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Michaela: Welcome back to the show. I'm here with Peter Ivanov. Oops! Tangled your name up there Peter. And he is the author of ‘Virtual Path Teams’- How to live deliver projects faster, reduce costs and develop your organization for the future’. And we're gonna be talking about how you can have virtual teams be successful for your ColdFusion development. And three mistakes you want to avoid when you have virtual teams. So we'll also look at how to improve communication when you have a virtual team, and how to hire on to a virtual team successfully, and how to on board virtual team members. So welcome Peter.
Peter: Thank you Michael. It is an honor to be with your audience again. [Inaudible] [00:49] forward to you know [crosstalk] in the ColdFusion development.
Michaela: Yes, so and if you don't know Peter, he has lead IT teams with over 100 people spread over multiple countries and time zones. And the teams he's worked with have won multiple cooperate awards. So he knows a lot about the subject as well as having written a book on the topic, and he gives keynotes about this as well so. So, why have a virtual ColdFusion software team Peter?
Peter: Well I think virtual teams, they come quite naturally nowadays. So because the experts; the best experts in particular area being the ColdFusion or some other IT related skill. They happen to be located in different locations. And some of these top experts, they're not willing to compromise their like to keep their lifestyle and stay in the location they are.
So really if you are starting a new project, and you want to use top experts, it comes down to finding those people and then creating a strong gravity rating carried it all were team what I call not just group of people, group of competing experts but our team which deliver all your vision or your project goal. So I'm not sure of the audience is aware, what do you think if we define a virtual theme of team which is spread across more than one location? Could be very dispersed global, it would be just about the location in the same country. How many do you think in percentage goes the globally nowadays?
Michaela: Oh half evenly maybe more. I don’t know.
Peter: [Inaudible] research says three years ago 81 percent.
Michaela: wow!
Peter: 50 percent of them are in different time zones. So they're really very disperse [inaudible] [02:41] a few more percentages in the last couple of years. So people tend to work virtually and question is really how to make those teams really deliver.
Michaela: That is really important because I know a lot of people have had bad experiences with virtual teams and offshoring. So we'll talk about those in a moment. But offshoring is another reason. I mean there's often a cost factor involved here.
Peter: yeah
Michaela: Maybe you can put the team together less expensively because some of the members are in less expensive countries.
Peter: Yes, so one way I mean if you manage to do a virtual follower team, one of the benefits… I mean three people three groups benefit from well virtual polities. First we've mentioned now the experts, the programmers who could stay where they are, and still have exciting project, exciting international projects to work on. Then you have the manager who have access to the best expertise in the world. And if you take the labor arbitrage and you go east, south east, you may find top experts on a lower rates in the east coast. And the third group is the organization or the enterprise which would scale up and down their operations.
So projects is much more flexible way of having access to expertise. And as we will discover one way to reduce cost is using [inaudible] [04:22] location where the labor cost is lower. But top experts they know their price in the global market sometimes already and they've equalized. The other is just by quicker delivery and this is my claim. I mean having a virtual [inaudible] deliver projects faster. And for example I can give you one example. I was leading a project which was about in this case not development, but establishing a global shared services. So it was a big hard core outsourcing project moving the local support of IT system from 20 countries in Europe to a global shared services based in Malaysia. And it was a 2-years project.
Quite complex because you have the organization in Europe, you have workers councils can see there are Germany, France, and so on. And somewhere down the road initially I was struggling. That’s by the way by far my biggest project. I was back in 2006, and I was travelling, I was trying to be the smartest person in the room, trying to give direction. And the room was virtual room you know in the online conference. But in a way I realized the borders and I'm becoming a center for the period to factor, a break factor. And somehow there was some changes in the team. A new lady come from Spain [inaudible] [05:40]. And then we had a workshop, and we developed our agenda bottom up.
