Key Concepts
Virtual teams are teams whose members work with little or no face-to-face time, collaborating through technology. They moved from a specialized environment to the norm after COVID-19, and while remote work widens the talent pool and cuts costs, it makes soft skills like team building and coaching harder. This task covers what virtual teams need and how leaders can support them.
Virtual teams are teams where people fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting or working together face-to-face. Also called remote teams, they moved from being a specialized type of project environment to becoming the norm as organizations switched to work-from-home mandates in response to COVID-19.
These days, nearly everyone has experienced remote collaboration. However, there is a big difference between being forced to rapidly transition to something in an emergency and carefully designing something. Suppose the first time you have scrambled eggs is as hospital food. In that case, you may associate it with a negative experience and not appreciate it (and maybe you received an inferior version).
Fortunately, many organizations have been deliberately all-remote for many years and have built a wealth of enabling tools and techniques we can learn from. Talent is distributed, and accepting remote workers expands our pool of potential workers. It also allows us to engage people who need or choose to work remotely for health, caregiving or personal reasons.
Virtual Teams: Benefits and Downsides
Organizations can save on pricey office spaces, and employees avoid time-consuming and costly commutes and living in expensive neighborhoods just to be close to work. Of course, there are downsides too, onboarding can be slower, and people may feel lonely or not fully integrated into the team for longer periods. Face-to-face meetings are also generally better for building rapport, commitment and conveying emotions through body language.
Also, not all types of projects can be done remotely. If our job is to build a dam or tunnel, much of the work needs to occur at the physical location. However, for people engaged in knowledge-work projects, remote contribution and collaboration may be possible.
These days, technology can help teams communicate and collaborate effectively. Also, some teams may use hybrid models working a mixture of in-the-office for some days and remote for others. Technology solutions allow team members to stay in sync via tools like video conferencing, online project repositories, electronic task boards, etc.
1.11.1 Examine Virtual Team Needs
Examine virtual team member needs (e.g., environment, geography, culture, global, etc.)
What do our virtual teams need? Well, everything a regular team needs, of course, and likely some additional supporting technology too. Kevin Eikenberry, author of the book The Long Distance Leader, describes an effective leader’s dual management and leadership role and how to perform them remotely.
From the image above, we can see that we must employ various management and leadership skills to succeed.
Many of these activities, especially the soft-skills associated with leadership, take additional effort and may feel awkward for us to initiate in a virtual setting. Yet, these activities, including team building, coaching, encouraging and focussing on people, are more critical than ever in virtual team settings.
Overcoming isolation, as well as promoting motivation, collaboration and team development can all be more difficult to achieve remotely. So we need to start sooner and work harder to be successful.
“But, I’m Not Good at Technology”
Leaders and project managers are sometimes one of the older generations of workers in a project environment. This may bring feelings of not being as comfortable with technology as younger employees. Feelings of not being good at it, that it does not feel natural, and the tools keep changing are understandable but irrelevant.
We need to get over it, ask for help if necessary, and get up to speed. Two MIT Sloan studies show that leaders who use technology are rated consistently higher in other leadership areas than those that do not. Yet, a large majority of these higher-rated leaders did not feel comfortable or confident using the tools. In other words, learn to use the tools, even if you do not like using them.
The good news is we do not need to be experts, merely competent. There is no shame in asking for help, and the process of learning-out-loud can be a powerful tool for showing we are genuine, human and modeling the desired behavior for other team members in a learning environment.
In a virtual environment, we need to spend more time on team introductions, provide contact information, and make our plans and work items visible. Storing recordings of video introductions, creating stakeholder directories, and using electronic task boards will help, but are only part of the solution.
1.11.2 Investigate Alternatives
Investigate alternatives (e.g., communication tools, colocation) for virtual team member engagement.
Tools fall into two broad categories:
Asynchronous tools – allow us to get information when we need it. Like a virtual filing cabinet, asynchronous tools store project data in a variety of formats. This may include project documents, designs, models, video recordings, information radiators, etc.
Because virtual team members can work from various locations, it is more important to provide options for people to access information across a wide variety of time zones. Just because we are sleeping, it does not mean other people are not contributing or looking for project information. Providing an online source where people can participate and get information is critical for virtual teams.
Examples include: Zoho Projects, Microsoft Teams / Sharepoint, Liquid Planner and hundreds of other tools.
Synchronous tools – help people communicate and collaborate in real-time. These tools might feel a closer match to how we used to communicate on in-person projects. If you have something to say, you get everyone together and announce it or hold a Q&A session. Everyone had to stop what they were doing and attend at the same time to get the information and participate.
Synchronous tools include video calls and video conferencing, telephone and, to some extent, instant messaging that can facilitate near synchronous communication. They interrupt the flow of work, which might be appropriate for very high priority announcements or changes in direction, but sometimes allowing people to receive updates at their breakpoints might be better for optimizing work throughput.
