Techniques for Collaborating Successfully in Virtual Teams

As the virtual team members don’t communicate face to face, there are more chances of being distracted from the topic. Participants can lose focus and attention easily and they generally don’t tell that they are lost. So, it is important to develop some techniques for running the virtual teams effectively.

 

Distribute an agenda:

It is beneficial if we distribute an agenda which will include date and place of meeting, start and end time, brief description of each topic, names of people responsible for any action, etc. This will help the team members to prepare beforehand because they will have a basic idea about the meeting.

 

Encourage participation:

The team members can easily lose concentration if we don’t encourage participation. So, the leader can ask various question after regular intervals to engage the participants. Another technique that promotes discussion and gives everyone a chance to speak is “around the table”. We can go through the list of the participants to ask them to speak for 30 seconds without any interruption. If they don’t have anything to say they can pass on to the next member.

 

Build trust:

The following video tells the importance of building trust in virtual teams (Pritchard, 2013):

 

Powerful voice:

In case of virtual teams, people don’t face each other. So, the only way to give an impactful presentation is to speak loudly. The presenter should speak in a clear tone and should confirm that the team members understand the topic. Another technique is that the speaker should give suitable examples related to the topic because it will help to engage team members' attention. The speaker should summarize the speech as it will help the team members to recap the things again.

 

REFERENCES:

Pritchard, Steve (2013, January 22). TMA World - Trust in Virtual Teams [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtMwK5CXyTU