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Lesson 2: Team Processes
Team Start-Up Processes
This lesson focuses on the processes needed to build a GV team. While some of the processes are similar to those of a co-located team, there are significant differences because of the cultural and global issues facing a GV team. If your team is split into two or three locations, there is the temptation to think of your team as two or three teams working on the same project in a parallel fashion. While some teams may be able to function this way, team members working on one project need to act and feel like a single team even though they are separated by distance, time, culture and the limitations of working through virtual technologies with people they may never meet.
Many team start-up processes are similar to those of a co-located team. Teams need to set team objectives and goals to accomplish those objectives. A leader needs to be identified for the team. Team members need to take time to get to know one another on both a personal and professional level so that trust is built and maintained among team members. This allows assignments to be made to reach team goals, accountability for team actions and a free exchange of ideas as the projects progresses.
However, separation from team members by distance and time zones
complicates this process. Depending on the separation due to time
zones, key work and collaboration times need to be established.
Directions need to be very explicit and free from culturally based
comments. For example, what comes to your mind if I said I was
"tailgating" on the weekend? Well if you think of cars and driving, you
may think I was driving extremely close
to cars in front of me. If you
are an American football fan, you may think of the parties that happen
before football games where friends meet in the stadium's parking lot to
cook food,
eat and socialize prior to the game. In some cultures
"tailgating" may have no meaning at all, or a very different meaning.
This illustrates how one needs to be clear in what he or she is saying
something and asks for clarification when something is not understood.
This lesson presents some team ideas and how they may be approached on a GV team to help the team start-up and function well. The objectives for this lesson include understanding the unique features of establishing a GV team. It will compare the GV team start up processes with those of a co-located team. Specifically it will address team start-up processes in terms of structuring processes, developing goals, establishing rules, building trust, and understanding the work values and practices of other cultures.
