The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams

In my book, Where in the World is My Team? I presented what I call The Six Cs of Global
Collaboration:

Cooperation: Building trusting relationships across borders and distances

Convergence: Staying aligned to the primary purpose and direction of the team
Coordination: Synchronizing work for efficiency and effectiveness
Capability: Leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experiences of all team members
Communication: Developing shared understandings
Cultural Intelligence: Forming a work culture that is inclusive of cultural and style
differences

This is what I call a Collaborative Team Architecture a performance framework on which to

focus leaders and team members throughout a project. Leaders need to think about how they can
continually create the conditions in which the Six Cs can thrive. Team members always to be
thinking about what they are doing, could do, or do better to embed the Six Cs in the team.
Clients find the Six Cs a very useful framework for assessing a team, exploring best practices,
and planning strategies, but the Cs arent framed in a particularly friendly language. Being
academically minded, I tend to write in abstract terms. I am most comfortable creating ideas,
playing with concepts, and seeing where they take me. Ideas and concepts can be very useful, of
course, but they also need to be engaging they have to attract an audience, so to speak.
Convergence is a term that some find they cant really get to grips with - like an abstract painting
it usually requires a greater degree of explanation. There was no point in my trying to find other
C words that were less abstract. I had already spent many hours of researching and thinking to
arrive at the Six Cs above. I needed to take a different approach. I set myself the task of trying to
capture the essence of each C - from a team leader or member point of view - in 10 words or less.
The Principles of Collaborative Global Teams in 10 Words or Less The result, I believe, is
more concrete and engaging. The Six Cs are still the foundation of the collaborative team
framework, but Ive added the mindsets or aspirational principles that need to guide the team in
becoming a team. Here they are:

Cooperation We Help Each Other

Convergence We Pull in the Same Direction
Coordination We Work Together
Capability We Share What We Have
Communication We Pay Attention to Each Other
Cultural Intelligence We Play Well Together

Not everyone, of course, finds this language appropriate because it appears familiar and
natural. Many in business and the consulting world - prefer a more scientific, transactional,
and instrumental terminology. The workplace is more technology-based than ever and this
development could increase the use of impersonal language. As we grow into a global
collaboration age, we must focus on human connectivity not just technological-connectivity (and
language is about human connectivity). One fact that could shape the future of business language

is that many of the technologies used in corporate life are also used by people in their social
lives. Just think of all the social networking and blogging technologies out there. The boundary
between work and social language is likely to get fuzzier and fuzzier . . . and fuzzier. And Im
OK with that!
Terence Brake has published a number of books in the field of global management, including
The Global Leader, McGraw-Hill, 1996 and Where in the World is My Team? Making a Success
of Your Virtual Global Workplace, Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2009. He has over 20 years experience in
delivering corporate training and consulting with Fortune 500 companies in the fields of global
collaboration, cultural intelligence and global leadership, and global teamwork. For further
information: tbrake@tmaworld.com
Global Talent Briefing
Back to archives...
Issue 55:
Leading a Global Team: Building Alignment
How can a global team leader create shared goals when heading up a team that spans
boundaries of geography, culture, and function? In spite of long, successful track records in
high-level domestic leadership positions, even the most senior executives struggle to create
shared vision within their global teams, citing it as their key challenge.

Differences in market environments and commonsense assumptions about how to do business

are more pronounced for members of global teams than for teams whose participants work in
the same domestic environment. In our work with hundreds of global teams, a lack of
knowledge-sharing systems has been cited as one of the key obstacles to creating a shared
vision and common goals. Global team members typically lack sufficient insight into their
colleagues skills and potential contributions. This fosters isolation and duplicate work, and sets
up obstacles to the exchange of best practices, preventing team members from working in
alignment toward a common purpose. Virtual communication challenges further contribute to the
issues global leaders face when trying to create a shared vision and goals for their teams.

Global organizations also typically have a matrix structure in which it is quite common for
individuals to belong to a number of teams simultaneously. This matrix dynamic means that
team members are linked with a variety of stakeholders, each bearing competing priorities that
reflect the needs of different functions, business units, and geographies. For all these reasons, it
is more difficult for the individual members of a global team to consistently identify how their

efforts fit into the bigger picture, and a shared vision becomes both more essential and more
challenging to create and maintain.1

We recently conducted interviews with over seventy global business leaders from twenty-six
countries of origin and experience on assignment in over thirty-two countries. Many
interviewees acknowledged that establishing a shared vision along with clear goals and
objectives is difficult even in a domestic team, but emphasized that global and virtual dynamics
add significant complexity. Our interviewees indicated that a clear sense of direction, even in the
midst of tremendous complexity, is a crucial factor in the success of globally dispersed teams.
Their comments are supported by others with special expertise in this area:

"Successful leaders of virtual teams clearly articulate team goals and

direction and continually revisit these over time so team members have
a shared target. Although important to any kind of team, clear team
goals are especially crucial for members of virtual teams because the
members are given a sense of purpose and meaning that sustains them
when they are working alone or without regular direct contact with the
team leader or other team members. Clear goals also help to unify the
actions of a globally dispersed team and keep the team members
focused on execution."2

The more traditional literature on teams seldom addresses the distinct skills required to align
team members toward shared goals in a global environment. The global team leaders in our
study stressed the unique nature of their roles and the inadequacy of domestic leadership
models to prepare them to be successful in a truly global environment.

Invite the Unexpected

What does a global team leader need to know to create a vision and goals that will resonate
with team members from around the world? One of the greatest obstacles for leaders and team
members working in a global environment may be not only what they do not know, but also what
they think they already do know. Past successes have produced a level of confidence in certain
approaches and the assumptions on which they are based. But if the practice of creating a
shared vision, for example, involves unearthing shared 'pictures of the future' that foster genuine
commitment and enrolment rather than compliance,"3 global team leaders need to take special
care to elicit viewpoints that contradict their own or take a different tack entirely. They need to
"create a climate that encourages others to participate in the envisioning by contributing ideas,
including perspectives drawn by their diverse group cultures and experiences."4 In other words,
global team members must learn how to engrain the custom of inviting the unexpected on a
regular basis.

How can a team leader build a shared picture of the future when heading up a team that holds
an enormous diversity of perspectives and will rarely meet in person? The team leaders we
interviewed shared a rich array of methods. Here are some sample practices from successful
global team leaders that are applicable for most teams:

Kick off the team effort with a face-to-face meeting to build personal relationships.

