Bonnie Cooper, PMP – Massachusetts Medical Society
SHOW YOUR CLIENT YOUR ORG CHART
Bonnie has dealt with dozens of vendors in her job as the Technical Portfolio Manager at the Massachusetts Medical Society. Her first piece of advice to virtual teams is to show the client your organization chart and tell them “here’s who we are… here’s how we operate… here is our escalation path…and this individual is responsible for your project… you need to give them a context.” The virtual team should have one point of contact, such as a project manager, and this person needs to have the ability to triage client needs and get a quick response to them
Aside from not communicating people’s roles or their team’s chain of command, poorly designed tracking systems can be another area of weakness for virtual teams. “So often I need to spend time learning a vendor’s system, or find out they don’t have one at all, which is time consuming and frustrating.” The virtual team should have user friendly business systems that allow them to track their work, know where things are, and get a quick and accurate status of where things stand against the Statement of Work.
WEEKLY STATUS REPORTS ALSO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE TEAM
Giving weekly status reports keeps everyone on track. The process of pulling together a status report not only enhances client communication, but it also allows team members to regularly evaluate their performance, measure their progress against the schedule, and clear up conflict and misunderstanding. In addition to a written status, Bonnie insists on weekly phone meetings to maintain a personal connection. Whether on-ground or virtual, successful teams manage client expectations aggressively. Effective teams also insist on clear requirements, a statement of work, and a formal change control process. Because people don’t see each other, this type of groundwork at the beginning of a project is especially critical.
VIRTUAL PRESENTATIONS REQUIRE SPECIAL ATTENTION
Presentations can be another area of challenge for virtual teams, especially if members are working independently and do not check in with each other in their analysis and reporting. “I work with vendors who have lots of virtual team members – both employees and consultants – and they often don’t put the effort in to be on the same page with each other…You can tell quickly when the team has not prepared as a group… they stumble, they disagree, handoffs are not smooth, and they do not seem to be paying attention in a virtual way…teams need time to deliberate so they have a unified voice”
Virtual teams should meet before a presentation – to transfer knowledge, get their messaging aligned, and practice. Particularly in the realm of presentations, “the virtual element exacerbates any issues”. As they practice the team should also test the technologies they plan to use. On the day of the meeting it is a good idea to convene at least a half an hour before the actual meeting to make sure everything is set up and working – even a bad phone connection will throw everything off. Ideally, there should be someone from the team physically with the client, as extra assurance things will go smoothly.
Overall though, “you can’t really replace the power of social interaction – the effectiveness of a team is directly related to the amount of trust people have in each other.”
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment