Guidelines for Virtual Teams

Guideline 1: Produce personal profiles:
• Accelerate the “getting-to-know” process
• Personal information:
• Name, address, contact information, preference of communication
• Personal description: who are you and what are your likes, dislikes?
• What is your professional description: what do you do and what is your contribution to the
team?
• Specific question:
• What do you see as the goals and milestones of the project?
• What are the risk and challenges we are going to face?
• What are some solutions from your experience
Guideline 2: Develop virtual socializing skills
• Electronic communications offer little interpersonal contacting
• As a team leader, you need to make sure that the team members have opportunities for
formal and social relationship building
• Encourage subject-related topics – teams do not want to talk only about the project
• Create scenarios that will engage the team through communication
• Remember: some members of the team might feel geographically, functionally, or culturally
isolated as a manager you need to integrate them
Guideline 3: Agree on a Code of Conduct Protocol
• Code of conduct ~ an agreement which defines the rules and processes by which the team
members chose to operate
• ~ goal: build the formal team culture
• Code of Conduct provides guidelines on how to act and proceed in order to reduce
uncertainty and frustration in the team
• Based on values that the team should hold
• Code identifies potentially relevant issues and defines how
problems should be solved
Guideline 4: Agree on a Communication Protocol
• Virtual teams use unnatural communication protocols
• Communication protocol documents which tools and processes are used by team members
on which occasions
• Includes guidance on etiquette
• Details:
• Communication technology
• Format of communication
• SOP for timeliness and quality of communication
Guideline 5: Meetings Protocol
• No meeting without a standard agenda
• Attendance is required (no attendance – apologies beforehand)
• Routine e.g., going around the table and invite each team member to contribute
• As a rule: camera is always switched on
• Making a contribution: raising hand or chipping in
• Record or take written minutes
Guideline 6: Project Plan
• Plan = guidance and orientation for team members
• Should allow compartmentalization so that individual team members work on their own
plan
• Plan details:
• What needs to be accomplished during each phase
• Dependent and independent tasks
• Constraints of each phase
• How the team should operate to complete the tasks successfully
• Do not forget timely updating
• Do not forget slack
Guideline 7: Plan for Training and Competency
• Team members have been chosen on the basis of skills, competencies and expertise
• Have they been trained on working in virtual teams
• Technical skills
• Social skills (- intercultural sensitivity)
• Cognitive skills (reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making)
• Self-management and motivation
• Project management
• Give each team member the responsibility to look after and train on a specific technology
Guideline 8: Produce a Reporting and Recording Protocol
• How will information be recorded in a standard and agreed form
• Information is knowledge of domination
• Each team member is obliged to store information, documents, data, drawings, recordings in
a central drive e.g., cloud-based
• Documents allow for comments and modification
• Modifications need to be authored e.g., track-changes mode
• Use templates wherever possible
• If possible, create a team website with in a private section of the organization’s website or in
an intranet
Guideline 9: Design a Central Knowledge Database
• Sharing learning experience is key
• Information capture
• Information transfer
• Knowledge building
• Information sources researched, found, consulted e.g., websites, articles
• Oblige team members to share their “knowledge pieces” in a central repository e.g., Evernote
• Provide incentives for sharing information
• Sanction when information is withheld
Guideline 10: Agree on a System for Performance Measurement
• Observing performance is not possible in virtual teams
• Each team members needs to understand how performance is measured and assessed
• Team members need to be encouraged to talk about accomplishments, challenges, especially
problems to facilitate monitoring progress
• Celebrate when tasks are finished early or in time (beware of culture-based expectations!)
• Oblige team members to assess why tasks overran – this is important for learning