Make short-term site visits at an early stage to build an understanding of the business
and organizational context in other locations.

Solicit information and input from team members on a regular basis regarding distinctive
characteristics of their local environment; make such exchanges a regular team habit.

Rotate face-to-face team meetings or hosting of virtual meetings between different

market locations to promote broader team member awareness.

Involve team members in decision-making to a greater extent than usual in order to

avoid surprises or resistance after a decision has been made.

Wait until after team meetings to receive additional feedback from less vocal members
before rolling out solutions.

Invest in longer-term people exchange between key locations to promote the exchange
of information and to provide a window person in each location who can support
relations with his or her home site.

Hire international employees into headquarters team member positions and leverage the
existing multicultural workforce.

Build a system for knowledge sharing between team leaders across teams with related
tasks.

Utilize training events for team members and team leaders to foster cross-functional
knowledge exchange.

This kind of list might take on a different form for a particular industry or corporate culture, but
what is striking is the sheer number of practices that successful team leaders integrate to
ensure that team members are systematically learning from one another and from people in
other parts of the organization. The road to global team alignment begins with team members
who actively seek to learn what they dont know, and who proactively invite the unexpected as a
way of establishing a common purpose.

Note: The content of this newsletter article is based on excerpts from a book on global
leadership authored by Ernest Gundling, Karen Cvitkovich, and Terry Hogan, and published by
Nicholas Brealey: "What is Global Leadership?: 10 Key Behaviors that Define Great Global
Leaders".

See, for example, Marjorie Derven, "Managing the Matrix in the New Normal" in Training and

Development Magazine, July 2010. She quotes a manager at Verizon Communications to make
the connection between matrix work environments and the need for shared vision: Creating a
shared vision is a key factor. One of the best ways to break down silos in large organizations is
to have a clear vision that gives context to everyones roles and responsibilities. Communicating
frequently and consistently about goals and purpose is essential.

Darleen De Rosa, "Leadership in Action," InterScience, Volume 28, Issue 6.

Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (New

York: Currency/Doubleday, 1990), p. 9.

Carlos Cortes and Louise Wilkinson, "Developing and Implementing a Multicultural Vision,"

in Contemporary Leadership and Intercultural Competence, edited by Michael Moodian

(Thousand Oaks, CA: SAG
- See more at: http://corp.aperianglobal.com/newslettersingle/375#sthash.hEMrlJ15.dpuf

Building an Effective Global Business Team

Magazine: Summer 2001 July 15, 2001 Reading Time: 24 min

Vijay Govindarajan and Anil K. Gupta

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Every global companys competitive advantage depends on its ability to coordinate critical
resources and information that are spread across different geographical locations. Today there
are myriad organizational mechanisms that global corporations can use to integrate dispersed
operations. But the most effective tool is the global business team: a cross-border team of
individuals of different nationalities, working in different cultures, businesses and functions, who
come together to coordinate some aspect of the multinational operation on a global basis.
It is virtually impossible for a multinational corporation to exploit economies of global scale and
scope, maximize the transfer of knowledge or cultivate a global mind-set without understanding
and mastering the management of global business teams. That, however, is easier said than done.
In our study of 70 such teams, we discovered that only 18% considered their performance
highly successful and the remaining 82% fell short of their intended goals. In fact, fully onethird of the teams in our sample rated their performance as largely unsuccessful.1 How can
companies reverse the weak performance of faltering global business teams? First, they must
understand the obstacles to success that global business teams confront. Then they can take
concrete steps to avoid those pitfalls and build effective and efficient teams.
Why Global Business Teams Fail

Domestic teams and global teams are plagued by many of the same problems misalignment of
individual team members goals, a dearth of the necessary knowledge and skills, and lack of
clarity regarding team objectives, to name a few. But global business teams face additional
challenges resulting from differences in geography, language and culture. Teams can fail when

they are unable to cultivate trust among their members or when they cannot break down oftenformidable communication barriers. The results of our survey of 58 senior executives from five
U.S. and four European multinational organizations confirm that important, unique challenges
confront global business teams challenges that tend to exacerbate the more common problems
all teams face. (See The Challenge of Managing Global Business Teams.)
The Challenge Of Managing Global Business Teams

View Exhibit
The Inability To Cultivate Trust Among Team Members

Trust is critical to the success of global business teams in that it encourages cooperation and
minimizes unproductive conflict.2 Each member of a global business team brings a unique
cognitive lens to the group. If harnessed effectively, the resulting diversity can yield significant
synergies and produce a collective wisdom superior to that of any individual. Without mutual
trust, however, team members may shy away from revealing their true beliefs; or if they do
express their viewpoints, they may not be heard. In one way or another, the absence of trust is
likely to turn a teams diversity into a liability rather than an asset.
Global business teams are particularly prone to problems of trust. Among the many factors that
determine how much trust people feel, three important ones are individual characteristics, quality
of communication and the broader institutional context. More specifically, research shows that,
on average, people trust one another more when they share similarities, communicate frequently
and operate in a common cultural context that imposes tough sanctions for behaving in an
untrustworthy manner.3 Global business teams, by their very nature, suffer from severe
limitations on all three dimensions. Not surprisingly, when global business teams fail, it is often
because the team process did not emphasize cultivating trust.
Hindrances to Communication

Communication barriers resulting from differences in geography, language and culture also can
sabotage global business teams.
Geographical barriers.

With members living in different countries, separated by time zones and conflicting schedules,
arranging team meetings can pose logistical challenges. Undoubtedly, technology (e-mail,
teleconferencing and video-conferencing) can enable members to work together despite
geographical distance; but technology should be viewed as a complement to, not as a substitute

for, team meetings. Face-to-face meetings foster familiarity and trust not easily established
through virtual meetings. When members cannot see one anothers body language and directly
experience one anothers reactions, the emotional dimension critical to a teams success suffers.
Moreover, certain types of deliberations demand face-to-face meetings. Brainstorming, for
instance, requires unstructured free-form interaction over an extended period that is not suited to
a virtual meeting.
Language barriers.

The inability to understand what another person is saying is always a potential barrier to
communication in cross-cultural settings. If language barriers are not adequately addressed, the
likelihood of creating an atmosphere conducive to candid sharing of different viewpoints and
hence conducive to achieving creative solutions is greatly diminished.
One extreme example would be a team whose members all speak different languages and have
poor facility in a common language. Such a team would undoubtedly require interpreters, who,
regardless of their skill, may not capture the full richness of the communication. Even in the case
of global teams whose members speak the same language, differences in semantics, accents,
tone, pitch and dialects can be impediments. For example, whereas the term table a motion
means to postpone discussion in the United States, in the United Kingdom it means to discuss the
issue right away.
Cultural barriers.

