Lesson 2: Team Processes

Work Values and Practices

Work Values. Different cultures approach and value work in different ways. Some cultures are very direct in approaching work and tasks. They see work in the perspective of "identify the job and get the job done". Other cultures value the relationships involved identifying and completing the job. To them one must build the relationship between team members before work can be done on the project. This difference also highlights the approach to deadlines. One group will work evenings and weekends to accomplish the goal. Others will not sacrifice the time with family and friends to complete a job. In each case there is value in the position, but also value in the other approach. Care needs to be taken to understand what your position is and where your team member's position is. In this way you can reach a compromise that builds off of each other's strengths.

Celebrations. As team members work to achieve benchmarks and goals, there needs to be a team mechanism to celebrate. This is easily done on co-located teams through high-fives, handshakes, incentive gifts, or teams going to a restaurant together. Celebrating the completion of benchmarks and goals virtually is much more complex and difficult. Since the physical interaction is not possible, team members must take the time to congratulate and acknowledge efforts. This needs to be done through verbal and written means that builds trust and a stronger team. If possible the team needs to find a way to celebrate virtually becomes a means to help the team unify and build relationships. If the team members are enjoy online gaming, after achieving a goal, they may engage in a team game. The team may also set up a Facebook or other social network page that allows team members to post pictures and share congratulations with each other through posts.

On a recent GV team, one American sub-team sent Christmas "care packages" to team members at the other team end points. The "care packages" included local treats and inexpensive gifts for other team members. Not only were the "care packages" warmly received, but they opened communication and trust between team members.

Whatever the method a way to celebrate and acknowledge team member's efforts and success should happen.

Protocols. Work practices represent the team's efforts to identify procedure and protocols for interacting and communicating with and among each other. As a first step team members should experiment and learn virtual communication technologies. The knowledge of how to use these technologies as well as their strengths and weaknesses allows users to identify the best virtual communication technology to use and the situation for which it was made. It also allows for the opportunity to switch to a back up when needed or to mix and match technologies for the optimum communication. Following this the work practices identifies who team members can seek out for a specific problem and how they should do it. It specifics response times to e-mails and requests, makes provisions for individual work styles and clearly defined deadlines and goal outcomes.

Time Zones. When teams are working across several time zones, there needs to be increased clarity in deadlines. Often it is important to state the day and time assignments are due so everyone is clear on when to expect the work. In some cases teams may wish to use a 24-hour time instead of 12-hour with AM and PM to clarify specific times. Changes to time zones as a result of daylight savings time may influence contact times by one or two hours. This may result from meetings being held on the same day with one team member meeting early in the morning and the other late at night to a team member meeting in the afternoon of one day with the other team member who is in the morning of the next day. These changes can disrupt work schedules and contact times. Daylight savings time also becomes an important issue when some countries (i.e. Singapore) or when sections of nations (i.e. Arizona in the United States and Saskatchewan in Canada) do not use daylight savings time.

Team members should also clarify means and methods of best contact. This would include the bandwidth of team members internet connections when they are working at home compared to the work place. In some cases bandwidth will limit the type and amount of interaction possible.

In spite of all of the planning for different contingencies, each team needs flexibility. Each team member needs to ask what he or she could do to facilitate team interaction and progress instead of how the team can accommodate his or her portion of the project. This flexibility allows protocols and procedures to be changed or altered due to team members' values, beliefs, work schedules and communication methods. One needs to be flexible and willing to adapt to others. To be inflexible is much like the definition of insanity where one continues to do the same thing but expects different results. For results to change, one needs to alter how he or she does things.