It was not my top down you know this is what we're gonna do, and this is the breakdown of our product that we as a team and you know in a very different locations discovered our agenda. And after four months, we gather so much momentum. So I went to the project board and said, “If we deliver this 2-years projects three months earlier, I suggest that all 30 people go to an island for two days.” That [inaudible]. And they agreed to why their view the people cost of the project was one million Euro per annum. We have five Europe full time people in my team, and five global experts so people hundred thousand of the underestimate a million.
If you finish your answer live in a safe to 50/50. And we had a creative reporting in this case. We had instead of a typical bar chart, or pie charts, we had an island and a palm tree, and then we have 20 parachuters for this 20 countries in Europe which milestone after milestone they were approaching the island. So initially was the competition. Who will run first on the island? But then we realized that only if you all make it then we all go to [inaudible]. So it has created a very…
You know a spirit, a winning spirit and the spirit of support. And then just one day before the deadline we manage all the last parachuter for the specky [inaudible] landed on the island. So it's just one example which was the combination for sure. I have a system for building virtual power. This is just one example or recognition one of my [inaudible] success factors with an appealing prize how to get people going extra mile, create a team spirit, and regardless if it's a software development or outsourcing project. People will go extra mile and deliver sometimes fantastic result.
Michaela: Yeah and that's what we want our teams to do is it to get the project done successfully, and on time. But also have fun doing it, and we'll learn, and grow by doing it. So I think that would be for me the ideal software project team so…
Peter: Absolutely and it should not be a… apologies for… It should not be an exotic trip. Some [inaudible] projects … afford that, but it is something that the team finds appealing. I work with NGOs often, and they have a zero budget but they threw a sponsors, some of them even had virtual pizza with a particular drink.
Michaela: What’s virtual pizza?
Peter: So it’s the same point in time they gathered from all their locations after the successful delivered they put the same music, and just have a drink, sparkling wine, and a pizza. And they like it they you know dance. They say you finish in time, we'll have this experience. So we should not be limited by budgets and exotic location. Let the team decide what is cool for them. Sometimes is a event in the industry, or celebrity which they could see live. So it could be something affordable and still [inaudible] [08:46].
Michaela: Those are great ideas. So let's just look at some common problems people have with virtual software development, and common mistakes that they make.
Peter: So the first one I think with every virtual team, software developer [inaudible] anything is people or the manager in particular even if it's a flat organization the leader neglecting the personality aspect. You know often the manager said don't see the people, why should I bother how are they in their personal life as personality. So I think if you follow this approach, you lose quite a lot of potential to deliver fantastic results. And in order to avoid that I’m doing it. It's my first big role by the way personality and focus. I lead the people as soon as possible. Once the team is mobilized to present themselves, if it's live, that's perfect. If live is not possible in the online conference, but like I’ll assume everybody can see the other on the video screen and they present themselves for the lifeline.
The moments which they are most proud of, the moment their moments of excellence and greatest success. But also the low life. The moments that they struggle most, the menace to overcome. And within five to ten minutes per person, you would be amazed what you discover. Even… because I work predominantly with IT companies. You know some people say you know IT people are introverted, they would never share. No, never have it. If you have a few to start or even the manager can start if he thinks so all his people just by example.
And then if you encourage the people sharing those moments of excellence and difficulties, everybody will go and you will find again within five ten minutes per person what makes the heart of each and every one tick. And it's a very powerful one. You recruit your team you will do probably a similar interview with ask about the personal questions. But now everybody finds about everyone else. And you see the interpersonal relationships. And later on you will see how it's structured communication equipment team does. And this is one of the factors that creates gravity between the peoples though they're different locations and creates a power team.
Michaela: So that’s a common issue that people feel. You know because you don't see them every day in the office, you forget to pay attention to the people, and their individual issues and personalities.
Peter: Yes, this is the one. There are two more. Shall I actually go on?
Michaela: Yes absolutely. What are the other? Because we promised the listeners three common problems that people have. So what’s the second problem?