Members of global business teams typically come from diverse cultures and, as a result, may
bring different values, norms, assumptions and patterns of behavior to the group.
Consider, for example, differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultural norms
for decision making.4 The need for consensus deemed critical in collectivistic cultures is a
relatively low priority in individualistic cultures. What if some team members come from highly
individualistic cultures (such as the United States and Britain) and others from highly
collectivistic cultures (such as Japan and Venezuela)? Unless the differences in assumptions and
beliefs inherent in that diversity are explicitly addressed, the cohesiveness of the group is likely
to suffer and impede effectiveness.
Defining the Team Charter

In order to overcome the unique challenges confronting global business teams and create a highperforming, effective unit, executives must carefully craft the teams charter, composition and
process. All three areas demand equal attention. (See A Framework for High-Performing Global
Business Teams.) A clear charter without the appropriate mix of team members leads to failure.
Similarly, when a teams composition is sound but its process is not, effectiveness suffers. In
short, the three work as a system to determine overall team effectiveness.

A Framework For High-performing Global Business Teams

View Exhibit

Given the communication problems and trust issues that plague global business teams,
structuring the team charter is particularly critical to success. Three primary questions need
attention: Is the charter defined correctly? Is it framed correctly? And is it clearly understood?
Is the Charter Defined Correctly?

One of the first concerns for any global business team must be to explicitly discuss the teams
agenda and ensure that it is defined clearly and correctly. Many teams doom themselves from the
start because they skip that step or do not fully resolve the issues involved.
In 1995, a certain European manufacturer of industrial components set up a global-customeraccount team to coordinate the companys marketing, sales and service offerings to one of its
largest customers. At the teams first meeting, members identified three possible objectives: to
help the customer move toward coordinated global sourcing at a faster pace, to offer the
customer global volume discounts (and thus, lower prices) and to offer a more attractive bundle
of products and services based on a better, more comprehensive understanding of the customers
global needs than its individual buying locations might have. After considerable discussion, the
team decided against the first two alternatives and embraced the third. The third alternative was
seen as the most appropriate because it accomplished several key corporate objectives
simultaneously: It eliminated internal price competition across plants, thus boosting gross
margins; it made the companys product and service offerings more comprehensive; and it
dramatically enhanced the companys ability to respond appropriately to a customers moves
toward coordinated global sourcing.
Is the Charter Framed Correctly?

Ensuring that the charter is framed correctly is a more subtle challenge. By framing, we mean the
way an idea is expressed or a problem is formulated. Issues can be framed in multiple ways, and
different framing of the same problem can produce different outcomes.5
Because global teams have members from different subsidiaries that typically compete with one
another for scarce corporate resources, they tend to have a high degree of internal conflict in
addition to a low level of trust. As a result, it is generally best to frame the teams charter in
terms of the companys position vis--vis the external marketplace instead of emphasizing
internal dynamics.

For example, in the mid-1990s, senior executives of a consumer-products company assembled a

global manufacturing team to rationalize the companys production network. Given the
objective, there were at least two ways of framing the teams charter. Consider this option: The
teams charter is to cut costs by reducing the number of factories in our worldwide network from
15 to nine and by downsizing the work force. Compare it with the following: We want to be
the clear industry leader in terms of creating customer and shareholder value. This goal requires
that we be world-class in manufacturing, better than our best-in-class competitor in terms of cost,
quality and service. Given these targets, the teams charter is to propose the optimal network of
factories for our business. The second option is by far the preferable charter. Its broad, external
focus encourages benchmarking, fosters creativity and provides a compelling rationale for
making the tough decisions inherent in any manufacturing rationalization and work-force
reduction.
Is the Charter Clearly Understood?

When teams have frequent face-to-face meetings, they are able to iron out ambiguities in the
team charter. If they meet less often, the charter has to be crystal clear so that tasks can be
delegated effectively. Given the communication problems inherent in global business teams, it is
imperative that members understand the specifics of the charter: in particular, the scope of the
project, the expected deliverables and the timeline. Understandably, cultural and language
differences complicate the task of getting team members to agree on the specifics of a charter.
Clarity is essential to promoting commitment and accountability.
Consider the successful experience of an industrial-products company. It formed a team to
examine the organizational design of its global businesses. Several meetings were arranged
between the internal sponsor and the team members to ensure that the team charter was clearly
understood. The scope of the project included: an analysis of the current organizational design
across the companys five growth-platform businesses (part of the diagnostic challenge was to
determine whether a single organizational design made sense across all five); external
benchmarking of world-class global organizations, with attention to the latest research on the
best approaches; and recommendations, with development of the business case, for an
organizational design that would optimize global growth potential across the five businesses
(including ways to capture potential synergies in areas such as research and development,
information technology, human resources and the supply chain).
The project also was intended to be a personal learning experience that could help the team
members become experts on organizational design and understand the many facets of
globalization within the companys businesses. Furthermore, the team members were explicitly
told not to work on nongrowth business units or subsidiaries or to reformulate the global
strategies of the five businesses.
Two deliverables were expected from the team: a set of recommendations on the optimal
worldwide organizational design for the five major growth-platform businesses and a
presentation of the teams key findings, including a process or a methodology for tackling
potential global-organizational issues.

