Listen to This Webinar to Get Yael’s Outline for Virtual Team Processes
Last week I conducted an online webinar about an outline for virtual team processes for an organization that helps families in the U.S. and overseas improve their children’s lives. The organization is Save The Children and I designed this session to support team members’ efforts to work more collaboratively. I introduced the kinds of tools that facilitate connection, including what is needed for effective virtual team meetings and how team members can interact with each other in productive ways.
Here are the specifics of what this outline for virtual team processes covered in the webinar:
• Building rapport with virtual team members, even if you have never met face-to-face
• Conducting a virtual team meeting using an efficient 4-step process
• Tips for using common technology and communication tools
• Proven practices to improve inter-team communication
• Keys for leading successful conference calls and team meetings
• Guidelines for the host or facilitator in the virtual setting
Thanks to Save The Children I am able to share the recording of this webinar with you.
During the seminar many participants asked relevant questions regarding an outline for virtual team processes, and I’m looking forward to learning how you built and managed a virtual team. Please add a comment here or on our Facebook page
Here is one of Yael’s highlights about her outline for virtual team processes from the webinar:
There are certain skills and how Virtual Teams meetings are run, I call it the Four Factors Model, the four key factors that lead to and contribute to a successful Virtual Team meeting.
We have all being in meetings where something went wrong and sometimes everybody is so busy. So you just run from one Virtual meeting to the other. You know we get out the phone from one meeting and then we’re on our next meeting and you have to run to the field and the come back and deal with something else. So most of the time people just jump into the call or into the meeting, so the four factors, they make it a bit better.
The first is “Prepare, Prepare, Prepare”. Don’t just jump in and try to wing the meeting. Because people can’t see you doesn’t necessarily mean that you can just jump into the call. In some ways before the meeting starts, it’s even more important to make sure that the technology is tested, that we discuss how we want to run things or you have an agenda, so there’s a preparation. I call it “Before, During and After”.
The second one is “Participation”. People say that communication and participation are the two most challenging aspects of running Virtual Team Meetings. So participation and the secrets of encouraging participation during Virtual Team Meetings in some ways are more important than when you are face to face because of the context communication factor. We don’t have the context, we don’t see each other. So getting people to participate on the call rather than be distracted with things such as multitasking or get distracted with other stuff is very important to set yourself up for success.
The third element is “Respect and be sensitive to the differences in culture.” How do we communicate with people who may not understand us as easily? I often hear even the most successful Virtual Team leader, they complain about not understanding what their Virtual Team member refuse to tell them that they don’t get his direction, or that they did the wrong thing. Either the communication style or it is because we come from different cultures and we’re all speaking English, but are we really speaking the same kind of English? And I call this Lost in Translation; things can get Lost in Translation with simple words like Yes or No or when things are done and often respecting and being sensitive to cultural differences.
And the fourth one is “Follow Up”, like before you want to prepare, after you want to Follow Up. It ends up with everybody usually runs to the next meeting or work is not over just because the meeting is over. There are some simple steps that you can do to follow up what needs to happen: who is the responsible, what are the considerations, have you and your team members aligned and prepared to the next meeting or are you going to discuss and decide then what needs to be happening next.