Peter: The second one is very often the project manager of this software developer or the manager of the team calls a meeting or online conference on the… if there is a problem or if he has to say something. He has to [inaudible] [11:40]. So it's either manager centric or problem centric meeting. And I think if you should do this again you lose potential. From my perspective you have to have a regular structured communication where everyone from the team is having a slot. Not the manager dominating the discussion with problems. They are such meetings, they have to be done. But you also have a regular meetings with regular agenda where everyone is having a slot. And there is important also this is the antidote of having to go have a boring online conference dominated by the boss.
There are people also in their small share within like two minutes max their personal updates from the last period. If it’s the weekly call from the last week which [inaudible] [12:25]. There you have for example they share was the record in half marathon, or how it [inaudible] the red wine from chills, so it's very individual. But then again you can click, and connect with those people. Sometimes there is a low life. You wonder why? Could be a death case, or ill, or family member. You wonder why they don't respond, is it something personal. Here it comes. So I think the way that you structure the communication at regular intervals and the team decides. Could be weekly, could be bi-weekly, could be daily. Let the team decide depending on the dynamics of the team.
And having everyone a slot just creates a structured communication. And I would play around here. One is more informal. Could be a phone call for instance even you can get people just from the airport or in a very big global team, you know from the bar very late or very early. But also once in a while like once a month it is a formal call. So all people take part by video conference and I do. It's part of my bigger rocks. One is interdependent goals, when we said that the image on the bottom of everyone is getting a goal. So we were still the top three issues. Normally, we convert those top three topics or issues; could be opportunities, not necessarily problems into the smart goals. And then we will build the road maps.
This is the workshops that I'm doing normally when we set up a virtual power team. And then on these road maps you have milestones and everyone will pick a milestone based on few strengths. So in the end of this workshop you have your team agenda in like three road maps and everybody has volunteered it taking responsibility for some of the milestones. And it is linked to his strengths by the way because Number two we would discover the strengths of the people; the natural talents. Again through peer culture not sophisticated with extensive profile. Like six simple questions, so people will feel special because their strengths are recognized and put on the strength [inaudible] [14:18] and everybody is aware of it. And then I open a big bracket.
If you go back to the structure communication the monthly call which is more formal, everybody will report on his milestones that he promised to deliver to the team in a like one pager, and he will present it. So in this case because if you preach too informal with all this personal days this is good, it is important. But you also need to have some commitment which you know you make progress. So with this structured communication, with this formal part, you create some peer pressure because if you have so many goals they are interdependent like the truth wills. In the end people will deliver on the promise. So it's a combination between appealing price, but also a peer pressure, and dependency to deliver on the team agenda.
You know if it's a big fish or team it's impossible for the manager to control everyone and to ensure, I think the way is empowerment. Give them a clear goals which they voluntarily pick in this process with their road maps and then make sure on a regular bases people report their progress. And if they have problems you as a manager you have access to resources and so you can step in and help. But they own those goals that they picked, and you have a forum. So instead of the second problem was manager centric, or problem centric communication where you place it with a structure communication. Having a slot for everyone, having that tiny abates for personal updates. This is like the spice to the online conference. But also having a structured online session to see where we are with our agenda.
Michaela: So I'm curious. I have a question about communication. I’m gonna hold it until you tell us about that third common problem that with virtual teams.
Peter: Okay, the third problem is managers in particular they take performance for granted. They kind of expect good performance or even great performance for just without any incentive surprise. So here I work with instead of that with appealing price. And I told you the story about this outsourcing project where the 20 countries where we have the [inaudible] [16:30] trip. I think in my practice and I work with you name it; big multinationals, mid-size companies, small IT companies, scale ups delivering digital projects, and rapid development teams, and it always works. If you put the appealing price which is self-funding.
