Leading Project Teams Virtually

For those with headsets, run your audio setup wizard after logging in Use the chat area to let us know if you will be using headset and mic or chat box to communicate. Leading Project Teams Virtually Project Leaders: Donna Horn Jan Oestreich

1) 2) If you don’t have a headset or can’t seem to get the mic to work, click the teleconference icon once you are in the main room (arrow 1) and it will give you a call in # arrow 2) that will allow you to use your phone to talk live both in the main room and in Breakout rooms

Leading Project Teams Virtually 1 Getting Connected 2 3 Deliverables to Celebration Maintaining Momentum

3 – 2 – 1… • 3 Threads • Leading and working virtually • Project Management • Team Development

3 – 2 – 1… • 3 Threads • Leading and working virtually • Project Management • Team Development • 2 Goals • Help each other learn about working virtually on a team • Experience project management in a virtual space

3 – 2 – 1… • 3 Threads • Leading and working virtually • Project Management • Team Development • 2 Goals • Help each other learn about working virtually on a team • Experience project management in a virtual space • 1 Simulation • Learning partners practice virtual skills

Agenda - Getting Connected for Success • Who’s here and where are we going? • What have you found helps in virtual world? • Here’s some of what we found - best practices • Getting a virtual project started

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“Collaborative Learning” • You share what you know about • We’ll offer what we know about • 2 way idea exchange – “What did you discover • last week?” • “Go slow to go fast” to build relationship/trust

Why is virtual work so challenging?

Leadership in the Virtual World • People • Technology • Accountability and engagement • The Project

Team Communication Communication offeelings and attitudes Albert Mehrabian

Team Communication Communication offeelings and attitudes Increase congruence = Increase trust Albert Mehrabian

Writing on whiteboard in breakout rooms Breakout Discussion In your breakout group, ….. Read the quote and ….. Summarize your thoughts using ….. When you are in your breakout room and the instructions slide is pushed out, you will see a menu, like above, where you can navigate to a blank page and enter group discussion notes. Use this same menu to go back and forth between the instructions slide and your “notes” page.

In your breakout group, ….. Read the quote and ….. Summarize your thoughts using ….. Click on the drop down Menu, then pick the blank page you want to go to jot down thoughts/notes.

Virtual Group Experience • Take 10 minutes total • Getting Started • Briefly, introduce yourself and provide a little context (Council, hometown, etc.) • What have you found works well for leading virtual team projects? • Ask someone to capture the discussion on your whiteboard and someone else be ready to share with the larger group in the main room

Best Practices • Select some team members who know each other and some “boundary spanners” (people who are well-networked in the organization) • Clarify goals/outcomes for the project (what • change will occur? What will be different?) • Establish norms/team agreements (prework • material) • Break work into chunks that can be worked on • independently at locations

Best Practices – Meeting Virtually • Share pictures • Use chat area and whiteboard • Silence is not golden! - tell people you will be calling on them for a specific response • Have a 2nd “facilitator” or moderator to help out (e.g. watch chat area, etc.)

Make Your Thinking Transparent “Ok, let me tell you what I’m thinking… “The reason I’m advocating here is..… “_____, tell me more about what your thinking here” “I think we have a few options here…” “My only concern here is…” “____, help us understand how you got there”

Virtual Meeting Management Beginning • Use a form of “check-in” During • Ensure everyone’s participation End • Summary notes; action items are clear and posted to the online worksite

Best Practices Meeting with a Local/Virtual Team • Use a visual to remind those in the room “who’s out there” • Describe what’s happening in the room Lewis Rachel Bob Sara, L.A. Lisa, D.C. Mike, NYC

Ask Team Members to help with meetings • Setting up and communicating the meeting • Drafting an agenda • Collecting input beforehand • Facilitating the meeting so you can focus on the interaction • Watching the chat area and secondary channels

Project Leadership in the Virtual World • Clarifying the project • Getting the technology to work • Connecting the team • Setting initial accountability agreements

Breakout #2 – Roles and Team Standards • Breakout Rooms and Topics Room 1 & 2 - Clarifying project roles Room 3 & 4 - Establishing team agreements • Identify and note on whiteboard 2-3 practical suggestions • Rooms 1&2 “What have you found helpful in clarifying roles?” • Rooms 3&4 “What works for setting some initial agreements to get started?” • Take 10 minutes total

Project Roles

Team Contract / “Agreements” What – Behavior standards we feel are critical How we work together For us to achieve our vision we must be this way with each other. Why – Create boundaries Give team members and newcomers minimum behavior standards they can expect of each other Remind group of a standard we must try to maintain to achieve our vision How – One on oneconversation and/or group discussions Group members agree to adopt “I’ve been chatting with all of you and thinking about how we need to ‘be’ together for us to complete this project, and have some fun while we’re doing it … here are some thoughts around that, what do you think?”

3 Key Team Behaviors/Agreements Being candid and loyal to the absent I avoid gossiping (e.g., I don’t bad mouth someone “not in the room” and I encourage others to refrain likewise.) I don’t deliver messages for others and if I have a beef with someone, I talk to them directly. 1 2 3 4 Team before personal: I put the team/organization’s goals before my own. If someone has an idea that’s working better than my own, I offer my time, budget, resources to help them 1 2 3 4 succeed. Transparency: I am completely open in sharing my thinking and information I have at any given moment. If I disagree, I bring it up in the meeting vs. in the hall, and I do it agreeably. I model the behavior of “If I have more information than you, I am obligated to share it. If it seems you have more than 1 2 3 4 me, I am obligated to ask.” Not as consistent as I would like I’ve been very consistent

Best Practices - Quotes “Trust within a team can be harmed by breaches in confidentiality outside the team. Since breaches cannot be physically observed, an important norm to discuss is what is shared outside the team.” “Our technology use evolved over time.” “Several of the teams we studied struggled initially because they lacked a common set of procedures or way of doing things.” “We found that one of the biggest reasons virtual teams fail is because the members don’t find the work interesting.” “Meetings with a strong social element can be resented, for example, when held early in the team’s existence. In the early phases, creating exciting work with a meaningful goal is seen as more useful than hosting social events.” “The quickest way to build trust in a virtual team, is to play fair and deliver on your promises.”

Questions/ Observations?

For the Next Session… 1) How might you use a tool like the charter template to clarify scope with a Sponsor and your team? 2) Watch the IDEO video using the link on the LPTV website Module 2 page and discuss within your learning team what insights you took away. 3) The Eternal Triangle or Triangle of Constraints

For the Next 15 minutes… • Teams meet in individual breakout rooms to organize for creating a deliverable for • Module 3.

Leading Project Teams Virtually