The specificity of the objectives, project scope and deliverables, along with the time spent at the
start of the project getting the team members to internalize and accept the charter, helped the
team stay on course and make progress.
Choosing Team Members

Another key to creating a successful global business team is choosing the right team members.
Three issues are of particular importance: How do you balance diversity within the team? How
big or small should the team be? And who should occupy positions of leadership?
The Question of Diversity

There are at least three reasons why global business teams have high levels of diversity. First,
members come from diverse cultural and national backgrounds. Second, team members
generally represent subsidiaries whose agendas may not be congruent. Third, because team
members often represent different functional units, their priorities and perspectives may differ. Is
the high level of diversity a necessary evil that must be curbed or a source of strength that should
be cultivated? The answer depends on whether the type of diversity is cognitive or behavioral.
Cognitive diversity refers to differences in the substantive content of how members perceive the
teams challenges and opportunities, options to be evaluated and optimal course of action.
Diversity of nationality can account for substantive differences on issues such as whether the free
Internet-service model pioneered in the United Kingdom can be transferred to other countries.
Diversity in subsidiaries histories and charters can account for substantive differences on issues
such as whether Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo is the optimal location for a companys Asian
headquarters. Diversity in functional backgrounds can account for substantive differences on
issues such as the relative importance of market pull and technology push in a companys
new-product-development efforts. Because no single team member ever can have a monopoly on
wisdom, cognitive diversity is almost always a source of strength. Divergent perspectives foster
creativity and a more comprehensive search for and assessment of options. But the team must be
able to integrate the perspectives and come to a single solution.
Behavioral diversity, by contrast, refers to differences in language as well as culture-driven
norms of behavior. Consider, for example, a cross-border business team in a Franco-American
company. The norm in most U.S. teams is that the most senior member presents the teams
perspective, but in a French team, the most junior member typically does so. Unless the members
of the Franco-American team are sensitized to such differences, misunderstandings easily can
emerge and block or distort communication. Behavioral diversity is best regarded as a necessary
evil: something that no global business team can avoid but the effects of which the team must
attempt to minimize through language training and cultural sensitization.
The Ideal Team Size

The optimal size of a global business team is one that can ensure the required knowledge and
skill base with the smallest number of people.

Deciding on team size is never easy. On one hand, representing every required knowledge and
skill calls for a large team. On the other hand, very large teams become cumbersome and
dysfunctional, making it difficult to foster broad participation, bring out diverse viewpoints or
get the unity needed for meaningful action.6 An effective solution is to establish a core team and
supplement it as needed. Membership in the core team would be limited to a relatively
manageable number say, 10 people or fewer. Then, if the core team requires input from
others, those individuals could be brought in on an ad hoc basis. Thus, the extended team could
include all relevant stakeholders both within the organization and outside. If for some reason, the
core team itself has to be large, then it is best to break it into subteams, each assigned to tackle
specific aspects of the overall teams objectives.
The Selection of Team Leadership

Structuring the leadership of a global business team involves critical decisions about three roles:
the team leader, the external coach and the internal sponsor.
Choosing an effective team leader.

Despite an increasing emphasis on team self-management, the leader plays a pivotal role in
cross-border teams. Effective leaders must manage the organizational, linguistic, cultural and
physical distances that separate members, create severe communication barriers, impede the
development of trust and contribute to the misalignment of members goals. They are likely to be
those with the biggest stake in the outcome of the project. Other important qualities: credibility
resulting from a proven track record; conflict-resolution and integration skills; and expertise in
process management, including diagnosing problems, assessing situations, and generating and
evaluating options.
Determining the need for an external coach.

An external coach serves as an ad hoc member of the team and is an expert in process rather than
content. The more complex and challenging the process to be managed, the greater the need for
and the value added by an external coach. A global business team will find using an external
coach beneficial under certain conditions. (See When Do Global Business Teams Need a
Coach?) The need for such a coach is likely to be particularly high when the processmanagement task is complex and the process-management skills of the best available team leader
are inadequate. Consider a global financial-services firm that set up a cross-border task force to
rationalize the number of its offices spread across three continents. The appointed leader, a team
member with a major stake in the projects outcome, turned out to be rigid, inflexible and
overbearing. Alternative views were stifled. The team was able to make progress only when an
external coach was brought in.

When Do Global Business Teams Need A Coach?

View Exhibit
Selecting a GBT sponsor.

The sponsor of a GBT is typically a senior-level executive in the company who has a strong
interest in the success of the team. The sponsor who performs the role well indirectly encourages
open and candid conversations among team members drawn from different countries and
cultures. Among the responsibilities of the sponsor are to: clarify and interpret the charter; clarify
performance expectations and deliverables; provide ongoing guidelines, input and support;
facilitate access to resources; manage political roadblocks on behalf of the team; be an
intellectual sounding board on content; review team progress; and hold the team accountable.
Managing Team Process

Having a clearly and correctly defined charter and an optimally constituted membership is
merely the foundation of an effective global business team. Without skillfully managing process,
the team is more than likely to fail in accomplishing its objectives. The primary goals of an
effective team process are to facilitate open and rich communication among the team members
and to cultivate a culture of trust.
Overcoming Communication Barriers

Several process mechanisms can be used to overcome the communication barriers that plague
global business teams.
Language and culture.

In order to overcome the barriers to communication created by the linguistic and cultural divides
separating members of the typical global business team, companies need to invest in language
education and cross-cultural training. Language training reduces the need for third-party
mediators such as translators and thus fosters more direct, spontaneous and free-form
communication. The ABB Group provides a good example of how even a bit of progress on
linguistic skills can go a long way toward reducing communication barriers. Goran Lindahl,
ABBs former CEO, was explicit in referring to his companys official language as poor
English to drive home the point that no one should be embarrassed to express an idea because
of a lack of perfection in English.

Investments in cross-cultural skills also help global business team members. A better
understanding of team members different cultures can improve richness of communication:
People pick up the signals in verbal and nonverbal communications more comprehensively and
accurately. Investment in cross-cultural skills also can improve team members ability to
understand and respect diversity and turn it into a competitive advantage.
Agreeing on norms of behavior.

Establishing ground rules that reflect desired norms of behavior can serve as a powerful selfpolicing mechanism to overcome communication barriers, enrich the content of team discussions
and keep the team operating as an integrated whole.
A global-customer-account-management team created by a European industrial-packaging
company illustrates how agreeing on certain ground rules can facilitate a teams smooth
functioning. The team established two ground rules: First, whenever a member of the account
team had any meeting with the customer, that member would send a briefing to every other
member of the team; second, the customers primary contact would be with one or more of the
members of the global account team, with no other employee authorized to discuss or decide
policy or strategy issues with the customer. The ground rules proved especially useful when the
customer tested the relationship. Occasionally, the customer would contact employees other than
those on the account team, but the employees would always refer them to someone on the team.
When the customer would contact different members on the account team about issues such as
prices and delivery times, the ground rules ensured that the customer always got the same answer
from every member.
Adopting data-driven decisions.

