Virtual teams are becoming ubiquitous across many industries and sectors of employment—the government included—as more work gets parceled out without regard to location, time zones, or even countries.  (For the purposes of this discussion, a virtual team is a working group that has shared goals and is dispersed geographically.)

Managers of virtual teams have their work cut out for them, in terms of ensuring that the projects they helm remain on course and on schedule to a successful completion. In order to ensure that a virtual team doesn’t devolve into independent actors and missed deadlines, there are some important ground rules to lay the foundation of a successful engagement.

Kick-Off

There should be some type of kick-off event for the inception of the virtual team.  An in-person meeting is ideal, if possible.  This first meeting will set the tone for the entire process. Even a virtual kick-off, done well, can set the correct tone and help the team coalesce around best practices going forward.  This is also the manager’s chance to get everyone aligned around the team’s shared goals, roles and communication modes.

Mission

The team’s shared mission, goals, and purpose need to be clearly communicated and understood by each team member. 

Defined Roles

Everyone needs to know what his or her responsibility and role entails.  It’s also important to have a team “org chart.”  In a very real sense, the roles and responsibilities serve as a road map of accountability for the entire team. 

Communication Protocol

Clear and constant communication is absolutely critical to the success of dispersed teams.  Without clear and accessible modes of communication, the virtual team is doomed before it even gets started.  There need to be easy to use tools- email, chat, im, Google Hangouts, etc.  As part of the overall communication plan, there should be regularly scheduled meetings with the entire team and with smaller subgroups of the team.

To learn more about building successful virtual teams, join Donalee Frary, an expert in e-learning solutions and building effective virtual teams, on February 17, 2015, for a webcast, “Build a High-Performance Virtual Team.”