Choosing your Medium
When it comes to choosing the tools and medium to use, we should consider the characteristics of various forms of communication. As shown in the image below, the most efficient (high data rate) and effective (conveying and capturing emotions) way to interact is in-person, face-to-face (1). However, this is not an option with virtual teams, so the next best thing is via video (2).
A benefit of video is that it can easily be recorded and stored for playback later – although we lose the opportunity for real-time questions and answers in that case. As we migrate further down the efficient/effective curve, we find other forms of communication.
Generally, producing documents is the least efficient because it is the most time-consuming and without the opportunity for readers to ask questions, the author has to assume a low level of knowledge to accommodate a broad audience. However, in many cases, our projects require documents to achieve approval. So they are still needed but should not be considered the first choice if other formats that are quicker to produce or provide more options for engagement are available.
Consider Hybrid Solutions
Often hybrid solutions are used. For instance, hold a virtual kick-off workshop to introduce team members and jointly define team norms, and then write them up in a team charter for future reference. This is better than just saving the video recording because people do not want to scan through a two-hour video recording to find out what time we agreed to have the daily standup meeting.
1.11.3 Implement Options for Engagement
Implement options for virtual team member engagement.
When considering options for engaging virtual teams, we should consider the type of team we have. The image below shows three common team types.
Type-1 teams are traditional, co-located face to face teams. Type-2 have a core co-located team and some remote members. Before the pandemic, Type-2 was the most common form of project structure and often suffered from a division of tools and communication formats used by the co-located group compared to remote team members.
Type-3, All-Remote teams do not have the two-class problem of Type-2 teams. Everyone is remote, so there is no core-team and hangers-on. Everyone experiences the same communications systems, tools and challenges.
Slower Team Formation
Team formation in a virtual environment is more challenging. The Tuckman stages of forming, storming and norming can take longer because our interactions are less frequent and filtered through technology with small pictures of people’s faces. When working remotely, people may withdraw rather than confront and resolve conflict.
Get People Together Early if Possible
If it is possible to meet in person, even if only once or twice, this usually pays dividends to do as early as possible. Once we have met someone and worked with them for a day or two it is so much easier to pick up the phone and call them or arrange a video call than with people we have not met in person.
The diagram below depicts bringing team members together to work for a couple of days before returning to their respective workplaces.
Allow Different Ways to Contribute
As project managers, we need to work harder at ensuring all voices are heard. During meetings, this may require calling upon less vocal participants for their inputs and restricting the outspoken. We should also ensure there are various ways to participate. So, instead of only using meetings, people can contribute by adding ideas to design, documents or virtual whiteboards offline.
The various ways of communicating with stakeholders should be documented in the Communications Management Plan. This deliverable can be a formal document or set of agreed norms published online. However, it should explain the format, frequency, goals and expectations of all the major project meetings and communications.
Provide Calendar Tools
Another must-have tool is a shared calendar with automatic timezone conversion and common-availability finding capabilities. Team members should not have to spend a lot of time determining what time it is for other stakeholders or finding a time to talk.
Encourage Innovation and Learning
A common criticism of remote teams is that it stifles innovation. The argument goes that without the water-cooler talk and chance interactions, impromptu idea-sharing does not occur to the same degree. This is a limiting way to view how innovation happens. The best all-remote organizations have figured out how to make innovation and learning everyone’s job.
All-remote organization Automattic build web tools including WordPress and Tumblr (and dozens of others), employs over 1,100 people in 75 countries. They operate via a set of aspirational goals they call the Automattic Creed that emphasizes innovation and learning. These include:
- Never stop learning
- Do not just work on things assigned
- There is no such thing as the status quo
- Never pass up an opportunity to help a colleague
- Communicate as much as possible because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company
As project managers, we likely do not have the influence to bake these ideas into our organization’s DNA as Automattic has. However, we absolutely have the power to suggest them as team norms and ground rules for our project team.
1.11.4 Continually Monitor Engagement
Continually evaluate the effectiveness of virtual team member engagement.
Check-in Do Not Check-on
As with in-person projects, we still need to monitor the effectiveness of team member engagement, but remotely how we do that changes. Traditional “management by walking around” or lean Gemba-walk (go see) practices are not possible. The virtual equivalent is a check-in.
Checking-in is quite different from checking-on someone. Check-on someone is closer to micromanagement and sends a “Are you working?” instead of a “How are things?” message. If we have to check if someone is working, we should not have hired them. Or maybe we should not have been hired.
We can assess if work is getting completed from variance analysis. Variance analysis involves checking task boards, WBS work package completion, daily standup meetings, and other progress evaluations, comparing work done to projections. The purpose of a Check-in is to be available to provide some of the caring and support that might be absent in remote teams. Also, to listen about issues or impediments to progress. To show some compassion and hear about what is happening.
