Leading Project Teams Virtually
For those with headsets,
run your audio setup wizard
after logging in
Use the chat area or next page
to let us know if you will be
using:
Project Leaders:
1. headset and mic
2. teleconference option, or
3. chat box to communicate.
Leading Project Teams Virtually
Getting Connected!
On headset with mic
Using teleconference
Using chat box
1)
2)
If you don’t have a headset or can’t seem to get the mic
to work, click the teleconference icon once you are in
the main room (arrow 1) and it will give you a call in #
arrow 2) that will allow you to use your
phone to talk live both in the main room and in
Breakout rooms
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Leading Project Teams
Virtually
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3
Getting
Connected
Deliverables
to
Celebration
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Maintaining
Momentum
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Agenda Getting Connected for Success
• Who’s here and where are we going?
• What have you found helps in virtual world?
• Here’s some of what we found - best practices
• Getting a virtual project started
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Could
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other
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“Collaborative Learning”
• You share what you know about
• We’ll offer what we know about
• 2 way idea exchange – “What did you discover
last week?”
• “Go slow to go fast” to build relationship/trust
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Why is virtual work so
challenging?
Team Communication
Communication of
feelings and
attitudes
Words
7%
Albert Mehrabian
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Team Communication
Communication of
feelings and
attitudes
Words
7%
Tone of
Voice 38%
Albert Mehrabian
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Team Communication
Communication of
feelings and
attitudes
Words
7%
Tone of Voice
38%
Body
Language
55%
Albert Mehrabian
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Team Communication
Communication of
feelings and
attitudes
Increase
congruence =
Increase trust
Words
7%
Tone of Voice
38%
Body Language
55%
Albert Mehrabian
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Writing on whiteboard in breakout rooms
Breakout Discussion
1.
In your breakout group, …..
2.
Read the quote and …..
3.
Summarize your thoughts using …..
When you are in your breakout room and the
instructions slide is pushed out, you will see a
menu, like above, where you can navigate to a
blank page and enter group discussion notes.
Use this same menu to go back and forth between
the instructions slide and your “notes” page.
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1.
In your breakout group, …..
2.
Read the quote and …..
3.
Summarize your thoughts using …..
Click on the drop down
Menu, then pick the
blank page you want
to go to jot down
thoughts/notes.
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Leadership
Virtual World
1. Clarifying the project
2. Getting the technology to work
3. Connecting the team
4. Setting initial accountability agreements
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Virtual Group Experience
• Take 12 minutes total
• Getting Started
o Briefly, introduce yourself and provide a little context
(Council, hometown, etc.)
• What have you found works well for leading
virtual team projects?
o Ask someone to capture the discussion on your whiteboard
and someone else be ready to share with the larger group
in the main room
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Best Practices
•
Select some team members who know each other
and some “boundary spanners” (people who are
well-networked in the organization)
• Clarify goals/outcomes for the project (what
change will occur? What will be different?)
• Establish norms/team agreements (prework
material)
• Break work into chunks that can be worked on
independently at locations
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Best Practices – Meeting Virtually
• Share pictures
• Use chat area and whiteboard
• Silence is not golden! - tell people you
will be calling on them for a specific
response
• Have a 2nd “facilitator” to help out (e.g.
watch chat area, etc.)
