The Tendon Effect: How Casual Conversation Transforms Virtual Team Performance
Virtual teams need informal, "non work" talk to really perform
When people have a face-to-face meeting in a workplace setting, non-work topics pop up all the time, especially before and after the meeting. For instance:
“How was your weekend?”
“My son’s team won their soccer game!”
“I can’t believe Ben Johnson had the Bears go for a 2-point conversion…”
“I found a great new recipe for pesto chicken – you want it?”
“Did you see Sinners yet – it is awesome!”
While this type of interaction can seem incidental and unimportant, it actually represents a vital and necessary aspect of coworker/team communication. I think of it as “tendon” topics: interactions among coworkers, seemingly unrelated to work itself, that actually creates ties and makes it easier for people to interact when it matters.
Tendons are the connective cords that act as a bridge between muscle and bone. Muscles and bones get most of the attention, but tendons allow for the transmission of force between these two body parts. They make movement and flexibility possible.
In virtual teams, “tendon” communication happens less frequently. The asynchronous nature of technologically based interaction makes tendon communication harder. Exchanges can seem disjointed, pauses cause awkward lags, or people start talking at the same time, leading to apologies and more awkward pauses. But this communication is just as important — or even more important — in virtual teams as it is with face-to-face teams.
Dr. Jennifer Jordan, a professor of leadership and Organizational Behavior, calls it OIS: open information sharing. Research shows that OIS predicts team effectiveness because of its capacity to create bonds among team members; a sense of comradeship. The ironic thing is OIS, or tendon communication represents exactly the kind of communication needed in virtual teams. Virtual teams can be highly task oriented. Nothing wrong with that on its face, but a team that only interacts about work-related topics will exhibit less team cohesion and lower member satisfaction.
So what can a virtual team leader do to encourage more tendon communication? Model the behavior and proactively work to make it happen among team members. I heard of an interesting meeting opener the other day. The leader asks members how they are doing and members respond with a one-word answer: red, yellow, or green (like a stoplight). Red means the person is feeling overwhelmed or down, yellow means ok, not great, and green means good and ready to go. Now, this requires a certain amount of trust among the team, but it can be a good way for a team that is familiar with each other to take a quick pulse of the overall team mood. Knowing how each member is doing helps the leader know how to proceed.
There are numerous other things that leaders can do. Model the behavior by talking about their own weekend. Talk about their upcoming vacation plans or the funny thing their kid did at dinner the other night. Seemingly innocuous topics, but it gets the “tendons” loosened up and ready to go.
Take a quick break at a natural pause in the meeting and do a (short!) poll about the team’s favorite ice cream flavor. Before or after a meeting starts, celebrate “Speak Like a Pirate Day.” Yes, these things are frivolous and lighthearted — that is the point. You will be surprised at how well the meeting flows and how productive it can be when you make time for tendon communication.
One thing to keep in mind when talking virtually – emotional cues (and cues in general) in the virtual world need to be amplified a bit to help members get into the spirit. Set an example for the team by taking your comments up a bit in excitement or focus. Be positive and encouraging when other members follow suit. It doesn’t have to be clownish or over-the-top; just more engaging. Make sure everyone has their video and mics open to catch responses, eye contact, facial expressions, and vocal inflection.
So in your next virtual team meeting, try warming things up with a little tendon communication. Over time, you might see work-talk become more productive and flexible.
And consider taking my workshops about virtual teams to learn a lot more about how to make virtual teams effective and motivating!