In the absence of facts, people often resort to opinions. As everyone knows, discussions based
largely on opinion can degenerate into personal attacks. By contrast, if opinions are accompanied
by factual data, conflicting ideas can be evaluated more objectively. Fact-based discussions
encourage team members to be more forthcoming in sharing their viewpoints, even if their views
are at odds with the prevailing wisdom.7
For instance, a certain global consumer-products company formed a cross-border team to
recommend ways to improve the profitability of one of its global businesses. The team, with the
help of a consulting firm, assembled a detailed base of facts, including fundamental shifts in the
industry, competitors moves and the companys current positioning. The concrete data helped
elevate the teams level of discourse. Instead of denying problems, shifting the blame to
uncontrollable external factors, or focusing on individual personalities, the team was able to
brainstorm and come to terms with the critical vulnerabilities in the companys competitive
positioning. A clear agreement emerged that the vulnerabilities required immediate, decisive and
visible action.

Developing alternatives to enrich the debate.

Surfacing alternatives is often useful in ensuring the expression of diverse views within a global
business team. Two well-recognized formal mechanisms dialectical inquiry and devils
advocate are aimed at uncovering alternatives.8 In a dialectical inquiry, for every potential
solution, the team is instructed to develop a full-fledged counterapproach based on different
assumptions; then a debate ensues on the merits of the plan and the counterplan. In the devilsadvocate approach, the team critiques a potential solution (but doesnt necessarily develop a fullblown counter-approach). Both methods can benefit the process and the outcome of team
discussions by giving creative license to members to express different views.9
The team established by the industrial-products company described earlier explicitly sought
multiple alternatives to draw out its members intellectual diversity. For each of the companys
five major global businesses, the team collectively generated three distinct organizational forms
and assigned subteams to develop the best arguments for each form. The resulting
recommendations reflected the comprehensive discussions that followed each subteams
presentation of its approach to solving the problem.
Rotating meeting locations.

Rotating the location of team meetings to different parts of the world is yet another mechanism
to enrich the cognitive base of the team and also legitimize the expression of divergent
viewpoints. VeriFone, a market leader in the automation and delivery of secure payment and
payment-related transactions, uses that approach to keep its top management team informed
about the global environment. The team, consisting of the CEO and his direct reports, meets for
five days every six weeks at different locations around the globe.10
Cultivating a Culture of Trust

Just as process mechanisms can help global companies break down barriers to communication,
so too can they help organizations cultivate trust among team members.
Scheduling face-to-face meetings.

Face-to-face interaction is the richest form of communication. It can help develop the solid social
foundation and mutual trust that distance technologies can build on later. It is critical that the
first few meetings of a global business team occur face to face.
In our interviews, the CEO of a global consumer-products company underscored the importance
of early face-to-face meetings in cultivating trust: There is an enormous premium on good,
clean, nonbureaucratic communication, and that depends enormously on a high level of trust.
Thats why at the start of the team process, you have to be together personally. You cant start
them with memos or telephone calls or things like that. Youve got to get the group together to
know each other and get a level of comfort and trust with one another. After that you can resort
to the phone calls and video conferences.

Rotating and diffusing team leadership.

By rotating and diffusing team leadership across countries, managers in several subsidiaries gain
an appreciation for cross-border coordination and learn to iron out conflicts en route to achieving
their objectives. Moreover, diffusion of team leadership creates mutual interdependencies across
countries because a country manager typically will lead one global business team while acting as
a contributing member in another. Mutual dependence does not eliminate all conflicts, but it
minimizes politicking and the more destructive types of conflicts.
To quote John Pepper, chairman of Procter & Gamble: We felt that if each subsidiary manager
also led a team, they would come to understand the value and challenge of working on a regional
basis. We set up a brand team on Lenor, another on Pampers, another on Pantene, and so on. We
assigned different country managers to lead these. Really wanting to get everybody into the fire,
so to speak, in experiencing it. What made the teams work was the mutual interdependency that
grew.11
Linking rewards to team performance.

Linking rewards to team performance encourages members to resolve conflicts and reach
effective solutions. Consider two scenarios. In the first, a subsidiary managers incentive bonus
is based solely on country-level performance, even though part of the managers time is devoted
to being a member of a global team. In the second scenario, the managers bonus also is linked to
attaining the teams goals. The motivation for the manager in the second scenario to behave in a
distrustful manner is low because that would compromise his bonus. Such considerations lie at
the heart of Procter & Gambles policy to give explicit weight to both country and team
performance in computing annual incentive payments to its country managers.12
Building social capital.

At any given time, a global enterprise typically will have many teams working on different crossborder coordination issues. It therefore makes sense for the company to undertake corporatewide
initiatives to create interpersonal familiarity and trust among key managers of different
subsidiaries. Initiatives to build social capital could take many forms. For example, Unilever uses
several approaches to building social networks among managers who hail from different
countries including bringing together managers from different subsidiaries in executivedevelopment programs and horizontally rotating managers across locations.
Effective Process For Global Business Teams

View Exhibit

Global Business Teams Can Succeed

Global business teams are ubiquitous throughout multinational corporations. But managing them
effectively and steering them toward their intended goals is not easy. Barriers to communication
and to cultivating trust routinely sabotage the most well-intentioned team. By making the right
choices for the teams charter, composition and process, global teams can overcome the
problems and efficiently achieve their ends.
A solid framework for designing high-performing global business teams is essential. (See
Effective Process for Global Business Teams.) When a team consists of members with distinct
knowledge and skills, drawn from different subsidiaries in different countries, the potential for
cognitive diversity is high. That can be a source of real competitive strength. But intellectual
diversity almost always will bring with it some degree of interpersonal incompatibility and
communication difficulty. Process mechanisms that recognize and anticipate such pitfalls and
integrate the best of individuals ideas and contributions are needed to help the team reconcile
diverse perspectives and arrive at better, more creative and novel solutions.
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<a href="http://ox-d.mitsmr.com/w/1.0/rc?cs=5143565699745&cb=1098784859"><img src="http://oxd.mitsmr.com/w/1.0/ai?auid=367205&cs=5143565699745&cb=1098784859" border="0" alt=""></a>
References (14)

1. To date, no empirical study has presented data on the effectiveness of global business teams.
A broad treatment of the international dimensions of organizational behavior, however, suggests
that, although cross-cultural teams are necessary, the challenge of managing diversity often
renders them ineffective. See Nancy Adler, International Dimensions of Organizational
Behavior (Boston: Kent Publishing, 1986), 99118.
2. D.J. McAllister, Affect- and Cognition-Based Trust as the Foundations for Interpersonal
Cooperation in Organizations, Academy of Management Journal 38 (1995): 2459.
Show All References
About the Authors

