Catherine Mercer Bing and Lionel Laroche

"Knowing when there are issues, analyzing the causes, and identifying solutions early – when problems remain small – can mean the difference between the failure and success of a virtual or global team."

Even before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 and subsequent world-wide events, many corporations were working to reduce the significant costs of travel usually associated with teams of people located in several countries. Increasingly, global teams are required to learn to work effectively in the absence of regular face-to-face interactions.

We begin this article with a discussion about forming global teams and about establishing trust and understanding on global teams that do not meet in person. We then examine a range of technologies from teleconferencing, which is most like meeting face-to-face, to internet. We provide tips on how to effectively use each of the technologies and how to choose technologies that respect cultural differences. In addition, we suggest how global team leaders can keep informed of the effectiveness of team interactions using web-based global team assessments.

Meeting face-to-face is important on newly formed teams, regardless of cultural preferences. It is also important to those team members with a cultural preference for relationship — those with a cultural preference to get to know someone before trust can be built.

The groups that have most difficulty using any technology to conduct meetings will be new teams who have not yet met and teams whose members have a preference for relationship. The groups who find it easiest are more likely to be the ones who already have met face-to-face, and know the others on the team. It helps if they have worked together for some time and have had the opportunity to develop a level of trust and under-standing between members of the group. Those who value task higher then they value relationship adapt to the work quickly also.

Cultural differences play a major role in this phase, since the information people need in order to get a sense of their new colleagues varies significantly from country to country. While many US American team members are primarily interested in the name, position and expected role of their new team mates, people from countries with a higher preference for relationship may also be interested in the age, marital status, number and age of the children of their new team mates. We once worked with a Norwegian licensing negotiation team that was not ready to go to contract with their US American colleagues "because we do not know you well enough yet." In order to create an inclusive team atmosphere, team leaders can ask individual team members what information they would like to have about their new team mates, then disseminate that information.

We will now examine several time and money-saving technologies, focusing on how to use them effectively and with respect for cultural differences.

Videoconferencing

This method of technology creates the closest thing to personal interaction because it gives team members an opportunity to at least see other team members. Those included in the conference can watch body language and make some judgments about the congruence between body language and verbal expression. For team members communicating in a second language, visual cues including the ability to see the speaker’s mouth make the speaker easier to understand.

What else helps videoconferencing work on global teams? Send out an agenda well before the meeting. This helps every-one prepare for the meeting especially those for whom English is not a first language. An agenda sent out a day or so in advance of the meeting will give those who need it an opportunity to look up key words in a dictionary and help them think through what they may wish to offer to the group interaction.

When managing a videoconference, introduce all participants to each other as they join the call. The repetition of participants’ names and titles or responsibilities as new members join the call can help team members remember each other.

When discussing any topic, specifically ask for input from each person represented, to ensure that everyone gets a chance to participate and appear on the video screen.

Videoconferencing technology is often administered by someone outside the call. This can relieve the person conducting the meeting, or anyone who is participating, of the anxiety of managing the technology. Videoconferencing does require that someone in the room manage the camera angles. The picture may jump around a lot due to the number of locations on the call, especially when there are more locations on the call than can be seen at once by the equipment.

Sounds, even coughing or paper shuffling, cause the camera to activate or jump to the location causing the sound. Reduce visual jumping by suggesting that locations put their speakerphones/microphones on mute until the time to talk.

Teleconferencing

Audio conferencing is much less expensive than videoconferencing. Even small and mid-sized companies often have it in-house. Teleconferencing may make full participation difficult, however, for new team members or those who prefer face-to-face interaction, especially if there are many people they do not know.

Prior to a teleconference, share resumes and photos via the internet or email, or physically mail a “face book” or photos of team members. This gives team members a context within which to interact.

Provide presentation materials in advance in electronic or hard copy so participants have something to look at while they or others talk. As with a videoconference, use an agenda and introduce everyone as they join the call. Ask everyone to identify themselves before they speak. Eventually those on the call will get to recognize each voice.

In some cultures, like in the US, the usual pattern of speech is to talk over the end of the previous speaker’s last sentence. In some cultures this could be perceived as interrupting. There are cultures (e.g., French) that expect participants to interrupt each other, sometimes even finish the other’s thought. In Oriental cultures specifically, the opposite occurs — there is usually a pause between speakers. People from cultures that value pauses and silence are less likely to interrupt or talk over someone who is finishing. It also means they may never find an opening to say anything unless specifically invited to comment.

