Here in Christchurch today we had the privilege of having Jessica Lipnack, CEO of NetAge, Inc., speaking on Virtual Teams in the Age of the Network. There was a small group of 8 listeners, so Jessica set it up as a conversation rather than a presentation. Three of the attendees were vendors, two were analysts, one was an IT manager, and one worked in communications for a training firm.

Introduction
Jeffrey and Jessica started doing research on the networked organization 30 years or so ago. Based on a letter to one person, they built their contact database up to 50,000. They contacted 4,000 of these, and got 1,600 responses on what it meant to be in a network, what it meant to be a member, what the leadership style was. Their first book, “Networking”, came out in 1982. As a result of the book, they started getting calls from major corporations around the world. They don’t do any marketing; their consulting practice is purely a result of writing. The most popular book, second to their Virtual Teams book, is called The Age of the Network. It is a strategy book on how to build a sustainable teaming strategy. All of their books are available now on www.netage.com. Go forth and enjoy.

What’s the Big Deal
We’ve been creating organizations for eons … from small groups, to hierarchies, to bureaucracies, to networked organizations. Peter Drucker puts the start of the network organization in 1950; Toffler says 1954; Jeff and Jessica say 1945 … why? Three reasons: the bomb, the signing of the UN charter in San Francisco, and the turning on of the first computer.

We’ve had a massive / profound shift in the last 10 years … from face-to-face, filing cabinets, snail mail, libraries, hallways and more, through to conference calls, files, email and other collaborative tools.

Proximity of people has a big impact on collaborative behaviors; collaboration is difficult if people are farther than 15m/50ft apart.

What’s a “virtual team” … (a) a small group, (b) a shared / organized something (project / interest / hobby), (c) separated across a boundary of some kind (space, time, organizations), and (d) supported by technology. Jessica has some issues with the definition in Wikipedia; it’s too much work focused. For example, a virtual community of practice is also a virtual team.

Virtual teams have all of the same challenges that other teams do, eg, leading and participating, building and deepening trust, common languages, etc. But there’s also a list of purely virtual challenges:

• Lack of daily face-to-face
• Cultural differences “virtually” guaranteed
• Time-shifts, extra long “days”
• Misunderstanding frequent without established communication norms
• Trust delicate to maintain without informal socializing. Young people, however, don’t have a problem with building virtual trust with others.
• New tools carry overhead of having to learning them. The senior executives have the most difficulty with this. One of the senior executives that Jessica says we should read is Paul Levy’s Running a Hospital blog.
• No blueprint exist for how to do it
• New field of leadership being invested on the fly

Measuring Virtuality

The intention of NetAge is to help get organizations to the virtual edge. A face-to-face team gets good-typical team performance. The challenge of a traditional virtual team is getting better than a face-to-face time. A team with the virtual edge, takes all of what’s learnt on collaboration and virtual teaming and leverages it for high team performance.

Tom Botts, a client of NetAge, gets it. He’s an EVP from Royal Dutch Shell. In the “old world of Shell”, people saw their boss all the time, they felt pride and affiliation to their business unit, there was lots of comfort, etc. In the “new world”, people are very comfortable with working virtually, they are proud of the extended network, feeling that if the whole succeeds I succeed, and systems thinking, among others.

Jessica was involved in co-writing an article for Harvard Business Review, looking at whether absence makes teams stronger. The three rules of far-flung teams:

• Rule #1 … Exploit diversity … Eg, make the most of people’s differences, “storm to form” (not “form” first), engage detailed conversations, allow conversations to wander, pair people with different perspectives, etc. Greater differences produce breakthrough solutions.
• Rule #2 … Use technology to simulate reality … Eg, combine teleconferencing (86%) with virtual workspaces (83%, mainly for shared files), instant messaging used by 50% even when prohibited, video-conferencing used only by one-third, online threaded discussions used between meetings, and email poorly regarded for team communications (some teams banned it; some had an operating agreement only to use email for one-to-one personal conversations). Jessica had high praise for Atlassian Confluence for virtual workspaces.
• Rule #3 … Hold the team together … Eg, communicate daily / intensely, adopt a common language, blend the work processes of members, encourage cultural descriptions, protect members by agreeing time commitments with their managers, and orchestrate teleconferences as “can’t miss” events.

One team studied designed a breakthrough rocket engine. They cut the number of parts from 100s to a few, design time to 10% of schedule, the number of hours reduced to 1% of normal, and manufacturing costs were reduced by millions.

Four-Part Model of NetAge
A four-part methodology for virtual teams: purpose (goals, tasks, results), people (members, leaders, levels), time (calendar, process, phases), and links (media, interactions, relationships). If the virtual team isn’t working, look into one of these four factors.

People are involved in four networks simultaneously: the formal organization in which I work, the work I do, the knowledge that I share with others, and finally the social networks.

Conclusion
Strategy for success at a distance: 90% people + 10% technology.
Myth: Leading virtually is about using the right technology.
Reality: Leading virtually requires understanding people, culture, organization and collaboration. Get the sociology right!

Questions
(Dean) With the increased bandwidth available on the Internet for video conferencing, do you see that video conferencing will become more important than audio conferencing?

A. Video conferencing is still in the future; there’s still a time difference (eg, early morning conference calls). Real-time communications is such a precious commodity, that we’re trying to find new ways to be asynchronous and use our brains to the best advantage.