Vijay Govindarajan is a professor of international business and the director of the Center for
Global Leadership at Dartmouth Colleges Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.Anil
K. Gupta is a professor of strategy and global
December 4th, 2013 | 6:00 am

How to Manage a Global Team Successfully

filed under Managing Change

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Todays companies are becoming more and more global, with teams spread across continents
and time-zones, languages and cultures. As telecommuting becomes the norm, managers have to
understand how to supervise teams that are spread across the globe.
In a recent working paper on designing virtual teams, INSEAD professor Jos Santos explains
that managing a global team is becoming a core leadership competency. In fact, being able to
work with colleagues who are very far away is even more common for those in executive
leadership roles. He writes, While companies use virtual teams in many areas of business, their
most important function is in high-level management. The top management teams of many
global business units are fast becoming virtual teams. Indeed, the hallmark of a globally
integrated company is its virtual top management team.
If you aspire to a top level role, being able to work well with people who are in a different
location and manage teams of people who are spread far and wide could be an important skill
to add to your resume. Heres Santos best advice for managing virtual, global teams.
Get Organized

Based on research into the management of multinational companies during the rise of
globalization since the 1990s, Santos has developed keen insight into how individuals throughout
the corporate structure handle working with virtual colleagues. First and foremost, he says, its
important to remember that virtual teams are not the same as co-located (in the same place)
teams, so you cant simply apply the same management style and structure to them.
Set up work flow systems. Since people on a global, virtual team are spread apart, working
without the benefit of casual communication and social trust, information and processes need to
be made explicit to make sure everyone is doing their part productively to achieve the same goal.
Its important for the manager to lay ground rules up front about how people will work together
in a very systematic way and check in frequently. Santos explains, A virtual team needs a
manager, not simply a motivator or facilitator, and it also needs the support of a well-crafted
information system. An effective virtual team will look more like a formal hierarchy than like an
ideal classic team.
Additionally, he says, make sure that times and deadlines are seen as critical. Identify time and
deadlines as critical. Determine convenient hours for conference calls, and schedule off-office
hours calls evenly across the organization. Time is of the essence in virtual teams and this poses

a particular challenge for individuals from polychronic cultures, he writes. The manager should
also make sure the same reports and information are available to everyone across locations.
Designate communication norms. Communication is key for global, virtual teams, which span
not only space and time differences, but also cultural and linguistic ones. The manager should set
up specific guidelines on how people should talk to one another.
For example, while a sub-team in one location may speak their local language while working
together, its important that they are sure to use a designated team language when
communicating with the rest of the group. All email and verbal communication should be in the
team language. Similarly, Santos says, it is inappropriate to use metaphors or idioms when
working with an international team they may not make sense to people who primarily speak a
different language.
Additionally, managers should ensure that similar communications technology exists between
different sub-teams. For example, if one group is unable to videoconference for some reason, the
larger group should avoid videoconferencing.
Build trust between colleagues. Trust is important in easing communication between people,
and developing an environment where people feel comfortable taking risks and innovating. But
trust comes more easily to people working in the same location and with the same cultural
background than it does to people who dont know each other and dont see each other outside a
video conference. Santos advises managers to set up socialization initiatives between colleagues
so that they can meet and learn about one another and build trust. He writes:
Socialization initiatives should make team members aware of the various contexts in which the
team operates, including national and local differences, as well as differences among units within
the corporation. A session on cultural awareness for all team members is mandatory and should
be complemented with individual coaching as needed. The point of these efforts is not to
diminish differences among team members but to make members aware of the differences.
Managers should also attempt to budget for opportunities for disparate colleagues to meet one
another. Santos explains:
Rotate face-to-face meetings among the various locations and make sure that time always is
available for visits. Visiting team members also should have the opportunity to meet local
suppliers and customers and to attend local cultural events. These exchanges will help team
members see location-specific sources of knowledge, experience contextual diversity, and
increase their ability to understand knowledge from a foreign context.
Creating opportunities for team members to build trust between one another will ultimately make
a team more successful. While it may seem superfluous under tight deadlines and limited
budgets, making time and resources available for this aspect of teamwork will pay off, Santos
says.

Changing Workplaces

Today represents only the beginning of what global, virtual teams look like. Technology will
continue to improve and make people even more connected than before. But, Santos says, the
basis for his advice wont change. We must remember that humans are local beings. We thrive
on what is happening around us, not far away. Our senses and emotions, our instincts and
intuition have evolved over generations to be effective when sensing and interpreting the nearby
world, here and now.
This is why good virtual teams dont just happen. Managing virtual teams takes extra time and
care to ensure people are able to work together and meet goals. Developing the processes and
skills to manage global, virtual teams will be a valuable skill for anyone hoping to climb to
senior levels within their organization.

comment...
Are Your Emails Communicating a Lack of Confidence?
Voice of Experience: Emma McGuigan, Managing Director at Accenture

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Global Team-building: 6 Best Practices for

building top-performing global teams
Written by admin in Global Team Building |
Global Team-building; Six Best Practices for building top-performing global teams
This blog post deals with the timely topic of building global teams in todays volatile economic
and political environment. The continuing economic unrest in parts of the EU (Greece, Spain,
Portugal and Ireland) and political turmoil in the Middle East (Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia)
are contributing to the challenges faced by multinational companies in managing global teams.
In addition, sweeping changes in new business models (virtual and mobile teams), enhanced
technology tools (Web-conferences and collaborative software) and the emerging power of
social media (Twitter, Face book, LinkedIn etc.) are impacting how global teams are being
utilized.
Collectively, these factors are creating workforces and operating environments that are as varied
and geographically diverse as the businesses themselves. Increasingly, senior executives of
international companies are faced with challenges, including:

Building cross-functional and multicultural teams for critical global projects,

especially when faced with implementation and sustainment deadlines
Aligning cross-functional, global teams in a time-challenged M&A or restructuring
environment
Downsizing globally while retaining precious human capital necessary for
maintaining productivity
Improving organizational team effectiveness for high-priority, enterprise-level global
initiatives, such as business transformation, ERP implementation, shared services and
outsourcing
Reducing global spend while maintaining a cost effective and productive supply chain