I mean the productivity gains will fund whatever the prizes is and it will still have a cost reduction. And if you have a creative reporting, so people at the glance can see where we are on the journey to our goal, you create the raising spirits. For sure you as a manager and your team you need to establish the right communication, the right tone, and the right recognition for the people that deliver on the promise, for the behavior that support the team. But then with this visual appealing goal and the visual reporting yes, you get extra kick, and sometimes the performance goes through the roof.
Michaela: So yeah, I think that is a great point that you know record… people need recognition. And you know when we're in an office, you might just get a word in the corridor, or in the coffee machine, or whatever. But when it's virtual, you've got to go out of your way to recognize what people are doing.
Peter: Exactly, it’s even more scare in virtual teams. People tend to neglect the recognition and a skill. I mean I'm… I have five daughters at home. So a big family; five girls. And the only… I don't say I manage this family; it's impossible. They probably manage me, but it's still functioning somehow. And I think you know the secret is grace, grace, grace and it recognition. And in a virtual team because people don't see each other and this is even more important than the way you put it on the online conference, the way you put it in email and copy the relevant people grace whatever you can.
For sure what kind of picking up the devaluates kind of your praising can people to feel. You have to measure your words, and put the right statements. But then make sure you praise all the successful steps towards the goal and if they're not results, if there are no results yet, praise the right behaviors which are supporting each other, and the delivering on the common goal.
Michaela: I think it's generally better to have far more praise than reprimands. And if you do have to reprimand, do it in private not…
Peter: That’s it. [Inaudible] online because your record normally the online conferences will share for the people that are not there. I wouldn't do any reprimanding and critic online being in front of everyone. It will be… if there is something you have to do it there soon as possible about that one on one. Call the person and then deliver this critical feedback with you know. And it won't be just like in the army or I mean it's should not be… These are other subjects which are how to deliver a good feedback.
But it should be very timely, and one on one. And also understand the context because the virtual teams being far away, sometimes you don't understand the reasons why he behaved that way. So make sure you ask a lot of open questions first to discover and then to see what could be done better. Okay yes, these are all.
Michaela: So I think there are two more common issues that people have virtual teams. One is time zones and just even finding common times you can meet. And the second one I've seen is cultural differences where people from a different country may just have a different way of working. So let's just briefly talk about those because…
Peter: Yes, I think when the time zones these are constraints which we have to live in. If it is a global team and you have really the whole variety, I think there is not much option. Some people have to compromise. For example the Australians it’ll be very late for them or the Americans, will be very early. But then you could retreat to make it a bit more fair. And if it's a bigger team because you should stuff you know have a big team like team on the laws that I managed then you could spread it. You could have two events, two online conferences. One in the Western Europe time around in the morning. So for the Asians and Australians the normal time and then the same format in the afternoons for like America.
And the Europeans can pick either room. So yes, this is one thing if you have like town hall sessions you could have two of them; works well. Otherwise at least rotate not to may same people always having the issue. And with the cultures this is a… you can do here more in the cultures and with the cultural teams. Here I would use… There is a book by Erin Meyer called ‘The Culture Map’ and she has eight scales for which she would kind of describe a culture, and I simplified it. I tend to be simple and effective, so I use only three of them. Sometimes more about each three of them are essential. And one of them is leadership skill some cultures are quite autocratic. It is expected that the boss takes the decision and the distance between boss and team member is quite big.
So there’s very obedient and subordinative cultures. And then you have a very democratic or egalitarianism cultures. Like in Denmark or the Scolavian countries there is no distance between boss and team member. They can challenge each other. It is expected that the team members challenge the manager, and create idea, and give ideas, and give advice, and so on. So and if you have different cultures, you have Chinese which are quite autocratic, or Japanese, and you have somewhere in the middle, you know British and German and then your have Scandinavian. I would let the team to decide what is our optimal position for the set up for the cultures that we have in the team.
