The Virtual Team

WHAT?

For this week’s blog, my example comes from using my mom’s experience in the workplace. She has worked for the Anthem Insurance Company for over ten years now. After a number of different promotions within her time at the company, she currently works as a program manager in the sr. risk and recovery department. This position allows her to work out of the house; therefore, all of her job communication is through the computer and telephone. She enjoys the flexibility of such a position, but the fact that she and her co-workers only connect through technology does take away some of the advantages of being in an office environment. When issues come up, it becomes difficult to handle—more difficult than would be if everyone was together in person.

SO WHAT?

Working in a modern organization like Anthem, a lot of the technology and ways of handling everything is very up-to-date. Even so, problems emerge, and working strictly online comes with its disadvantages. Just as is the case with any virtual team, communication becomes a factor. Levi makes a point in his book on the chapter about virtual teams that it has its advantages and disadvantages, such as conformity is reduced but that makes it more difficult to manage conflicts. She has had issues, more recently when one of her co-workers neglected to do her job correctly and my mom had to go in and correct the whole mess on top of all the other work she was already responsible for. She has also mentioned to me that at times, they have meetings which are held via telephone. She finds it difficult to become involved in the discussion at times and admits that it becomes drift away from what is happening. Also, it is difficult to maintain interpersonal relationships. She has some co-workers that she is fairly close with and some, not as much. She says that although she enjoys her position, she does miss the direct contact with people that she got from the office atmosphere. 

NOW WHAT?

To improve upon the virtual work setting, it is important to develop more of a trust between work members. Levi suggests that there needs to be face-to-face meetings from time to time to really get the ball rolling. This is not necessarily possible because Anthem is a national corporation and my mom works with people literally scattered around the country. But web-cam meetings of some sort probably could not hurt. At time they could have more social meetings, not strictly work-based, to develop more of a trust factor. According to Levi, “…leaders can encourage trust by dividing the project into defined tasks, establishing clear performance expectations, and monitoring their completion.” This aspect was especially true in my mom’s case, with the incident she had with another co-worker who did not do her job sufficiently. Ideally, once trust is established and communication becomes more concrete, the office should see issues emerge less than normal.

The Ultimate Mistake

WHAT?

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I am a member of the Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Club team here at Virginia Tech. A lot of the concepts we have discussed in this class seem to parallel experiences I have with the team—one of which I will use as an example in this week’s blog. The last tournament I went to with the team was held in Statesboro, GA a few weeks ago. At the time, the weather was freezing here in Blacksburg (typical) and it was supposed to be in the high 80s where we were going so we were very excited. Well, it turns out this heat would be the very factor that caused us to make the textbook team mistakes that occur. We won a couple of our games, but one particular game sticks out in my mind where we just unraveled at the seams. Our team lost…bad. We never got our act together and definitely were not acting like the team we were supposed to be. Looking back at the situation, I can see a number of reasons this was the case:

SO WHAT?

The first primary issue, and Lencioni’s third dysfunction of a team was lack of commitment. No one seemed to care or want to put any effort into our ultimate goal which was to win. The heat had taken its toll on us so we all expected others to pick up the slack. Secondly, and I think this is one of the most common team dysfunctions I typically experience, was absence of trust. We were just not on the same page at all. And I think trust goes hand-in-hand with communication which was non-existent. We would get extremely flustered and make dumb decisions because there was just no rationality and no confidence. Avoidance of accountability was very evident as well. We were not holding each other accountable at all. Things just fell apart and there was no motivation to improve. Finally, I guess you could say fear of conflict was not really an issue—I mean some of us did resort to screaming at one another. So there was some conflict, but not the healthy, productive kind.

NOW WHAT?

Our team had a lot of room for improvement in this game. And honestly, we are typically a laid-back, very trusting team, but this was an example of a situation that just got the best of us. We just needed to act like the team we usually are. We need to trust and encourage each other again. There is nothing wrong with conflict as long as it is not malicious and harsh. We needed more order and understanding of differing ideas. There needed to be more clarity in the situation—get everyone on the same page and motivated to achieve our final goal. I think in a sports setting especially, there is always room for improvement so we all need to hold each other accountable to do our best. This was just a classic case of “what not to do” and Lencioni’s five dysfunctions of a team seemed to fit our situation very well.

