Travel bans induced by the credit crunch mean that virtual teams may find it tough to meet in person these days. Pradip Gajjar considers two important strategies to ensure team alignment during these turbulent times.

A real scenario: A client wants to run a team-building programme for one of their virtual teams. They want to run it virtually. When challenged with "when was the last time the team met face to face?" the answer is "18 months ago"! When asked why they don't consider running this programme face to face, the reply is: "Well, erm… travel ban!"

"There are two strategies which are absolutely 'business critical' for virtual teams: cooperation and communication"

Business critical travel has now become the norm. Travel bans mean that face-to-face meetings and team development opportunities are not so readily available. Of course, a learning consultant should challenge clients to define what 'business critical' really means. But when travel really is banned, there are two strategies which are absolutely 'business critical' for virtual teams: cooperation and communication.

Cooperation is rooted in establishing and deepening trust within the team. Communication - or how well we use technology to connect with virtual team members and develop shared understanding - is the single most critical tool that contributes to trust. The two combine to become the thread that binds an effective virtual team together.

While planning the team-building programme with the same client, the training department gathered feedback from team members which merited close examination. Concerns raised across this global team included:

• "At the moment it feels as if everyone is making the best use of challenging situations and not working together as strongly as we were two years ago."


• "There is an immense lack of communication. We work in silos and we don’t know what the others are doing."


• "Each team member tries to survive the chaos rather than using energy and time on collaboration to enhance the power and potential of the team."


• "I think we are far away from what we could potentially accomplish as we do not effectively work together."

Of course, similar issues are being faced by teams in businesses all around the world at present.

When working towards solutions to these problems, it is good practice to question the team on their understanding of trust and what they are doing to both give and receive trust. Teams often offer similar definitions of trust - openness, honesty, respect, fulfilling promises and so on.

In the example above, the team has clearly struggled with a poor sense of reliability between team members. Reliability - when team members can count on one another to do what they say they will do - is an important contributor to virtual trust.

So how can teams develop reliability? It begins with what could be called the '2:1 rule' – two ears, one mouth. Team members need to send signals that they are engaged and listening, paying attention to key messages or individual contributions. In virtual teams we are bereft of body language and other social cues, so being 'present' and 'attentive' is an important act of respect to team members. In practice this means avoid multitasking during conference-calls – and catching up with emails later.

It is important to give a prompt response. Whether through email or voicemail, prompt responses allow team members to demonstrate reliability. They can indicate that the message was received, the content considered and understood, and appropriate actions put into place. Attention to the person and attention to detail shows reliability – which breeds trust.

Of course, team leaders need to show reliability in terms of their own availability to support team members. In the current environment, uncertainty can be a barrier to trust so extra attention to communication must be the leader's focus. In particular, team leaders need to ensure clarity around team purpose, roles and responsibilities.

The team leader also needs to give attention to the 'soft' areas, by introducing more social interaction between the team members, and perhaps increased interdependency to avoid the feeling that they are working in 'silos'. This will require more frequent team calls and meetings, but also more one-to-ones with team members. The team leader must be a model of '2:1 behaviour' and spend extra time listening, extra time building trust.

A team leader's reliability is further challenged when there is a need to impart sensitive information. Emailing sensitive messages must be avoided. The clarity, emotion and importance of sensitive messages are best communicated face to face or by voice. Written communication may miss the point or be wrongly interpreted. Trust depends on the voice. It's too easy to send an email. And who said trust and communication are easy?

Weaving the thread of cooperation and communication is critical for virtual teams - and every team member needs to contribute to the process. While teams ride the waves of global uncertainty, this thread will prove essential to their strength and stability.

Pradip Gajjar is a learning consultant at TMA World, a leader in blended global training and talent development solutions, which specialises in enabling people to lead and collaborate across distances and difference. For more information, visit www.tmaworld.com