What is our optimal position? And they would analyze, and they would come up sometimes they would understand the differences and the Chinese would appreciate if they are more engaged in the shaping phase; normally in the design phase and they would be asked for feedback and it is expected that they contribute shaping it. And also the more egalitarians, they will also see the value of having a bit more. Once it is done then this is it, you go for it, and do it. So I've seen this in like there was a team of ten people. And it was e-commerce project putting a big volume. It was like one billion euro which you know independent China's [inaudible] [23:44] from this company.
And they wanted to have a deal with Alibaba in China or just traffic directly. Ten of them were from ten different cultures. And we did this with the leadership scale. They in fact they had two positions. Initially it was more engaging, more egalitarian so to it to get the Chinese ones they design the whole submission. And then one the project mandate is done it's clear it was more autocratic. So this is it all discussion go for it. And then there are two more scales. One is about how do you go into conflict if it's more confrontational or… and this is again your position on the scale, and the other is decision making.
If it's a top down or it's a like you know bottom up, or more democratic way because you have Germany for example if you hierarchical but in terms of this decision making they’ll consult everybody. It takes ages until they reach a decision consulting many people. But the ones the decision is made the execution is very quick. There is no change. Whereas Americans for example they would decide, the boss would decide the relatively quickly but give them by one change you would change his mind then the people would accept that which in Germany would be a scandal.
So once you understand this at the team position themselves on the scale then people try to behave in such a way and to be more appreciative of the differences. And to have a team culture when you work, and then when you go home go back to your ethnic culture if you wish. So these are things which are not rocket science, but this clarity answers parents here about the theme choose themselves where to position the team. It's not coming from the boss. It creates power. It creates gravity and yes this is our team, our rules and we will deliver.
Michaela: Yeah because people can modify their own style a bit to fit the team style. And it really helps if you know what different people's countries, culture, and decision making is so you know where they’re coming from. I mean I know from my own experience working with people in Asia that it's just a whole different thing about not confronting people. And you’re supposed to pick up very subtle clues that someone is not happy about something, and they're very concerned about saving face. So you can’t criticize someone directly because they may get very upset with just…
Peter: [Inaudible] [26:14] where essential in Germany this confrontational so much engraved in their school system and so on. So if you don't control the discussion is not considered productive. So you really have to distinguish became the individual and his statements. You were very factual and objective for example in Germany which is not the case in China. The individual and his statement by … and saving face is of the big helping.
Michaela: So we talked about a lot of problems that can happen on virtual software teams. But if you want to create a successful virtual software team you mentioned having virtual pizza or having rewards. What other things can you do to have a successful team?
Peter: So I'll go through these are the ten success factors or the ten big rocks. This is essentially my method. I’ll mention three or four of them. But they're splitting the groups of the first part is like the head. Here if you imagine the virtual team as a human body, the first part is the head. And here is the first big rock is personality and focus as I said. Don't neglect the personality go deep where the life line. Deep and short in time that's going to. Second is the strengths matrix. So they ask themselves in the peer coaching format; could be online.
They ask what; for example. What gives you energy at work? What you would do easy? What was your biggest success? You know want people coming to and ask you for help. Or if I ask your best friend what is your strength, your best friend; what would he say? So with those kind of questions people distill what is their natural strength and talents. And they would have their own reflection, and they would get one feedback or suggestion from the coach who asked the question.
So in the end of this quick exercise again ten minutes everyone will have two strengths. He's own view and then the external view. And we will publish this strength matrix with each and every one name and the strengths. And people will start feeling special already because they're in different locations and so on. Now they come up with the carrier of particular strength and the skill which is probably they can do this best compared to the other team members. So that was the second one; so matrix.
And the third one is interdependent goals. So I explained with these top three issues that provocative questions bottom up people will raise with questions like; what can give you wins? What shoulder you carry? Particular selected questions. People will work in break out groups and we will distill the top three issues. We will convert them into the goals. Could be issues of opportunities. Convert them into the smart goal. So be very specific; what do we want? Without thinking so much on the how. And then in the road maps, we'll see how one of the milestones to get there.
