Optimizing virtual teams [00:00:00.71] - So a few years ago, I did a simple simulation with my MBA students. The managers in my class at Kellogg were paired with peers at Stanford. Their challenge was to resolve a pretty thorny intraorganizational conflict. They work for the same company, they just weren't co-located. [00:00:18.23] Here are my rules. Talk about anything you want, but you have to do it on email. And I gave them a week. [00:00:23.48] Now, I had run this simulation several times before face-to-face so I had a pretty good idea about what to expect. I knew that about 85% of them should be able to reach an agreement in about one to two hours. So I had high hopes. [00:00:39.68] Well, was I in for a surprise. Over one third of them failed to reach an agreement. Even more disconcertingly, they made sinister attribution errors. They blamed the other side. Some of them even called it a bloodbath. The whole thing was tragicomic because the simulation contained potential to benefit both sides and the larger organization. [00:01:03.32] Virtual teams are a fact of life. So what are we going to do? First, test the technology. Our simulations reveal that over 50% of virtual teams have technological breakdowns. We call it the LCD effect, the lowest common denominator. If one person can't connect, it brings the whole team down. [00:01:28.22] Step number two, schmooze or lose. Most virtual teams don't appreciate the importance of having an initial upfront face-to-face experience or even a phone call. In our research, we capitalized on this by allowing people to have a five minute non-business phone call prior to an extended email-only interaction. [00:01:49.46] The results were dramatic. More trust. More good feelings. More belief in the organization. More desire to work together in the future. And the kicker, they reached a resolution to the conflict. [00:02:02.67] Step three, humanize members. A video conference is ideal for virtual teamwork. If you can't have everybody there, then put a picture of the team members on your desk. We did our own research study of this. We gave some people a thumbnail picture of their counterpart in Palo Alto. The results were absolutely clear. The people who had the thumbnail picture of their counterpart were able to reach an agreement 96% of the time versus 78% of the time when they didn't have the thumbnail picture. [00:02:36.81] When I do my own webinars from Kellogg, I always put a picture of a lecture hall of students in front of me so that I can humanize my audience. [00:02:46.56] Step number four, look in the mirror. I mean literally. Put a mirror on your desk in front of you so you can see that smirk on your face. In one research investigation, North Americans who had to communicate in front of a mirror were less likely to cheat and much more self-critical than those who didn't have the mirror. [00:03:09.09] Now look, I'm not suggesting for one minute that teams engage in constant cohabitation. As a matter of fact, our research at Kellogg indicates that teams are going to be more creative and more innovative when they're working individually. [00:03:22.68] Here's the key. You want to have what we call a cave and commons design. Go to the cave when you need to generate novel ideas. When you need to think about controversial ideas. Come back to the commons when you need to debate those ideas and when you need to get alignment. The best teams know when to work individually and then when to come together as a team.