Managing Virtual Teams Best Practices: What Restaurants Can Teach Us
The other day, my husband (who works in a virtual team) was participating in a weekly online "mid-morning chat" with his colleagues. One team member shared her experience working in the restaurant industry during her younger days. She maintained that everyone should work in retail or restaurants at some point to learn about timing and process.
That got me thinking. She's right for numerous reasons, and this wisdom absolutely applies to virtual teams. As dispersed members collaborate on complex goals, keeping timing and process in mind becomes essential.
Let's start with timing. We know that everyone needs to work from the same strategic page regarding task deadlines and key milestones. However, equally important is understanding each individual team member's personal timing preferences.
People naturally develop different approaches to pacing their work. Some work steadily throughout a project, preferring to distribute effort evenly. Others thrive when working closer to deadlines, concentrating their energy in later stages. (To be clear: I'm not talking about procrastinating till the last minute or slacking – – it’s a matter of degree.)
Research shows that in terms of work quality, both approaches can be equally effective! The challenge in virtual teams is enabling people with different pacing preferences to collaborate smoothly. Team members need to acknowledge their own timing preferences while remaining mindful of others'. It might take a conversation (or three) before everyone feels comfortable with the team's timing dynamics. Some compromise among members benefits both the team and the individual.
Timing also depends significantly on the project type and virtual team processes. Simply put, process is about how people get things done. In the virtual context, processes become critical for managing interaction and interdependency among team members.
How frequently do virtual team members need to interact? What form should these interactions take? Are they primarily scheduled and regular, or more interdependent and spontaneous? While these questions matter for all teams, virtual teams especially benefit from explicit conversations about these dynamics, given the technological mediation of their interactions.
Restaurant workers intimately understand timing and process — nobody wants a cold burger or appetizers arriving after the main course. And there's much more to process and timing in virtual teams than I've mentioned here. To learn more, schedule one of my virtual workshops about effective virtual team management!
