In this week’s EL6052 (eLearning Theory and Practice) lecture we explored the concept of virtual teams. Over the past 18 months, I have been juggling full-time employment with the part-time MA. Both roles have required participation in virtual teams, so I was particularly interested in how to overcome the challenges virtual teams face, as well as best practice recommendations for participants in virtual teams.
Until recently, I was working as part of a fully remote team, with members dispersed across the various Emirates of the UAE. When I joined the team, it was summer 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 restrictions. This presented me with an unfamiliar and slightly daunting challenge. Up until that point, any employment role I had previously held was in-person and so the relationship-building process with colleagues occurred organically in a co-located work environment. Now, I had to build this relationship exclusively in a virtual environment. This was challenging for various reasons. I have always (thankfully) found developing informal relationships with colleagues an enjoyable and straightforward process. However, I soon realized factors that previously enabled this were no longer present. Being physically separated from colleagues meant casual interactions that usually happened unexpectedly now needed to be planned. It was these impromptu interactions that initially broke the ice with colleagues and formed the basis of personal relationships. This would also prove more difficult as the team was multi-cultural and multi-lingual with members coming from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
Team leadership did make attempts to foster informal relationships through online activities such as virtual coffee chats, however, there is a fine balance between encouraging informal interaction and almost trying to force it. Attending a virtual coffee chat where you know you are expected to contribute for the sake of contributing is certainly no replacement for noticing a colleague’s choice of lunch and striking up a conversation about food preferences. In my experience, interactions that are well-meaning but evidently slightly forced lack authenticity and do little to foster meaningful and successful remote work relationships. So, what did work?
At the time I decided to focus on a number of aspects that I thought would lay the foundations for the relationship-building process. I focused on factors within my control such as aiming to communicate clearly and effectively with colleagues to ensure they fully understood what tasks I was both instructing them to do, and tasks I had committed to doing. This subsequently built trust, and I have always found that people are more likely to interact formally, or informally, with someone they trust. I also explicitly appreciated the standards to which colleagues completed their respective tasks and made sure to compliment and encouraged them. I made a point of publicly expressing appreciation for their work in the respective team channel if it was worthy of such. If someone posted a question seeking clarification on a process or task, I made sure to respond if I had found a tool or keyboard shortcut that would make this process easier. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was in fact adhering to the communication and trust-building guidelines (Einkenberry and Turnel 2018 ) referenced in this week’s lecture. As time progressed, I found that consistently implementing these small actions and gestures led to the slow and steady cultivation of informal workplace relationships within my virtual team. I feel fortunate to have developed these skills and have no doubt they will benefit me in future roles. Equally, it has motivated me to learn more about additional virtual relationship-building techniques through the exploration of content highlighted during this module.
Reference: Eikenberry, K., & Turnel , W. (2018). The Long Distance Leader . Berrett
Image Source: https://www.internationalbrandequity.com/virtual-team-building-activities/
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