Check-ins are a bare minimum virtual touchpoint for remote teams. They do not need a formal structure and often just asking questions such as: “How is it going?”, “Do you have what you need?”, “Is there anything I can do to help?” is enough to get things started.
(We might be thinking: “Are you even working?”, “What the heck have you been doing?”, and “When will x ever be done?” but that is not the purpose of a Check-in. As stated already, progress is evaluated separately through variance analysis. As soon as Check-ins become Check-ups or Check-ons, people will avoid them, clam up, or pre-invent a bunch of busy-work items to sound productive, and we lose the opportunity to actually connect as humans.)
Retrospectives and Engagement Surveys
Effective remote teams frequently inspect and adapt how they are collaborating and working together. Just as we look for ways to improve the product or service the project team is developing, we should also review virtual team engagement.
There are many ways to facilitate a retrospective, but as a starter, asking “What is working well?, “What is not working?, “What should we start?” and “What should we stop?” should return some suggestions. As a team, vote on a few experiments to try in the next period and review them when you meet for the next retrospective. Successful ideas can be made permanent, and failed experiments can be switched to better ones, or mined for their learnings.
Embrace the Upsides of Remote
Virtual teams certainly have some challenges. We looked at onboarding, loneliness and team formation issues. Also, not everyone has an ideal work environment or may have difficulties staying focused. Yet there are many upsides too.
Again we can learn from established all-remote organizations who have been doing this for years and continue to refine how they engage their workforce. GitLab (makers of source code repository and DevOps tools) has 1,295 team members spread across 67 countries using its all-remote work practices.
It has its own published values and manifesto. GitLab’s “CREDIT” values are:
- Collaboration
- Results
- Efficiency
- Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
- Iteration
- Transparency
The term CREDIT also describes the good-intent it assumes from its remote peers. GitLab also has a remote manifesto:
- Hiring and working from all over the world instead of from a central location
- Flexible working hours over set working hours
- Writing down and recording knowledge over verbal explanations
- Written-down processes over on-the-job training
- Public sharing of information over need-to-know access
- Opening up every document for editing by anyone over top-down control of documents
- Asynchronous communication over synchronous communication
- The results of work over the hours put in
- Formal communication channels over informal communication channels
Once more, we likely do not have the influence to make similar principles core to our organization, but we can learn from them. So play to the strengths:
- Recruit globally
- Offer flexible working hours to retain your best talent
- Acknowledge virtual teams need more written guidance to consume asynchronously
- Make work visible to help with collaboration and tracking
- Assume positive intent but verify
- Measure results, not attendance
Deliverables and Tools
- Engagement assessments
- Collaboration technology
- Calendar tools
- Communication
- Communication plan
- Variance analysis
Related Topics
- 1.1 Manage Conflict
- 1.2 Lead a Team
- 1.3 Support Team Performance
- 1.4 Empower Team Members and Stakeholders
- 1.6 Build a Team
- 1.8 Negotiate Project Agreements
- 1.9 Collaborate with Stakeholders
- 1.10 Build a Shared Understanding
- 1.12 Define Team Ground Rules
- 1.13 Mentor Stakeholders
- 1.14 Promote Team Performance through the application of Emotional Intelligence
- 2.2 Manage Communications
- 2.4 Engage Stakeholders
- 2.5 Plan and Manage Budget and Resources
- 2.14 Establish Project Governance Structure
- 2.16 Ensure Knowledge Transfer for Project Continuity
FAQ
What is a virtual team?
A team whose members fulfill their roles with little or no face-to-face time together, also called a remote team.
What are the benefits of virtual teams?
A wider talent pool, the ability to engage people who need or choose to work remotely, lower office costs, and no time-consuming commutes.
What are the downsides of virtual teams?
Slower onboarding, feelings of isolation, harder rapport building without body language, and some work simply cannot be done remotely at all.
What do virtual team leaders need to do differently?
Start sooner and work harder on soft skills like team building, coaching, and motivation, because those activities take extra effort and can feel awkward to initiate remotely.
Do leaders need to be technology experts?
No. MIT Sloan studies show leaders who use technology are rated higher in other leadership areas, yet most did not feel confident using the tools. Competence is enough, and learning out loud models the right behavior for the team.
Additional Resources
- Remote teams and agility: Can We Still Be Agile?
- Hiring for remote teams: Adapting to All-Remote Talent Management
- How All-Remote organization Gitlab operates: GitLab’s Guide to All-Remote
- How All-Remote organization Automattic operates: On Working Remotely
- Stefan Walpers’ remote agile guide: Remote Agile Guide
Explore these topics via an interactive mind map. (Click the nodes to expand/collapse, drag to pan, scroll/pinch to zoom.)
