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Workshop Overview
Managing a virtual team is like managing any other team only more complex, more difficult and more frustrating.
Increasingly managers are managing virtual teams. A virtual team is one which is not a formal team but is brought together for a project. It is likely that the team is made of people in different locations or countries. It is also usual for the manager not to be the person who hired or who can fire the team members and is unlikely to be there regular line manager.
This workshop gives participants frameworks plus tips and ideas on how to establish the team and manage the group and each individual effectively.
This is a practical workshop
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Pre workshop activity
- Meeting to discuss the participant’s needs and those of the organisation
- Draft workshop outline tailored to your needs
- Agreement of agenda
- Participants complete a short questionnaire and read the ITD Work Style Model or Thomas International profile in preparation for the workshop.
Duration
- Two days.
Typical Agenda
- Introduction and objectives
- Overview of participants’ projects
- Separating project processes & people issues
- Critical success factors
- Setting and working towards realistic deadlines
- Virtual team building
- Contracting with team members
- Communication strategies across continents and time zones
- Management techniques
- Managing difficult situations
- Business game
Summary & personal action plans
Post workshop activity
- Participants leave with individual actions
- Email follow up of personal action plans
- Suggested conversation with their line manager on their actions
- Optional WebEx conference call follow up on these actions
- Optional 121 coaching
- ITD blog with further tips and suggestions
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Client feedback
- “The feedback we received was excellent.”
Participant comments
- “Enjoyable, interesting and fun with balance between formal discussion, small group activity and the project task ‘rollaball’ on the 2nd day.”
Call or email ITD to explore how we can help your people better manage virtual or matrix teams
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Managing Virtual / Matrix Teams – Case Study
This is a hi-tech diverse business with international offices.
Background
The business ha s centralised functions including training to offer services to the varied businesses in the group.
Need
The need came from people who were based in various businesses, with a common requirement to better manage project teams internationally.
Activity
We put together a training workshop which allowed each participant to bring their projects into the session. This lead to the participants discussing the very practical challenges and successes they had with each project across the region.
The participants applied the ideas reviewed in the training to their projects and them implemented them after the session.
The training included a variety of learning methodologies including a practical business game, where two teams compete in a project to achieve shared goals.
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Outcomes
The main outcomes of this session were to:
- Give ideas on how to manage people in matrix project situations
- Apply ideas to actual participant projects
- Review participants challenges & develop possible solutions
- Produce a personal action plan
Client feedback
- “The feedback we received was excellent.”
Participant comments
- “Enjoyable, interesting and fun with balance between formal discussion, small group activity and the project task ‘rollaball’ on the 2nd day.”
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