As in teleconferencing, audioconference leaders may want to check in with each participant during discussions to encourage them to participate. Specifically ask those who seem to be just listening if they have additional input. They may be from a culture that values silence or one that comments or responds best only when a leader asks questions. (Also, participants may have been dropped from the call and you may not know unless you ask.) Leaders who expect input from people who may find it difficult to interrupt might assign a topic for comment or report and/or actually put this on the agenda so others respect the time and presentation or report.

Following both video or audio conferences, send a draft email of meeting minutes which includes agreements and action items. Allow for responses, disagreement, edits and corrections. Circulate the changes. This helps those for whom the business language is a second language to compare their recollections with formal notes.

Internet conferencing

The new technology of communicating simultaneously via both telephone and the internet requires a high level of sophistication. Internet conferencing enables participants to talk on the telephone while showing PowerPoint, Word or Excel files. Some of the technologies even let any participant on the call take over the presentation and manipulate the application.

To help virtual teams use these interactions effectively, use techniques like those suggested for teleconferencing. Distribute small photos of each participant on the call. These can sit on the desktop during the conversation so participants can visualize a real person, not just hear a disembodied voice.

Internet conferencing also requires a prepared agenda, Power Point slides / Word files / Excel files or other electronic materials, and a technologically savvy support structure. Since users with different versions of operating systems may have difficulty making smooth connections, encourage pre-meeting testing of their connections. Take advantage of the vendors offering pre-meeting support. As with other technologies, follow up via email to confirm agreement by group members and to inform those who could not be at the meeting.

Email

When a team is functioning at a high level and has developed trust, email can be an effective means of sharing information. To help teams effectively use email, get them to agree to standards, such as who gets copied on what information; how often information is shared; what goes into the body of the email; what if anything gets attached; and finally, what is a reasonable time within which to expect a response.

How one composes the message may be culturally learned (inductive vs. deductive reasoning). Some people prefer to start with the main point or the message and then explain how they arrived at this. Others prefer a chronological report of events that lead up to a conclusion. Some want more details. Others want only an overview.

The focus of the message may vary with the cultural background of the recipient. For example, it is generally considered inappropriate in Germany to include personal information in a professional email. By contrast, email messages to Mexican teammates that only focus on work-related topics might be received as cold and aloof and interpreted as lacking interest in the recipient as a person.

Know your audience before you choose a format for the content of your messages. Hold a preliminary conversation among team members to outline a protocol that participants can agree to follow. Global companies, for instance, often include an executive summary in the body of the email (no longer than one page) and attachments providing the details. Some companies post team documents and details from meetings on bulletin boards, in chat rooms, within a knowledge management application, or on a secure internet site/web page.

Also, global teams find it useful to agree on who gets included in the "to" line on emails, who gets copied, and who is left off the distribution list. People who because of cultural preferences are used to a more hierarchical relationship with superiors (this cultural dimension is called "power distance") are more likely to include the boss on a "cc" (e.g. France). Other team members from more participative cultures might view copying the superior as an effort to tattle to the boss or cover one’s own tracks.

Internet technologies

Savvy global team leaders may set up team web pages. On these pages include some personal information such as pictures of team members (and perhaps their families) and a brief description of the team members' outside interests. You may also include descriptions of each team member’s past and present work, and characteristics of successful teams on which each team member has worked in the past. This approach is particularly well suited to teams that include people from Latin America, Latin Europe, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Specific information about educational background is generally valued more highly in Asia and Europe than in the US, unless the person graduated from an Ivy League school or received an MBA.

Scheduled web-based teamwork postings can provide global team leaders with updates available to them at a time convenient to their workday. Web based team measurement tools also can be used to collect data on team interactions. Such data can help the team leader identify team interactions that need his/her attention.

Electronic Meeting Options

For the really tech-savvy teams, there are electronic meeting options. Instant messaging services allow people to exchange emails simultaneously. (The application automatically notifies a specific list of people whenever one is on the internet or email.) Chat rooms allow moderated or un-moderated real-time discussions to take place online. (This should be limited to team members only.) Bulletin boards are more typically used for posting a question or topic to which others post electronic comments or responses. For certain teams working on the same project in different countries or different time zones, use of electronic meeting applications can spur information sharing and instigate valuable discussions that might not have happened without the technology.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Respecting Differences

Increasingly, global teams are required to learn to work effectively in the absence of regular face-to-face interactions. Be very careful when asking about the technology and experience of your foreign colleagues. Many US Americans have seriously offended people overseas with questions like "Don't you guys have email?" Also, as in the US, the use of technology may come more easily to the younger generations, while the older generations still may be the team leaders or decision makers.

