Virtual Teams Article Review

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Virtual Teams Article Review

The article “Getting Virtual Teams Right” is discussing the key practices of high-performing virtual teams. Virtual teams refer to the grouping of people from physical locations. There is an increasing role of virtual teams in today business world. The need for virtual teams arises as a result of geographically expanding of companies expand as well as the use of telecommuting. Now professionals can perform their duties from anywhere if they are having laptops, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones.

Ferrazzi is a CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and leading professional on developing operative professional relationships. He wants businesses to take advantage of the virtual teams in managing their operations. These virtual teams offer business plenty of advantages. Companies can take advantage of the best of global talent. Moreover, they can have reduced costs while getting this global talent as it significantly reduces their real estate costs. Employees, on the other hand, can also take advantage of this flexible nature of working. They can live anywhere and manage their operations with flexible schedules. They also get the prospect of interacting with their associates around the world. 

However, Ferrazzi also acknowledges this fact that it is also not easy to manage these teams. These teams often are not able to reach their goals and are rated as unsuccessful teams. Ferrazzi has a solution of this and based on in-depth research he proposed four strategies for successful virtual teams. Organizations must learn how to create the right virtual teams. These teams must be selected following the project requirements. Successful virtual teams share common characteristics; excellent communication skills, extraordinary emotional intelligence, understanding of cultural diversity and high-speed internet. They must also have the right size of people and clearly define roles to avoid any conflict.

In addition, these must also have the right leadership that can give them the right direction and guides them as required to achieve their goals. Ferrazzi guides leaders on how to approach virtual teams. Leaders must have constant contact with their teams to build a relationship of trust. They should also encourage open dialogue to get feedback from their teams. Moreover, these teams also have the right touchpoints so that they can compare their performance with these touchpoints for their evaluation. Due to virtually dispersed, it is not easy to meet with each other. Therefore, they should use such technology that can track their progress and match with the goals accordingly.

According to Ferrazzi, the fourth requirement is the use of the right technology. This is the most significant requirement as a team with good leadership and talented team members can fail due to lack of right technology. These teams are dependent upon technology and require the use of the right technology. For example, an organization can have a virtual team of designers and developers across the US. They must select the right kind of technology to communicate. Here they can use the email and virtual conferences to collaborate.

Thus, if leaders follow these simple practices suggested by Ferrazzi, they can maximize the efficiency of their virtual teams and get success in this technological world. Ferrazzi suggestions are based on research and apply to every virtual team in any field. If leaders are successful in forming and managing these virtual teams, this will add to their project as well as business success. Organizations with virtual teams can not only take advantage of dispersed human talent buy they can also take advantage of technology. They no more depend on human interaction and achieve their business goals.