Transcript “Virtual Team Improvement” in Infineum IT 29 April 2009 Wayne Robertson Reproduction of any material whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by.

“Virtual Team Improvement”
in Infineum IT
29 April 2009
Wayne Robertson
Reproduction of any material whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means
or otherwise is prohibited without prior written consent of Infineum International Limited.
© Copyright INFINEUM INTERNATIONAL LIMITED 2009. All rights reserved
See the legal disclaimer notice on www.Infineum.com
Agenda
 Case for Action
 Overview of Infineum IT’s Virtual Team Effectiveness Initiative
 Training Overview
 Is it working? Results to Date and Next Steps
 Bottom Line: Can virtual team effectiveness be improved via
a focused training program and commitment to change
behavior?
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Case for Action
 IT department quick facts
 80 colleagues and 25 contractors in IT
 7 locations in 7 countries
 IT services used at 25 sites by 1600 colleagues worldwide
 Infineum Organizational Effectiveness strategy
…Enable colleagues to be the best…
Examples: provide training...coaching…
remove roadblocks...provide a sounding
board...develop leadership
 IT Management perceived an opportunity to improve team effectiveness
 Geographic dispersion of IT colleagues
 Working on global cross-functional projects
 Some frustration sensed – variable team performance
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Overview of Virtual Team Effectiveness Initiative
 Engaged with external consultant in 4Q07
UK-based Global Integration
www.global-integration.com, www.lifeinamatrix.com
CEO is Kevan Hall, author of “Speed Lead”
 Approach
 Hold Focus Group Discussions (3 locations, 25 colleagues)
 Issue a “diagnostic” to probe the weaknesses
 Carry out 2 day F2F training exercises (4Q08)
 Diagnostic Findings
 High stability – has positives but can lead to rigidity in terms of innovation,
willingness to rotate roles, silo behavior
 See ourselves as reactive
 Over-reliance on travel to get things done
 Lack of knowledge retention and sharing
 Issues with communication technology
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Training Overview
 Training Modules
 Building “community” – membership, purpose /
role, kick-off meetings
 Trust & cooperation
 Communicating – using the right tool
 Control – remote coaching exercise
 Culture – awareness and adaptation
 Continuous development – personal learning audit
 Tips (email, meetings, web conferencing, etc.)
 Exercises, Tools, and Take-aways
 Examples on following slides
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Exercises
 Practice coaching in virtual teams
 Develop a “Community Level
Agreement”
Motivation
 Overcome “motivation decay”
 etc.
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Tools – Personal Learning Audit
How many other organizations have you visited in the past 12
months (not sales visits)?
How many trade association meetings do you attend?
How many conferences have you attended this year?
How many external training programs have you attended?
Do you know who are the current world authorities in your field?
Have you spoken to them, seen them, read their books?
Have you tried out any of their ideas?
How do you keep up to date on new developments?
Which business schools or universities are most active in your field?
Have you visited them?
etc…. … …. ….
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Tools
 Use the right
communication
tool for the job
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Take-aways (sample)
WHY
before
Build plan for
HOW
reinvigorating the Build trust
based on mutuality
team!
and responsibility
Manage Your Reputation
Think: S O A R
Sincere Open Acceptance Reliability
Slow down to
go faster!
Model the desired
behavior
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Results to Date
 Training was viewed as successful with 63% rating as “excellent”
 Trying to change behaviors and put the learnings into practice
 Corporate collaboration initiative (leveraging SharePoint) and
Unified Communications
projects under way
 Significant re-org of IT
in process, combining
and creating teams,
breaking down silos
 Behavior change
takes time
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Next Steps
 Important to maintain momentum
 Reinforce key messages and themes
 Issue mementos and reminders
 Leaders must model the desired behaviors!
 Assess impact towards the end of 2009
 Potentially expand with other Infineum groups
 Consider reading “Where In The World Is My Team?”
by Terence Brake
 Parable format; virtual teams in a post-web 2.0 world
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Questions?
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