When senior executives are faced with such challenges, its important to realize that successful
team building requires support starting from the senior executive level, through portfolio,
program and ultimately down to the project management and team-member levels. This holistic
approach helps solidify strategic alignment and facilitates a shared vision for achieving desired
business objectives and project goals for global teams.
Harnessed properly, well-functioning and aligned global teams can help organizations achieve
desired business objectives, lower costs, improve performance and identify future leaders from
within the organization.
Fortunately, there are some proven tips that can assist leadership in building top-performing
and cross-functional global teams. Having implemented several cross-industry global and
virtual team projects, I have found the following six (6) Best Practices very helpful in building
cross-functional and multicultural global teams:
1. Agreement on project goals, project plan and project scope definition.
It is advisable to have program and project managers as well as team-members agree on a clear
understanding of project goals, including outlining the business objectives, setting a time frame
in which they are to be accomplished, and spelling out why they are necessary. In other words,
global teams benefit from a succinct and clearly defined project plan with benchmarks and
success metrics.
2. Review of team composition and working styles.
Team composition (different corporate functions represented) should be reviewed along-with
how members interact, process information, make decisions and organize themselves. This is
needed to optimize cross-functional expertise and determine individual preferences in working
together.
3. Team cohesion.
Once the review of team working styles is complete, it is advisable to design a team map. This
can be done by examining the teams different functional strengths and weaknesses in
performing the top three to four tasks needed for producing the desired end-product or solution.

4. Cross-functional and multicultural communication issues.

Managing cross-functional and multicultural teams requires keen insight and planning, as
cultural differences can aggravate issues when it comes to team performance. The following
cultural components can lead to potential conflicts and reduced performance:
1.
2.
3.
4.

I.
II.
III.
IV.

Direct and indirect communication

Language fluency and speaking accents
Dissimilar hierarchical attitudes
Conflicting decision-making styles

5. Acceptable behavior.
Once the team has defined and agreed upon new, non-negotiable behaviors for the team, this
information can be documented for future behavioral and functional reference and application.
6. Management support.
Despite their best intentions, global project teams and project managers do not always have
enough authority to make all the decisions necessary to accomplish project goals. This is where
timely, substantive and consistent support from senior executives can make a huge difference
in a projects results. Timely decisions and sufficient resources are two very important examples
of key management support. Please click here to read a detailed article on how senior level
executives can build global teams.

An illustration of these 6 best practices in action is helpful. In a previous client situation, I was
brought on to help in aligning a global team on a time and budget-sensitive project encompassing
multiple functions. Following is a synopsis of the project and how results were achieved.
Building a cross-functional and multicultural team for a critical global project:
Situation: A global manufacturing organization was planning to move production and sourcing
of selected products from locations in North America and Eastern Europe to China, and was
experiencing problems in getting different resources in three continents to collaborate on a global
sourcing project with tight timelines, quality control issues and cost over-runs.
Actions: An assessment was conducted on project performance, and the results indicated that it
was primarily people/team issuessuch as cross-cultural communication and timely followup on production deadlinesthat were making matters worse. Executive leadership was
advised to identify and train a culturally sensitive project manager who could pull the people
resources of this project together into a global team to achieve desired business objectives.
Fortunately we found a manager within the organization with international experience and
trained him in cross-cultural team building concepts relevant to doing business in North
America, Poland and China.

Results: In recognizing the different communication and team behavior styles of teams operating
in North America, Poland and China, a cohesive one team, one company strategy was
implemented. By determining areas of expertise necessary for different portions of the project,
tasks and related timelines were distributed accordingly, with each regional team sharing
responsibility for their piece of the project. Notable results achieved in this project included:

Saved $73M in manufacturing and sourcing costs

Completed complex global project on budget
Developing a cost-effective additional manufacturing unit in China
Building a model for global team cooperation
Identifying future rising stars for the organization

In conclusion, it has been my experience that global teams with clear and consistent executive
support are more likely to develop a shared commitment to action than teams without this
support. With cooperative, involved management from senior executives, global teams can gain
the knowledge and confidence to collaborate effectively within a new environment through the
self-creation of shared and actionable project plans. This can be a win-win strategy in two
important ways. First, the organization benefits by successful on-going business operations and
timely, cost-conscious completion of global projects. Second, potential new leaders can be
identified from within the organization.
A cohesive and customized global team strategy can help your organization achieve desired
business goals. I invite you to contact us today by email imahfooz@chronosconsulting.org or set
up a free and confidential consultation at your convenience by clicking on this link to schedule a
free 30-minute consultation
Looking forward to your comments and thoughts. See you next time!
Best,
gement
31 Jul,2012 05:52 IST

How To Manage A Global Team

Some tips for managing a culturally diverse, geographically dispersed team across time zones
Meena Surie Wilson
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Imagine teams of people from different cultures working with each other day and night across 24
time zones. These virtual teams are the backbone of global businesses. They can tackle complex
and strategic issues, helping their company to become more responsive to markets and
customers. They are containers for innovative thinking, by which their company can leap ahead
of its competitors.
Gautam Kheria joined a large manufacturing company 11 years ago. He has managed some of
his companys most complex projects and won two national awards for being an outstanding
team leader. Gautam follows four principles:

His people know exactly what the team is expected to deliver, and by when;
Each person knows what she or he will be asked to contribute in terms of expertise and
administrative support;
Communication lines are always open, and team members are well-informed about how
problems will be solved and decisions made;
Time is made to have fun, so people on his team get to know and enjoy each other.

Last year, the board of directors decided to expand globally, acquiring manufacturing sites in
countries in Latin America and Africa. Gautam was tapped to work with site managers at three
facilities outside India and five facilities in India. His three-year mandate was to orchestrate
technology transfers across the eight sites and to create shared knowledge about brand-building.

What an immense, complex responsibility! This was not about managing a cooperative group of
managers in one country, as he had in the past. This was about creatinga a sense of collective
responsibility among managers who did not know each other; and most likely, they did not
experience the same loyalty toward the company that he did.

Gautam realised that the site managers would have to get out of region-based silos, do some
forward thinking, work with teammates with different backgrounds, motivations, and values, and
meet production deadlines too. Could he make this happen?
Gautams team management was not the best. He made mistakes, but he learned too. In his
interim report, he wrote up three tips for working effectively on a culturally diverse,
geographically dispersed team.
Secure support from senior stakeholders, including ones boss, in advance. To forge trust
and commitment, team-members must meet face-to-face at least once every year. This is
especially important in the first six months after the team is launched. But funds for travel or
multi-point video-conferencing are not enough. Without resources for expert inputs about
cultural differences and team development, the group could fumble.
Encourage proficient use of multiple modes of communication. Yesteryears phone-calls and
email are no longer the only options. Now there is the companys video-conferencing, slidesharing, and intranet systems; skype; and voice and text messages beeping for attention.

