Excerpts from material used in kick-off sessions with virtual teams

1. Building Successful Virtual Teams in the Testing Group

5. Virtual teams challenge characteristics of a traditional team Sources: The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas MacGregor; The Wisdom of Teams, by Kaztenbach and Smith; Kenning Associates Leadership shifts much more formal and explicit The leadership of the group shifts from time to time Disagreements have tendency to fester and blow-up There is disagreement and this is viewed as good Discussion typically asynchronous and rarely real-time, let alone face-to-face There is a lot of discussion in which virtually everyone participates Virtuality of team atmosphere may conflict with team member’s physical surroundings The atmosphere tends to be informal, comfortable, relaxed Requires more self-discipline in the absence of peer reinforcement The group is self-conscious about its own operations Challenge for Virtual Team Traditional Team Characteristic

6. Trust within traditional teams develops in three stages Team members do what they say they will do simply because they fear they'll be punished if they don't Each member knows his or her teammates well enough to predict their behavior with confidence Trust is built on empathy and shared values; members are able to put themselves in their teammates' place Deterrence Knowledge Identification Basis: Evolution of trust in conventional settings requires direct, face-to-face interaction