And then people based on their strengths will volunteer pick a topic. So this is the interdependent goals which everyone will have a goal. I think it gets very important if you share the goals that mean you know are coming all and then you have two three people working on it. From my experience of tense to this soulful little bit in performance and the lower performance and hide behind the virtual corner and not pick the phone and so on. That's why I'm very explicit. Everybody has his own goal which is coming from our road map, our team agenda.
And then with the structure communication. So that was the first three in the head. Second part is about it's like muscles and skeleton and this and here we’re establishing the structure communication. So I mentioned the calls; the weekly call, and the monthly call which could be a different frequency the team decides. But one is more informal with personal dates. The other is more formal. On the goal that you’ve picked your reporting the one pager where you are. So here you have some peer pressure and people. The ones that would hide behind a virtual call a lot of respond a lot [inaudible] [30:07] exposed.
Then you have acknowledge management. Here on the net below is right as you are with I would link it to the strength. So when they find a lot of champions based on the strengths for the relevant topics for the team. And they will be the custodians in this area. They will make sure they raise new issues so they are use new articles and so on. And they would do this gladly because they anyway he says there are strengths. You need like four or five area which are relevant for ColdFusion software development for example. And those people will drive this agenda.
And the sixth one on the lists regular feedback. So again people tend to neglect the one to one sessions. You have a group session which in the worst case there will be a problem and there will be some finger pointing. Apart from this regular team calls;— with me a formal.—-Would be informal, monthly formal. I would make sure that the manager have one to one session at least once a month with his team members. Could be like once every two months, but this is between two of them.
The team member he has committed to particular goal. So here is to see where he is if you need support from the manager and if there is any critic to be told. So this one to one sessions from a perspective are very important. Because the boss is busy and if somebody needs him and he may not be there it's good to put something in the calendar and the people to know that there will be a slot to vent out. So this is the structure communication which rests in all the meetings the knowledge management, and the regular feedback.
And the last part is like the heart of this human body. Here are the last four big rocks they meet. Recognition they said there are different ways to recognize the online, and live, and behavior, and outcomes, and so on.
Diversity – diversity has to do with a cultures that we mentioned, and the scales, and the culture. And winning spirit. This is the a PITA and priceless that will outstanding performance that mention the world. And the number ten which it's over arching its next generation be there or So how to involve young talents in the team and they're normally you would have a big team you wouldn't do the workshop with everyone and that people will be too much. I mean normally you have the manager and his leadership team there are just like up to ten people. Normally two pizza team five to seven is optimal himself number. If you order pizza they will be fed by two pizzas.—-Moment if they would do their road maps. They would speak and then everyone will all know one of the strategic goals, and then they could mobilize. You would discover when the people with leadership potential within the team and involved them to deliver on this agenda. So the strategic goals, their old maps which the leadership team members so they do not deliver on their own but they take two three to five high potentials, and involve them. And this is the way to also to develop your. Very your agenda. And on the monthly calls when they report the progress is not necessarily they have to report — they would invite the younger people which like this exposure and you create a culture of high performance.
Michaela: So let's turn now to the communication which was the issue I want to talk about earlier because a lot of people have issues about how do we… What tools do we use to communicate? Do we are using email, or some project management tool like base camp or trelo, or are we using slack, or…? And what are the advantages and issues of these different ways of communicating?
