Company profile:

• One of the nation’s leading healthcare management consulting firms specializing in providing expert advice, solutions, and service to its clients
• Approximately 50 employees based primarily in Southern California with remote employees spread across the United States

Business challenge:

• Family-owned professional services firm was experiencing significant year-over-year growth in the size and scope of their consulting assignments
• Firm needed to further develop senior leadership as well as implement new management structures, HR policies, and business practices to better support local and remote staff

Team effectiveness and leadership development solutions provided include:

• Performed analysis of firm’s existing policies and procedures for managing remote work
• Conducted 360-degree survey of leadership effectiveness for President and senior leadership
• Presented specific recommendations and delivered new policies and procedures to better integrate work processes and enhance virtual collaboration
• Designed and implemented customized leadership development program; Facilitated series of group workshops on fundamental leadership skills
• Provided one-on-one coaching and additional support to President and other Management Team members
• Designed and facilitated customized “Consulting Skills 101” program to share strategies and techniques for managing client projects and improving team communications during annual Corporate Retreat
• Prepared new competency-based performance assessment tools for evaluating both management and professional staff

Key business results:

• Implemented new policies and procedures to standardize business operations and better align them with best practices for remote work
• Created new strategies and established specific communication protocols for management to support and further develop local as well as remote staff
• Enabled firm to come together as a more cohesive unit; Positioned them to take future actions towards ensuring ongoing growth and success

“Jeremy has been a trusted advisor and consultant for us. He and his team have helped enable us to grow our firm virtually while still building a positive culture for senior management and all of our professional staff.”

- President & CEO

The promise of technology has been that it would help us work smarter, not harder. One very smart idea is to leverage technology to cut down costs while increasing productive communications among co-workers, managers and even vendors through “virtual teaming”.

Without question, the trends in business in the last decade have been toward corporate restructuring, increased competition, and globalization. According to a recent Gartner Report, 60% of all professional and management tasks at Global 2000 companies were done virtually in 2004. And over 50% of all front-line employees report that the opportunity to work in a virtual team is not only an attractive incentive, it’s actually a reason to stay with the company.

So what exactly is a virtual team? Simply put, individual workers can now collaborate with colleagues regardless of whether or not they are physically present in the same location. The most routine work tasks to highly complex projects can be accomplished in this manner. Teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and online Webinars are all examples of how virtual team members can work together and learn from one another.

Since most Fortune 500 organizations use virtual teams, one would think that the benefits would be clear and unmistakable. The truth is that virtual teaming requires specific skills in both facilitation and management, without which the company may not receive the intended performance gains.

A few of the reasons that virtual teaming in an organization may fail to live up to its promise of improving productivity and efficiency are

• Senior management has not completely championed the concept and/or process
• There may be a lack of “team building” in the relationships among team members
• There may be a lack of clear processes and procedures for problem-solving and conflict resolution
• Inappropriate or insufficient tools and techniques are selected and cannot adequately support the effort

Plus Delta recognizes the importance of fully leveraging the potential of virtual teams. For this reason, we have created a customized learning curriculum for virtual teamwork to help our clients, colleagues and alliance partners achieve their desired performance improvements. The foundation of this program is a workshop called “Virtual Teams: Best Practices for Remote Work.”

In Plus Delta’s Virtual Teams workshop, team members and leaders alike learn about the critical success factors for virtual teams as well as the importance of effective virtual facilitation. They also engage in a variety of role play simulations to reinforce the learning experience. Throughout the program, we site typical challenges with virtual teaming and then provide several strategies to overcome these potential barriers. We also share case studies of our recent client experiences where we have been highly successful implementing these tools and techniques.

Plus Delta recently facilitated the Virtual Teams workshop with a functional work group of approximately 30 Contracts staff members from a leading global provider of integrated avionics and service solutions. This $9 billion company had transitioned to a new customer service delivery model that required team members to work more collaboratively while still being spread across four sites around the US. This group needed to create a process for enhancing communications with each other as well as approximately 30 Program Managers who helped manage the contracts and direct relationships with key customers. Together, these people were now being asked to work together to negotiate prices, discuss design problems and ultimately deliver high-quality products and services to their customers.

The workshop provided by Plus Delta helped the team members achieve significant performance improvements. Initial feedback from the session suggested that the content was very relevant to their jobs and helped streamline the transition process. The delivery was so successful, in fact, that the client organization invited Plus Delta back to deliver the same workshop to the Program Managers who actually facilitate all of their teleconferences and virtual meetings.

Can Plus Delta help you improve performance? To learn how you can be more productive and create high-performing virtual teams, please call Dr. Jeremy Lurey at +1 (310) 589-4600 or send him an email at jslurey@plusdelta.net

In today’s high-tech global economy, face-to-face meetings are rapidly being replaced by their electronic counterparts: conference calls, videoconferences, and other virtual meetings.

While electronic meetings provide low-cost convenience, they present significant challenges for the facilitator who must manage the group dynamics, keep the discussion on track, and ensure that the meeting achieves its stated objectives.

Sticking with the fundamental principles of large-group facilitation is more important than ever, especially when technology is involved. The following are some basic tips to keep in mind when facilitating virtual meetings.

Establish Ground Rules for the call, such as:

1. State your name before speaking during the call.
2. Reduce background noise in your office and surrounding environment.
3. Insist on one speaker at a time.
4. When referring to a document, always state the document title and page number – and figure number if applicable.
5. Come prepared – read the materials in advance.
6. Have the documents in front of you on the call.

Before the Teleconference or Videoconference

1. Have all materials for the call at hand on your desk, in the room or on your computer screen before the call.
2. Print the reminder notice so that you have the phone number and access codes available. If you lose your phone or video link and your computer goes down, you may not be able to access the reminder e-mail.
3. Have a backup phone available (i.e., cell phone) in case your phone fails.
4. End any conversations or meetings at least 10 minutes before the call is to begin.
5. Go to the bathroom before the call.
6. For a videoconference, check your appearance before the call.
7. Have a glass or bottle of water handy because talking may dry out your mouth.
8. Have a list of who is supposed to be on the call.
9. Find a quiet place for the call – close the door, turn off your music, etc.

During the Teleconference or Videoconference

1. Check that everyone is on the call; wait no more than 5 minutes for anyone.
2. Remind everyone of the ground rules that have been distributed/agreed upon.
3. Maintain control and monitor the flow throughout the agenda if you are the moderator.
4. Appoint someone other than the moderator to be the scribe. Whoever is taking minutes should have their phone muted because the clicking of typing may be distracting for others.
5. If you are taping the call, inform everyone and get their consent at the start of the call.
6. Make sure everyone agrees the call is over before everyone starts to hang up.

After the Teleconference or Videoconference

1. Send any immediate action items to everyone within 2 hours so that they can get started on any follow-up actions right away.
2. Distribute the complete meeting minutes within 24 hours.

Can Plus Delta help you improve performance through virtual teaming? To learn how you can become a more effective virtual facilitator and create more productive teleconferences and virtual gatherings, give us a call at +1 (310) 589-4600 or send an email to info@plusdelta.net