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 (866) PLS-DLTA or send him an email at jslurey@plusdelta.net. You can also visit the Custom Learning page of our website for more information about our virtual teamwork learning curriculum.

Note: This feature was originally published and distributed in Plus Delta Consulting’s e-newsletter in April 2005.