The Agile Organization by Holbeche Linda

Author:Holbeche, Linda
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749471323
Publisher: Kogan Page
Published: 2015-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

Virtual teams can be nimble and dynamic, shifting team membership to suit project needs with employees assigned to multiple, concurrent teams. Virtual teams can shorten cycle time and increase innovation.7 They tend to be more creative and can leverage learning better than conventional teams.

The challenges

The challenges faced by virtual managers are somewhat different from their non-virtual counterparts. With matrix working, a virtual manager may not only be leading their own team but also a resource for teams led by others. Perhaps the greatest challenge is building trust – a critical factor for effective virtual working yet harder to build when people don’t meet physically. Because virtual managers cannot see their team members, some struggle to trust that people are working and may try to catch them out by phoning at different times of day to see if the person is available to speak to them. As a result they undermine trust and working relationships.

Virtual workers can become literally and psychologically distanced from their organization, so managers must deal with the team’s feelings of isolation and communication difficulties. BT Retail has learned that virtual or teleworking does not suit everyone so the company also provides opportunities for teams to meet physically in different locations in order that both social and business needs can be met (see ‘The mobile office’ above).

One UK public body reduced the number of its offices from 100 to 40 across England over four years, moving 1,500 out of 1,900 staff to be fully flexible. The organization provided all its social workers with 4G laptops, Blackberry devices and fully electronic case management systems. They ensured that online support and learning was also in place to reinforce the ‘shift in culture’. In particular they paid attention to the social side of work, ensuring everyone attended the monthly team meeting, regardless of where they worked during the week. Agreements were made with partner organizations to have touchdown bases so that staff could meet with service users. They also introduced the Robertson Cooper ‘Health & Wellbeing’ tools so that they could fully analyse the factors in high performance and pick up any issues with individuals who prefer working in ‘offices’.

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