But using communication technologies is still an art. Airing a disagreement on email is pointless
better to pick up the phone. Asking for an instantly messaged yes or no is a clever way to
include team members for making a decision but multi-point video-conferencing will draw
out opinions far more effectively. It is the mind and heart connection across these channels that
matters.

Allocate sufficient time to work through the logistics of virtual meetings. The 24-7 work of
virtual teams has turned the pace of senior managers lives from hectic into frantic. Pre-dawn
meetings from some regions of the world pile on top of dinner and middle-of-the-night meetings
in other regions. It takes ingenuity and perseverance to distribute the inconvenience of round-theclock meetings in a fair way, and show respect for the multiple commitments of team members.
Technology too is not fail-safe often meeting participants wait while staff figures out how to
re-connect locations or reduce distortion.

Without pre-planning, logistical and technical glitches become irksome and encroach on
creativity and productivity.
Gautams tips are quintessential for managing virtual global teams. Business growth accelerates
if natural, technological and human resources are properly integrated. New regional markets
open up if localised information, knowledge, and insights are used. Innovation happens if team
interactions are a dynamic mlange of opinions and perspectives. Without doubt, such effective
teams add unprecedented value to their organisation.

Meena Wilson is Senior Faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and author of
Developing Tomorrows Leaders Today: Insights from Corporate India (Wiley, 2010).
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Project management tips, tricks and talk

7 Tips to Managing Global Project Teams

October 1, 2013 Tim Clark Comment
Project Management, Tips
6
inShare

A decade ago I was staying with a friend in Tokyo who ran a global team for a top multi-national
technology company. Meeting times that were convenient for the companys headquarters in
New York were less than ideal for my friend.
Since my friend worked from a home office, I was able to witness all the separate conversations
she juggledfrom the actual conference call to all the other micro-conversations happening in
the four open instant message chat windows. A lot of office politics got played below the surface
of the main phone conversation.
Watching this illustrated not just how important communication is for global teams, but how
much real business gets played out that isnt on the meeting agenda. The work-life balance of
being a member of a global team plays out in a very personal way for a team leader sitting at her
kitchen table.
Global teams are nothing new, but the challenges of a widely dispersed team are ongoing. Here
are 7 tips to bridge the gaps that come with being a geographically and culturally diverse team.
1.
Navigate time zones. Sometimes it feels impossible to find a meeting time for everyone in
a team thats spread all over the globe. However, TimeAndDate.com has a nifty world clock that
tells you what time it is right now anyplace in the world and has a Meeting Planner tool for
coordinating times. (Theres an iPhone and iPad app, too.) Early on in a project, ask team
members on calls to state their local time so everyone understands the time variances early on.

2.
Be aware of national and religious holidays. Countries and people honor holidays
differently. As a team leader you want to make sure you know which holidays are particularly
important to individual team membersas well as the observances that are important to specific
regions. Be sensitive to unexpected details such as, how a fasting holiday might affect a team
member, and which countries might not observe popular Western holidays, like the week
between Christmas and New Years. TimeAndDate.com has a handy holidays and observances
tool to help.
3.
Be savvy about the cultural differences among team members. These are more subtle
and trickier to manage. Just because your team member in China speaks flawless American
English, dont assume that her cultural values are the same as yours. This bridge might be easier
to cross in experienced global companies because, over the years, the corporate culture has
become strong enough to put everyone on the same cultural professional page.
As a manager, you can research your teams cultural backgrounds in fun waysreading books
and website articles, watching movies, talking to people who are willing to share their
experiences. Or, if you work with someone in Turkey who loves food, go to a Turkish restaurant
in your neighborhood and then talk to him about it. Being sensitive and aware is a good first step.
4.
Share a common software platform with all team members. For example, use
collaborative project management software that everyone on the team can access on their own
timeframe, and then track progress and follow comments of team members. Because your team
is scattered geographically, cloud-based software makes sense.
Standardize on other basic communication tools as well, like using the same instant message
software or chat tool. If shared white-boarding is important, pick a common collaboration
app. A shared calendaring application (which can be part of your project management tool or
email software) makes scheduling meetings easier.

5.
Check in with team members, and have them check in with each other. And use the
phone. Unless your colleague is the silent type, voice-to-voice communication conveys a lot that
electronic cannot. If youre at corporate headquarters in the U.S. and a team member works alone
in a home office in Belgium, encourage the remote worker to check in weekly. Or have remote
workers check in with each other. If you or other team members are traveling for business, get
together at the industry conference youre both attending, or go visit team members when youre
in their city.
6.
Dont generalize, stereotype or make assumptionsespecially about people youve
never met and cultures you dont deeply understand. Be inclusive and seek advice from a friend
or colleague whos familiar with local customs when culture-specific issues emerge. You might
discover you have some cultural biases; dont let them get in the way. And when youre
stumped, ask open-ended questions. You might discover some interesting and helpful insights
along the way.
7.
Dont get hung up on work style or approachunless it affects results. Learn early in
the life of your project to make a note of each team members communication and work style.
Note that some of these differences are influenced by cultural norms. And then remember: Your
project is about outcomes, not winning style points.
Finally, your team exists to achieve common objectives, so focus on how each members role
contributes to your projects objectives. Emphasize shared goals and dont get too hung up on
differences.

Have some good stories or wisdom about working globally? Tell us in Commentswe want to
hear from you!
Related stories:
5 Ways to Set Your Team Up for Success
How to Pick the Right People for Your Team
Turnkey Solutions We Love
7
Tips to Managing Global Project Teams was last modified: July 21st, 2014 by Tim Clark

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Definition of global virtual teams

Traditionally, team-based projects required all members to be physically present in a specific
location for a set period of time.
Global virtual teams embraces the concept that team members can engage in and deliver projects
with limited or no direct physical interaction with other members, allowing multinational
enterprises to draw on the widest talent pool available among their global employee base. Teams
typically never meet face-to-face, and conduct all project work using VOIP technology and other
virtual meeting applications, such as SharePoint.
Example
Take for example, a multinational engineering firm seeking to develop a product, and assigns the
relevant internationally located employees to complete the task as a global virtual team. The
senior project manager is located in the firms London office, the project manager is in
Shanghai and the project leader is located in Boston. [1]
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