Peter: I think you need to… you should I'm used to many because the tools that you mention they have some overlap you should be very clear for this purpose they use this. And for example you cannot work without email. Email is needed. But for the email there is a criticality aspect. So normally the critical communication should not be sent by email. But nevertheless, email is more for updates if you wish. But there I develop a team charter where the team decide themselves what is their response time for email for example. Is it like two days or three days or whatever they decide. But it's good to be clear if I send you an email and I expect something from you, when do I get it. And sometimes you cannot deliver in this two days. For example, you make sure your response. Is like 24 hour. So you respond okay, I'll come back to you by a particular date. So I think email cannot be discarded, but should be toast there and then where the rule of response time. Normally for the——————-34:49———-first old style no money for the urgent communication you need one system and the team decides if you know what's up message or whatever cha they using but you pick one moment to a online chat system and on this one they agree what is that is false dogma moment it's like a couple of hours to three hours the team decides and even if you have a big time zones and they sleep in the morning first thing in the morning last month in the evening they commit to check this particular channel if there is anything to give us they want to know or come back to you on this or a call you back and so on so this channel for urgent communication is very important to be clear and to be to be only one for the team so they know I will check you throughout the day and then the slackness again income popularity. But the killer if you cover more people projects multiple organizations so you have a complex environment you have multiple clients and multiple projects slack has a very good functionality there and this gaining popularity and then I say you need something which is more for they nomic communication and trail is very dynamic or. Could be even though you know.
What I say dynamic.
I mean new articles like in the knowledge management it is good that the people sharing the team it's not just in all the subject matter expertise but they also share knowledge and experiences and even if it's a close Facebook group and you have the functionality of sharing can people could give you immediate feedback by liking or commenting those things are important to have this in the spirit of yes we share we get immediate feedback and so on so you need these they nomic system could be close Facebook group and you need something more and here you have. Various options. Lie. There many systems.
Long hearing very good feedback from Microsoft Office three sixty five and teams they call it it's like slack with a very good functionality for four team work so you need something where you could have a baseline plan which is like only the Russian people cannot update then you have the dynamic version the kernel version and so on so Herschel control traceability become important and also easy to use and share but I mention many things to summarize you need a channel for Agent communication with the response time and people will hold each other as. Accountability So you know it to comply with this rule you need before they mail another response time rule then you need something slack or else Facebook group very dynamic slack is far more complex project will be organizations and then you need the project itself to know delegate then and then see the performance at ports and also auditable traceable.
And then one other thing I think is important in any of the text based things and only ones we mentioned so far are basically text based I guess with some of them you could be striking images in as well but.
If there's something that you're upset about in the projects or it's a complicated issue then that's when you need to either use more all of a phone call trying to deal with those in a text based email oh well slack messages recipe for getting people up even more upset or having miscommunication sure sure that's a very good point and you certainly need this forum is not to mention in the weekly call monthly call which a video conference there interactive forum so you could discuss if you keep it like hold this email some stuff it is interactive but it's a bit offset send it this bit like you know offline. You need to interact to form a super debate and therefore you need zoom some of the video conferencing tools but also you know a picture is a thousand words so it's not shots and so on with a very important can save a lot of explanation and also recording voice messages and that according videos is becoming more and more popular so that they will support your efforts show what you do.
Share with the teams so I think utilities across Inc in this state should work with Travis not just text but each and video very nicely Yeah and I'm sure peeking into the future I will have a reality team meetings where you connects a man in your I think he will yes everything is and the moment is more exotic I mean which half your Online Conference Center could with for example Necker Island from Richard Branson has a background so people will see the faces but not the bag all of his their own but like everyone on the whatever Necker Island or some of. Those things Prince near a bit more exotic a little.
Problematic It's just that you're going to extra if you're launching next year kicks in terms of performance a lot of innovation some Let's look at hiring on to a virtual team because I think getting a good team member for a virtual team is different from hiring someone into an office they need different characteristics to tell us about that and.
There are two last big one hits as usual you need to have a balanced team. There is one model for Mary that bell been where you have the nine the roles in the team and you have no money one which is like with a stick which is the motivator the one that would ensure progress is made.
