The Secrets of Virtual Team Building

© Jesse Boland

Everyone wants the same thing. Virtual team building is simply about systemizing empowerment in a virtual setting.

I don’t think enough attention has been given to the immense potential of virtual teams. For the regular person creating a virtual team is the tool they must build in order to achieve their goals. As Robert Allen says in his book “The One Minute Millionaire”:

"A team is part of your lever. . . Incredible power can be released when people work together. Anyone who
achieves great success - anyone - must have a Dream Team."

-Robert Allen

It's Simple. . . Everyone Wants Empowerment. . .

Leaders to rank and file team members alike, everyone wants to be empowered. Empowered teams are built upon the involvement of individuals who can align their own purpose with the values and purpose of your virtual team.

However, even with empowered teams, concerns about process arise naturally as people move from dependency toward empowerment at different rates. Teams do not exist in a static environment.

. . . But What's the Process?
How does this impact the team building process? It simply means that you must systemize the way you build your virtual team and take into account the various stages of the process.

Each virtual team member goes through the empowerment process at a different speed depending on their personality, past experience, and desire to learn.

Here are the questions each team member asks themselves as the follow the process:

• Information - What is the process? Why is this process necessary?
• Personal - How is this process going to impact me? Will it work for me?
• Process - What do I do first? What happens if I do it wrong, or it doesn’t work?
• Impact - Is it really worth my energy, time, or money? Where am I seeing improvements because of this process?
• Collaboration - Who else is involved in this virtual team building, or should be?
• Refinement - How to optimize this process? How can we improve the system?

Empowering teams parallels building a team's performance. Both depend on following specific processes along the path from low competence/dependence to high competence/empowerment.

Virtual team building is about developing individuals through the varying levels of competence and commitment to a state of high competence and high commitment.

When enough team members reach this crucial point is when true virtual team performance occurs. This level is only reachable when all the stages of individual development along the path are addressed.

So How Do Virtual Teams Develop?

Here are the Four Development Stages:

1. Development Stage 1 (D1) - Low Competence - High Commitment
2. Development Stage 2 (D2) - Competence - Low/Waning Commitment
3. Development Stage 3 (D3) - Moderate Competence - Varying Commitment
4. Development Stage 4 (D4) - High Competence - High Commitment

A team is: “two or more people who must work together to accomplish a common purpose and are help accountable for the results.” (page 33)

To build a virtual team that truly meets the team member‘s needs, team leaders must consistently assemble, train, and develop empowered team members with the knowledge and skills to develop, perform, and grow the team.

This is the secret to virtual team building performance.

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