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Make Your Thinking Transparent
“Ok, let me tell you what I’m thinking…
“The reason I’m advocating here is..…
“_____, tell me more about what your thinking here”
“I think we have a few options here…”
“My only concern here is…”
“____, help us understand how you got there”
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Best Practices
Meeting Virtually
• Use a visual to
remind those in the
room “who’s out
there”
Lewis
Rachel
Bob
• Describe what’s
happening in the
room
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Virtual Meeting Management
Beginning
• Use a form of “check-in”
During
• Ensure everyone’s participation
End
• Summary notes; action items are clear
and posted to the online worksite
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Ask Team Members to help with meetings
• Setting up and communicating the meeting
• Drafting an agenda
• Collecting input beforehand
• Facilitating the meeting so you can focus on the interaction
• Watching the chat area and secondary channels
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Ask Team Members to help with meetings
• Setting up and communicating the meeting
• Drafting an agenda
• Collecting input beforehand
• Facilitating the meeting so you can focus on the interaction
• Watching the chat area and secondary channels
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Breakout #2 – Roles and Team Standards
•
Breakout Rooms and Topics
Room 1 & 2 - Clarifying project roles
Room 3 & 4 - Establishing team standards
Room 5 & 6 – Managing expectations via the “iron
triangle”
•
Discuss the prework content and your own experiences working
through these issues on project teams
•
Identify and note on whiteboard 2-3 practical suggestions
•
Take 15 minutes total
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Project Roles
Sponsor
• Clarify scope of team’s charter
• Identify the team lead and support the team lead with securing resources
• Stay available to team lead to maintain progress and manage scope creep
• Keep upper management informed
Project
Lead
• Assemble team
• Work with Sponsor to clarify scope
• Lead, manage and ensure completion of the project
Project
Team
Members
• Develop and implement project
• Share accountability for the success of the team (both content and
process/project management)
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Project Roles
Customer
Consumer
End-user
Stakeholders
• Person/group with the problem the team is trying to address
• Other people and/or groups who have an interest in or are
impacted by what the team does
Other?
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Team Contract / “Agreements”
What – Behavior standards we feel are critical
How we work together
For us to achieve our vision we must be this way with each
other.
Why – Create boundaries
Give team members and newcomers minimum behavior
standards they can expect of each other
Remind group of a standard we must try to maintain to achieve
our vision
How –
One on one conversation and/or group discussions
Group members agree to adopt
“I’ve been chatting with all of you and thinking about how we
need to ‘be’ together for us to complete this project, and have
some fun while we’re doing it … here are some thoughts around
that, what do you think?”
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3 Key Team Behaviors/Agreements
Being candid and loyal to the absent I avoid gossiping
Not as
I’ve been
(e.g., I don’t bad mouth someone “not in the room” and I
consistent
very
encourage others to refrain likewise.) I don’t deliver messages for as I would like consistent
others and if I have a beef with someone, I talk to them directly.
1 2 3 4
Team before personal: I put the team/organization’s goals
before my own. If someone has an idea that’s working better
than my own, I offer my time, budget, resources to help them
succeed.
Transparency: I am completely open in sharing my thinking
and information I have at any given moment. If I disagree, I
bring it up in the meeting vs. in the hall, and I do it agreeably.
I model the behavior of “If I have more information than you,
I am obligated to share it. If it seems you have more than
me, I am obligated to ask.”
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
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Project Management 101
1. Quality
(scope)
2. Time
(schedule)
“What do you want
done?
What’s going to be
different at the end?
How good does
it need to be?”
“When do you need it by?”
Manage
Expectations!
“How firm is that?”
“What kind of budget is available?”
3. Resources “Who can I tap into?”
(cost)
“Can temps or other outside
resources be used?”
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Best Practices - Quotes
“Trust within a team can
be harmed by breaches
in confidentiality outside
the team. Since
breaches cannot be
physically observed, an
important norm to
discuss is what is shared
outside the team.”
“Our technology use evolved over time.”
“Several of the teams we studied struggled
initially because they lacked a common
set of procedures or way of doing things.”
“We found that one of the biggest reasons virtual teams fail is
because the members don’t find the work interesting.”
“The quickest way to
build trust in a virtual
team, is to play fair and
deliver on your promises.”
“Meetings with a strong social element can be
resented, for example, when held early in the
team’s existence. In the early phases,
creating exciting work with a meaningful goal
is seen as more useful than hosting social
events.”
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Questions/
Observations?
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For the Next Session…
1) How might you use a tool like the charter
template to clarify scope with a Sponsor and
your team?
2) Watch the IDEO video using the link on the
LPTV website Module 2 page and discuss
with your learning team what insights you
took away.
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