Although many companies have made significant investments in virtual teams and the technology to support them, a surprising number of these teams do not reach their full potential. A recent study conducted by OnPoint Consulting, and described in more detail in Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide to Working and Leading From a Distance, surveyed 48 virtual teams across industries to identify specific practices associated with the most successful teams.
Eleven Virtual Team Success Factors
What is the profile of high performing virtual teams? The factors that differentiate top virtual teams and recommendations for organizations that want to enhance the performance of their virtual teams are outlined below.
- Stable and consistent team membership. Less frequent changes in team membership provide greater stability and more time for members to focus on building lasting relationships.
- Fewer team members. Teams that were less effective were disproportionately larger.
- Members are from the same function. Cross-functional teams appear to face unique challenges and greater levels of complexity that inhibit performance in a virtual environment.
- Members are on fewer teams. A greater number of team members on low performing teams reported participating on too many virtual teams, which hindered their overall effectiveness.
- Members have longer tenure. Teams with more than three years tenure performed better, which suggests that they have had time to improve their communication and execution practices.
- Face-to-face kick off meeting. Teams who held an initial face-to-face meeting within the first 90 days achieved better performance than those who never met face-to-face.
- More frequent meetings. Sixty-three percent of high performing teams “met” at least once a week, compared to 29% of the less effective teams.
- Leverage technology. Members of higher performing teams were more likely to report that they had the proper technology to facilitate working together. Higher performing teams also used video conferencing more often.
- Provide skill training. Teams who had more than four development sessions performed significantly better than those who had one or fewer sessions.
- Team leaders who are better able to lead from a distance. Leaders of high performing teams appear to struggle less with building collaboration virtually, which was a key challenge reported by the lower performing team leaders.
- Have more members reporting directly to the team leader. Direct reporting relationships with their team members facilitates communication, increases the likelihood of team members having shared goals and clear roles, and enhances the ability of the leader to follow through and hold people accountable.
Implications for Building High Performing Virtual Teams
There are five key actions organizations can take to enhance the performance of their virtual teams.
ORGANIZATIONS
- Ensure the right fit of skill to task when selecting virtual team leaders. The most effective virtual team leaders are able to balance the execution-oriented, interpersonal practices, and the cultural factors that are prevalent in virtual teaming. Organizations should select team leaders based on the characteristics required to manage from a distance and periodically assess their effectiveness.
- Don’t take the team launch for granted—set teams up for success. Organizations need to be thoughtful about team membership, team size, and ensure that teams have the appropriate resources to work together virtually. For example, use criteria for virtual team member selection and consider who needs to be on the team to make high quality decisions and ensure buy-in. If the team size becomes too large, have sub-teams work on specific issues and report back to the larger team. When possible, conduct a face-to-face start-up meeting to discuss team purpose and goals, individual roles, learn more about each other, develop team norms, plan a communication strategy, and conduct team development activities.
- Develop reward strategies. Organizations should implement programs that reward and recognize virtual teams for their collective performance (e.g., “spotlight” team members or celebrate successes virtually as a team).
- Foster accountability. Team leaders and members should incorporate one or more virtual team responsibilities into their goals or personal development plan.
- Assess team progress. Regularly review virtual team communication and work processes to assess what things are working well and what might be improved. Periodically collect feedback from stakeholders to assess the team’s performance, identify barriers to high performance, and steps to overcome these barriers.
It’s important to remember that the factors that contribute to the success of a virtual team are not the same as those for a co-located team. Organizations that incorporate the eleven success factors when forming virtual teams and follow the five recommendations for their ongoing development will find that their investment will pay off handsomely.
