Celebration Time, Come On!
Effective cooperation is vital for the success of any team, and all the more so if team members are separated by geography, time zones and cultural backgrounds. We provide some guidelines on how you can foster that cooperation within your team. We also look at how to manage the happy moments - how can you celebrate team success in a 'virtual' working environment?
For further information on TMA's learning solutions for building cooperation and trust in virtual teams, please contact Nigel Alphonso at nalphonso@tmaworld.com.
Building Cooperation in Virtual Teams: General Guidelines
- Meet face-to-face early in the life of the team (if at all possible) to build relationships, shared ownership and personal commitment; meet face-to-face at regular intervals if you can
- At the beginning of a project focus on establishing relationships, and not just assigning tasks; promote a shared sense of identity and belonging
- Establish a climate of enthusiastic, open, honest, and respectful communication in which all ideas are valued, listened to and explored
- Quickly demonstrate your capabilities, your integrity, and your caring for others
- Maintain a sense of presence through frequent and thoughtful communications, and fast responses
- Problem solve rather than assign blame; deal with problems in a calm, confident way
- Establish transparency, keeping promises, confidentiality, and mutual accountability as key operating principles
- Develop shared understanding of the different contexts in which team members are working - the local constraints
- Keep the whole project visible to team members, not just the parts
- Work together to determine the best way to handle conflict on the team
- Recognize and celebrate the achievements of the team
Celebrating Across Distances
Team Ideas: Get all team members involved in discussing the best way to celebrate; for cultural or personal reasons individuals might have preferred options
Technology: Use a technology that enables team members to see each other, if possible, e.g., webcams (but make sure everyone is comfortable with the technology)
Focus: Make sure you recognize and celebrate individual as well as team achievements. You should, however, check with the individual if receiving praise in front of the whole team would be appropriate. Some cultures frown on personal recognition in public, e.g., Japan. If welcome, recognize personal events such as birthdays and childbirths
Ongoing: Don't wait to celebrate until the end of the project. Celebrate the accomplishment of important milestones. It is important, particularly at the beginning, to celebrate early successes
Inclusion: Make sure everyone on the team can participate. If a significant result has been achieved, invite an appropriate senior manager to join in for a while
Face-to-Face: Get people together, when possible. Try to build-in face-to-face celebrations either on a bi-annual or annual basis
Rewards: The use of e-gift certificates for individual or team accomplishment is usually received warmly. Try to match the gift certificate to the personal interests of the receiver. Personalizing rewards and recognition is more meaningful
Team Identity: Before a team celebration you could send the same 'object' to all team members, e.g., false glasses, nose and mustache, a funny hat, or noise maker - something that shows connectivity between team members during the celebration. Have fun. Personal preferences and cultural appropriateness on whether to use the 'object' during the celebration must, of course, be respected