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Dealing With Communications Problems
Here are some tips on alleviating communication problems:
Include face-to-face time if at all possible.
Have an initial meeting for the team members to get together, meet each other, and socialize.
Meet face-to-face periodically throughout the life of the project. These meetings will help to establish ties and relationships among team members. It’s especially important in creating an effective working environment where the team members are interdependent.
Give team members a sense of how the overall project is going.
Send team members copies of the updated project schedule or provide an electronic view of the project schedule on line using the Internet. Project management schedule charts can be published on the Internet using the team’s Web site. The primary idea here is to improve the quality and type of communications with all team members. They need to know where they fit in the big picture.
Establish a code of conduct to avoid delays.
The code could include a principle of acknowledging a request for information within 24 or 48 hours. A complete response to a request might require more time, but at least the person requesting the information would know that the request will be addressed. No one likes to feel that his or her request has dropped off the edge of the earth.
Don’t let team members vanish.
Use the Internet or workgroup calendaring software to store team members’ calendars. While this could be difficult to maintain on a daily basis, it should not be difficult to keep up with scheduled out-of-town absences such as vacations or business travel. Another approach is to agree that team members will let everyone know when they’ll be going out of town. Have a calendar for each team member so that everyone's schedule is available to view. Electronic mail with a distribution list is both an effective and efficient way to avoid MIAs.
Augment text-only communication.
The Internet is a good place to store charts, pictures, or diagrams so everyone can have a look. The fax machine, once a modern marvel but now surprisingly old-fashioned, can help here too.
Develop trust.
The issue of trust is at the center of successful virtual team management. The fact is that old-style command and control management, based on constant scrutiny, is simply impossible in a virtual environment. “Whips and chains are no longer an alternative,” says Warren Bennis, professor of business at the University of Southern California.
Other Tips to ease communication:
• Send digital pictures of each team member to the others
• Include digital pictures on all emails from the team
• Hold an initial face-to-face startup
• Have periodic face-to-face meetings, especially to resolve conflict and maintain team cohesiveness
• Use visuals in communications
• Recognize that most communications will be non-verbal -- use caution in tone and language
• Allow team members to get an idea of where the overall project is going. This way each member will know how they fit into the project.
•
• Develop trust among the team.
•
• Store charts, diagrams, etc. on the internet so that the whole team can see them.
• Send materials for all meetings in advance so that attendees can review them
• Start each meeting with a story. People like stories and a story will therefore encourage their complete attention for the meeting and their on-time arrival
• Share the story telling with the team. Begin each meeting with someone telling a story from their region, state, country or from their part of the project.
• Always respect time zones
• Ask all team members for the best time to hold meetings
• Respect cultural differences and realize that they can make the project more interesting
• Make certain the impact of a virtual team environment is analyzed as part of the project risk assessment
• Invest more time carefully creating the project communication plan
• Expect and plan for delays caused by miscommunication
• If you can get together once, do so to create the WBS, Network diagram and risk identification
• Spend more time validating understanding when you can not see or interpret facial expressions
• Use video conferencing or the latest video technology
• Recognize and reward performance Give recognition often and copy the teams’bosses
Here are some tips on alleviating communication problems:
Include face-to-face time if at all possible.
Have an initial meeting for the team members to get together, meet each other, and socialize.
Meet face-to-face periodically throughout the life of the project. These meetings will help to establish ties and relationships among team members. It’s especially important in creating an effective working environment where the team members are interdependent.
Give team members a sense of how the overall project is going.
Send team members copies of the updated project schedule or provide an electronic view of the project schedule on line using the Internet. Project management schedule charts can be published on the Internet using the team’s Web site. The primary idea here is to improve the quality and type of communications with all team members. They need to know where they fit in the big picture.
Establish a code of conduct to avoid delays.
The code could include a principle of acknowledging a request for information within 24 or 48 hours. A complete response to a request might require more time, but at least the person requesting the information would know that the request will be addressed. No one likes to feel that his or her request has dropped off the edge of the earth.
Don’t let team members vanish.
Use the Internet or workgroup calendaring software to store team members’ calendars. While this could be difficult to maintain on a daily basis, it should not be difficult to keep up with scheduled out-of-town absences such as vacations or business travel. Another approach is to agree that team members will let everyone know when they’ll be going out of town. Have a calendar for each team member so that everyone's schedule is available to view. Electronic mail with a distribution list is both an effective and efficient way to avoid MIAs.
Augment text-only communication.
The Internet is a good place to store charts, pictures, or diagrams so everyone can have a look. The fax machine, once a modern marvel but now surprisingly old-fashioned, can help here too.
Develop trust.
The issue of trust is at the center of successful virtual team management. The fact is that old-style command and control management, based on constant scrutiny, is simply impossible in a virtual environment. “Whips and chains are no longer an alternative,” says Warren Bennis, professor of business at the University of Southern California.
Other Tips to ease communication:
• Send digital pictures of each team member to the others
• Include digital pictures on all emails from the team
• Hold an initial face-to-face startup
• Have periodic face-to-face meetings, especially to resolve conflict and maintain team cohesiveness
• Use visuals in communications
• Recognize that most communications will be non-verbal -- use caution in tone and language
• Allow team members to get an idea of where the overall project is going. This way each member will know how they fit into the project.
•
• Develop trust among the team.
•
• Store charts, diagrams, etc. on the internet so that the whole team can see them.
• Send materials for all meetings in advance so that attendees can review them
• Start each meeting with a story. People like stories and a story will therefore encourage their complete attention for the meeting and their on-time arrival
• Share the story telling with the team. Begin each meeting with someone telling a story from their region, state, country or from their part of the project.
• Always respect time zones
• Ask all team members for the best time to hold meetings
• Respect cultural differences and realize that they can make the project more interesting
• Make certain the impact of a virtual team environment is analyzed as part of the project risk assessment
• Invest more time carefully creating the project communication plan
• Expect and plan for delays caused by miscommunication
• If you can get together once, do so to create the WBS, Network diagram and risk identification
• Spend more time validating understanding when you can not see or interpret facial expressions
• Use video conferencing or the latest video technology
• Recognize and reward performance Give recognition often and copy the teams’bosses