There is one which is like coordinator so he is more subtle but he makes sure you know all the talents and skills and he will to see that they and then your house very pragmatic people which you just believe are you have the in people so does a nine year old some are more intellectual like thinking chemical sexual Some are more action oriented like the one with a stick on the wall the boss and some are more emotional team people like like that team member who you know makes sure they were violent this riot or the one which is monitoring call way speaking less but you have to provoke so I wouldn't go into details of the nine year olds but you should be conscious of that you have too many like people that wants to control and drive you have a problem you should on how awful so the want to deliver. So it has to be balanced and this applies for all teams virtual local virtual one important thing which is very specific people should be able to sell. Most of A themselves to work on their own and it's not it's not given and I've seen in him a good performing themes their members which struggle to work from home they they need they interaction with human beings and they resolve it in a different way I mean they go.
There with them you have access to co-location office where they could see life people and get some inspiration even myself I work. Quite a lot on my own. Health and Social no publication no reason think I asked them arrests that have been workshops and then they work. I don't they all so but anyway you have to be able to motivate yourself because sometimes just being on your own would be would be depressing and this is something that you need to discover early enough otherwise you will have to to do to do changes.
So yes this is one thing which is very related to virtual teams and then make sure when you build your team.
I mean the strength mathematics and personal lifeline.
These are important thing so.
When you recruit the to make sure it's you don't have too many kind of bosses set to tell me you are workers but then in the group pharma let them go into med discover best friends and you will have the full picture
Somos a good. Tips that creating a virtual team what about on building new team members so constantly Yes it's good timing or morning Misty and people type in the electorate.
And it's a ski and normally when we discovered the strengths are less than metrics your house three main types of people which again you need to have a bit of a balance like with the bells in one of the three first of the people we shove a broad overview which understand the bits that share so those cold generalists I would give them an extra extra thousand to take care of particular geography customer Syfy if we have a customer facing functional to some department store or supplier S. which we work quite actively on this project so they would have this general management if you wish X. the responsibility and they will feel special and motivated then you have the other group of people are the experts which have a deep knowledge in particular area I would call them a lot of shame peons so there every time of there is a product in this particular area before it goes to the customer that is going to be feedback so they can feel special and responded to and the third which comes to a question on boarding a lot of people which have a very good feeling of people the motions and demons here so those people I would defeat exactly for example additional pass to go on board in community members and they would do that that gladly for them does not work because they like to make people feeling well and they would you know tell who can do a waltz for you and if you have a problem they were like a buddy in they'll come to me so you need to discover Bill's style and say meet some of those in your team when the recruiting and make sure they perform this task they would do this gladly and then you will have new people coming onboard much more quickly and it will be like a Flying Star. That is great south so if people want to find you online one of the best ways to do that PETA.
Search Peter I don't know which is I am the Ovi my will would appear first they say real soul my web page there is war I have a youtube channel with regular clips and probably the best ways again if you search but there I will also I've written the book this as you mentioned virtual power teams how to deliver projects faster or use calls the village the organization for the future so in this room there are many case that is and old I set is put into context with a lot of tips and the book itself actually it's a it's a story so you have a story about German interpret New York who sees hints chance for international breakthrough there is an earthquake in the outskirts a few Elia and he wants to build a resilient house which will survive the next earthquake and he starts he managed successfully with some projects in Germany it's now with his liberal team an initiative to snuggle next time with his a bit of a control tendency but he also had a course of the books he managed to become involving pleader and it is a success story so there is a story which one false in the book which probably explains that success it was and was on top three in international management and each chapter you have the story and then your half analysis and my method but with case that is still. On management's Follett's welcome rate so we'll put them into that book and your website in the show notes to this episode so people can find them along with the other things that we mentioned that Meredith's help and nine roles in the culture map and I'll also link in wheat we record an interview on another part cost I do about using your intuition impact in virtual teams so. Back to sew it in as well in case anyone is interested in that topic so thank you so much for coming on the show today PETA It was a pleasure Michel Good luck to your audience through it with their projects and virtual power team is not the rocket science it's based on the human nature so go for it and deliver fantastic.