Watching your time

Sensitivity to time zone differences also supports good global team process. A late morning meeting in the US can occur in the middle of the night for someone in Asia (e.g., India) and late afternoon or early evening for someone in Eastern or even Western Europe. Global meetings using technology almost always have someone participating at an hour that is not convenient or within their regular work hours.

Sensitivity to meeting times goes a long way to helping team members from locations other than HQ feel respected. Too often, even for face-to-face meetings, it is always the same people who have to come to team meetings, real or virtual, outside their regular work schedule. This can send the message that these team members are less important (and therefore can be inconvenienced more often than others on the team). Varying the meeting times and sometimes scheduling meetings at times inconvenient for the leader means a great deal to team members elsewhere.

Measuring team interactions

Whether or not technology is the primary means of communication between team members, establishing communication protocols, especially by including all team members in the discussion to share their preferences, will go a long way to reducing the frequency and magnitude of misunderstandings that regularly crop up in global or virtual teams.

Team issues can range from not understanding communications protocols (for example, who gets copied on written documents), to decision-making, leadership, and conflict resolution. The level of complexity increases on global teams where one’s expectations for how each of these should be handled may also be culturally biased.

What is expected of a team leader varies significantly from culture to culture. For example, you may find that a team leader of Russians may be expected to give specific instructions as to what they are supposed to do, when and how. Many US Americans would consider these instructions as “marching orders” or micromanagement. By contrast, perhaps the leader of a Swedish team may seem, by American standards, more like a coach. In the cases described here, a US American team leader who wants to be effective might need to adopt a more directive style when working with his or her Russian team members, and he or she probably should “back off” when working with the Swedish team.

However, only those team leaders who regularly measure the human process interactions between team members can effectively manage, without travel, team issues over great distances. Issues likely to arise on co-located teams are often magnified for teams dispersed across the globe.

Knowing when there are issues, analyzing the causes, and identifying solutions early — when problems remain small — can mean the difference between the failure and success of a virtual or global team. The new global order may require data collection from team members world-wide, using electronic questionnaires/assessment products. Gathering input from the team, providing results and discussing what the team members think about how to make necessary changes will facilitate improvement in team effectiveness and productivity.

Since global teams represent significant corporate investment, periodically measuring teams that cannot meet together is a proactive way to protect this investment. Team leaders unable to visit all locations find increasing value in periodic measurement and structured discussion around team issues and improvements. More and more turn to collection of data and dissemination of results over the internet prior to team discussions.

CONCLUSION

As companies pull back on international travel, global teams replace face-to-face meetings with remote interactions via telecommunications or the internet. Team leaders need to ensure that their teams use the right electronic tools to facilitate project work. Team leaders need to pay close attention to the needs of team members, particularly when the team includes people from very different cultural backgrounds. They need to adapt their leadership style to the needs of their teammates; and team members need to be mindful of the style preferences of their team leaders and react accordingly. Team leaders need to test their own assumptions for cultural biases when considering whether communication within the team is effective, how to delegate work, and how to resolve issues.

Since cultural differences are often hard to identify, quarterly measurement of the human process interactions provides the team leader with important data. This approach also facilitates regular communication among team members on team process. It sets the stage for the leader to step in early to identify and help the team resolve issues before these issues negatively impact the team’s output.

Global team leaders who effectively use technology to "meet" with their team, measure team interactions, look for and address cultural differences, and talk through work issues, can dramatically improve team effectiveness and efficiency with minimal international travel.

CATHERINE MERCER BING has more than thirty years experience in the field of learning and development in both profit and non-profit organizations in the US and abroad. She held corporate HR positions and has extensive external consulting experience. Catherine is currently the VP of Human Resources and New Business Development at ITAP International, a global consulting firm.

LIONEL LAROCHE has provided cross-cultural training, coaching and consulting services to over 1,000 people in several countries. Lionel has 15 years of international experience, working in sales and engineering and on multinational project teams with major corporations including Xerox, Procter & Gamble, British Petroleum, and Jeumont-Schneider.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2002 (Vol.34 No.2) issue of OD Practitioner.