Managing Remote Teams
Many organizations have operations in multiple locations. In many cases, the
manager and some, if not all, team members are based in different locations --
sometimes only a short distance away, sometimes in different time zones. In some
cases, the manager is not only separated from the team, but from his/her own
manager as well. The trend of remote/offsite/virtual teams is likely to increase
as technology makes it easier to do work from any location, as the demand grows
for knowledge workers -- wherever they can be found.
Benefits
Successfully managing the challenges of working in a virtual/remote
environment provides organizations with substantial benefits:
-
Retention of valued knowledge workers who might otherwise lose motivation
because of the lack of attention from the rest of the organization
-
Optimizing the talents of each team member as a result of improved
coaching and development of remote team members
-
Greater team spirit and commitment to the common goals of the group
-
Less time required to address conflict and problems created by poor
communication
Specifically, as a result of this training, leaders will...
-
Select people who can succeed in a remote environment based on
competencies
-
Select the most appropriate and effective technology for communication and
collaboration
-
Establish team protocols that facilitate communication
-
Build trusting relationships in a virtual environment
-
Develop sound management and leadership practices when working virtually
-
Provide interventions for dealing with typical problems of distributed
teams
-
Assess a remote team member’s needs and interest for career development
-
Build and maintain team spirit
-
Radically improve a distributed team’s effectiveness
2-Day Agenda
Day 1
-
Setting the scene
-
Remote vs. Virtual Teams
-
6 Critical Success Factors
-
Team leader and team member success criteria
-
Building the Distributed Team
-
Build team spirit
-
Know and understand roles
-
Build informal time
-
Celebrate success
-
Brainstorm suggestions for team spirit
-
Make the team a priority
-
Build trust
-
Team exercises
-
Dealing with Conflict
-
Conditions that trigger team conflict
-
Tools for preventing/minimizing conflict
-
Relationship Negotiation
-
Establishing Team Discipline
-
Operating Agreements
-
Team Norms
-
Aligning Remote Members with your organization's culture
-
Managing Performance in a Remote Team
-
Setting direction
-
On-going Communication, Feedback, Monitoring
-
Videotaped Skill Practice: "Sensing Session"
Day 2
-
When and how to use face-to-face communication
-
One-on-ones
-
Team meetings
-
Site visits
-
How to Choose and Use Communication Technology
-
Types: Same time, same place; same time, different place; different time,
different place
-
What each technology is
-
When to use it
-
Disadvantages
-
Do’s and Don’ts
-
Etiquette
-
Communication exercises
-
Performance Management (part 2)
-
Coaching on Performance Problems
-
Measuring Performance Output
-
Recognizing and Rewarding Performance
-
Performance Problem Case Scenarios
-
Career Development for Remote Teams
-
Conducting career discussions
-
Creating development plans
-
Videotaped Skill Practice: Conducting a career development discussion
-
Implementing what we learned here
Logistics
Managing Remote and Virtual Teams is a two-day workshop with facilitated
discussion, videotaped practice, coaching, and feedback. We recommend a maximum
group size of 5-6 participants with one facilitator, or 10-12 with a team of two
facilitators. Breakout rooms, a video camera and playback capability, and any
appropriate visual aid equipment are need for each group of 5-6.
[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
|
