Working Together Apart
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran a column about successful teams working virtually. Click here to read the story now (however this free link expires about September 25, 2007) and Click here to read the story after September 25, 2007 when you’ll have to be a registered subscriber.
In research we performed at Radian International a number of years ago, we found the same results.
We’d noticed that there were some teams successfully performing virtual work, and others who were failing to break even, let alone make a profit, on virtual projects. My theory was that successful teams had protocols they used to streamline communication, and prevent mishaps and overlooked opportunities.
We pulled data from accounts payable about closed projects that were performed virtually. Then we tracked the project team leaders, paying particular attention when we were doing a proposal with them (they were like lab rats in our own little laboratory) to take notes about what they did differently.
No one had a technology advantage. They all had pretty pedestrian technology tools.
And we found that indeed they had different protocols for communicating and managing their projects:
- They had specific protocols they used through out the project
- They were particularly adept at communicating on-line
- They seemed to have relationships with the team members, even though they’d never met in person
However, there was something more. The leaders of these teams were not the usual superstar project managers. In fact, many of the best project managers could not come close to the results of the successful virtual managers. Something was different, and I was surprised to figure out that certain personal attributes of the team leader were important for virtual team success.
Click here for my case study that explains why Introverted Auditory Accessors are the new SuperStars in a virtual environment.
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