Traditional Teams

How Virtual Teams Can Outperform Traditional Teams

Featuring Keith Ferrazzi, a foremost expert on professional relationship development and author of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back?

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012Sponsored by

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How Virtual Teams Can Outperform Traditional Teams

Featuring Keith Ferrazzi, a foremost expert on professional relationship development and author of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back?

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Today’s SpeakerKeith Ferrazzi, a foremost expert on professional relationship development and author of Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back?

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

Virtual WorkplaceHBR Webinar, September 26, 2012Keith Ferrazzi, CEO Ferrazzi Greenlight

6

@keithferrazzi

Facebook.com/KeithFerrazzi

@keithferrazzi


How we arrived at the new

“People Rules” in an increasingly virtual world

1. Close but Far Apart2. How to Build Real Trust in a

Virtual Environment3. Collaboration in a Virtual

Environment4. How to Avoid Virtual

Miscommunications5. The Virtual Reality of

Workplace Conflicts

6. Dispersed Teams Can Outperform Co-Located

7. The Right Way to Run a Virtual Meeting

8. Evaluating Employees Who Can’t Be Seen

9. Off-Sites Should Go Virtual10. The Future of the Virtual

Workplace

WHEN TEAMS ARE CLOSE BUT FAR APART

@keithferrazzi


VIRTUAL DISTANCE� Physical Distance

� Operational Distance

� Affinity Distance

@keithferrazzi


AFFINITY DISTANCE has the greatest effect on innovation, trust, learning, and other team outcomes.

@keithferrazzi


Teams that have high VIRTUAL DISTANCEsuffer: � a 90% drop in innovation

effectiveness� more than 80% plunge in

trust� 60% decline in finishing

projects on time and within budget

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES TO MINIMIZE VIRTUAL DISTANCE

Don’t overestimate the impact of physical distance

Avoid being penny-wise but pound-foolish

Go for the low-hanging fruit

Leverage small changes into large effects

HOW TO BUILD REAL TRUST IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

@keithferrazzi


TRUST can be actively accelerated and maintained on virtual teams even when they have to be assembled on the fly from employees across the globe.

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES TO BUILD TRUST IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

Leverage “swift trust”

Proactively build interpersonal trust

Communicate with predictability

Share and rotate power

COLLABORATION IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

@keithferrazzi


COLLABORATIONcan be difficult when team members work for different companies, are essentially strangers to one another, and have different cultural and professional backgrounds.

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BEST PRACTICES FOR VIRTUAL COLLABORATION

Adjust for size

Don’t be afraid of Social Media

Play games

Train for collaboration

Have role clarity but task uncertainty

HOW TO AVOID VIRTUAL MISCOMMUNICATIONS

@keithferrazzi


In the virtual workplace, where people regularly rely on e-mails, IMs, and phone calls instead of face-to-face-interactionsMISCOMMUNICATIONS are bound to happen

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES FOR VIRTUAL COMMUNICATIONS

Fight the “illusion of transparency”

Speak the right “language”

Amplify the signal

The medium is (partly) the message

Respond promptly

Avoid the status symbol of sloppy emailing

Expect problems

THE VIRTUAL REALITY OF WORKPLACE CONFLICTS

@keithferrazzi


Unresolved employee

CONFLICTS are all the more dangerous in a virtual environment, where people don’t have the luxury of proximity to work their differences out face-to-face.

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES TO AVOID & MANAGE

VIRTUAL CONFLICT

Create a virtual site as the team’s primary focal point

Always use the virtual workspace for important issues

Protect the privacy of the team

Assign a “point person” for each issue

Diverge then converge

HOW DISPERSED TEAMS CAN OUTPERFORM CO-LOCATED ONES

@keithferrazzi


If managed properly virtual teams can actually

OUTPERFORMtraditional co-located groups

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES TO MAXIMIZE

PERFORMANCE OF VIRTUAL TEAMS

@keithferrazzi


Put processes in place

Communicate less – but in the right ways

Keep conflicts focused on tasks

THE RIGHT WAY TO RUN A VIRTUAL MEETING

@keithferrazzi


When conducted properly

VIRTUAL MEETINGS can be both efficient and effective, even more so than face-to-face meetings

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES TO MAXIMIZE THE

IMPACTOF VIRTUAL MEETINGS

Use video

Do a “Take 5”

Assign different tasks

Forbid the use of the “mute” function

Penalize multi-taskers

EVALUATING EMPLOYEES WHO CAN’T BE SEEN

@keithferrazzi


EVALUATIONof virtual work can not be based on “where” & “when”.

Managers must concentrate on “what” & “how.”

@keithferrazzi


BEST PRACTICES FOR THE

EVALUATIONOF VIRTUAL WORK

Don’t focus solely on results

Beware unintended consequences

Engage the disengaged

Forget about employee self-evaluations

Level the playing field

WHY OFF-SITES SHOULD GO VIRTUAL

@keithferrazzi


Videoconferencing and other virtual technologies give us better ways to

conduct STRATEGIC OFF-SITE MEETINGS.

@keithferrazzi


FORMULAFOR PLANNING A VIRTUAL OFF-SITE MEETING

Communicate

Engage

Finalize

Cascade

Motivate

THE FUTURE OF THE VIRTUAL WORKPLACE

@keithferrazzi


TECHNOLOGY will

transform the FUTUREof the virtual organization.

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

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SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

This webinar was made possible by the generous support of Citrix GoToMeeting.

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Virtual Vs. Traditional Teams

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