With far flung teams and tight budgets, more and more initiatives are being executed in virtual environments. Moving to a virtual working environment, where there is little to no face to face interaction, creates unique challenges for OCM initiatives. People tend to react to people and a voice on the phone or image on a screen is not as effective as face to face interaction. This is definitely true for virtual teams, particularly when the individuals involved are working together for the first time. The challenge becomes even greater, when working across multiple cultures and multiple time zones. Even with the best collaborative technologies, and they are getting better, it can be difficult to develop high performance working relationships virtually, but it can be done.
To illustrate the challenge, think of the last important conference call discussion that you attended. Now think of the last face to face workshop you attended. Which was more effective? In which situation did you feel more “connected”? Which session most effectively produced the desired results in a timely manner?
To address these challenges, I always try for at least an initial face to face “kickoff” session to provide limited face to face time, but it is not always possible. As an alternative, for one global project where I was the OCM Lead, we alternated team calls with one-on-one calls with the country OCM Leads. The one-on-one calls helped develop my working relationship with the individual team members. The advantages of the one-on-one calls include having the undivided attention of the other party (no multi-tasking) while providing a chance for them to ask and answer questions that were focused on their environment. The OCM global team calls provided a virtual environment that allowed the team members to interact and build trust. During the team calls all of the country leads heard the latest information, discussed what was working well in their areas, shared their concerns, coordinated their efforts to provide consistent messaging for stakeholders, and helped to shape the global OCM efforts.
I would be curious to compare experiences and techniques with others who are working on OCM initiatives in a virtual environment. What challenges have you faced? How have these challenges been addressed?