Conflict in the Workplace

WHAT?

My example of this is the job I have held for almost 3 years now at a playhouse called the Swift Creek Mill Theatre. I work in the office and my basic job is handling reservations and making sure everything is up to par and correct on show nights—a big responsibility and often a basis for conflict. One particular time, I had worked a shift where I set up for the show that was to occur the following night—meaning I started making sure the reservations were in order and that everything was correct. I had not finished, which was fine because the reservationist the night of the show had the responsibility of updating everything and making the “finishing touches” to the show. Well, I got called the day of the show by a manager who told me that the tickets were all out of order and everything was messed up—she thought it was my fault. I explained to her that it was not my fault because I had not handled the tickets whatsoever up to that point and somebody else in the shift after me would have been responsible for that. Regardless, I came in early and fixed the show to resolve the whole issue. But the real issue lies in the teamwork aspect and how this all could have been resolved from the beginning or at least handled differently…

SO WHAT?

Working in an organization like this should be a team effort, but it is usually not treated as such. Everybody usually takes responsibility for their own job and there is not a lot of communication unless something goes wrong. In this case, the issue was between the leader (my manager) and the followers (my fellow employees and I). My manager, in this case, approached the situation with a very aggressive leadership style. As discussed in Levi, “The underlying emotions of the aggressive style are anger, insecurity, and lack of trust.” This exert describes the leader in my example very well. Trust was probably the biggest issue, and my manager was not trying to solve the situation with a clear head. She was getting nervous and lashing out and no clear solution was given except to point fingers and make me go in and directly fix it. In this case, since the conflict occurred so late, there was not much time to discuss it; however, when it was finished, there was no evaluation done of the solution, a problem-solving step as discussed in Levi. I believe it is because of this problem-solving aspect that conflicts like this seem to be recurring in my workplace.

NOW WHAT?

There is a lot that could have been done differently with this situation and that can be improved upon in the future. First of all, I think my manager could have handled this situation and those in the future with a more assertive approach. I feel like there would be a higher level of trust in that sense and a clearer understanding of where everyone is coming from so it isn’t always pointing fingers. To elaborate on that point, and as demonstrated in Levi, developing trust “provides a foundation for resolving conflicts.” I think that is one of the biggest elements that we are missing. Finally, there is the creativity aspect. In our office, we have always had a set way of doing things and that almost never changes. Well, I think it becomes evident when conflicts like this emerge that there is a lot of improvement that can be done. As the workers that handle all of these responsibilities every day, I know that we all have our own ideas to bring to the table that can improve things. We never have group meetings or anything of the sort so our ideas cannot be heard. I feel like that has the potential to greatly improve things in the future and create a more efficient environment with less conflict.

"Isms" in the Media

WHAT?

If I have learned anything since coming to Virginia Tech, it is all the elements that come with leadership and teamwork. Especially being in the Residential Leadership Community (RLC) has provided me with many opportunities to experience it firsthand. One of my favorite memories working with a team was Spring Semester 2010 when I was in a leadership class for Diversity and Social Justice. My group had to host a workshop and we chose to do it on “Isms in the Media”—meaning racism, sexism, ageism, etc. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the topic we presented, but it was a great learning experience. There were different aspects of both my leadership and team member skills that were enhanced, both through the preparation of the workshop and at the workshop itself.

SO WHAT?

I have worked with teams before, but this was probably the longest time-frame that I have worked with any one team. Our project and group were put together about midway through the semester. My group seemed to hit it off from the beginning. We all had pretty relaxed personalities and were open to different ideas brought to the table. We did not really have that initial “lag” that Levi brings up, and it seemed like everyone was on board to do his or her part from the get-go. Our group goals were clear from the beginning, and at one of our early meetings we pretty much assigned roles. In this case, our roles were basically specific parts of the project and we made each member responsible for a different “ism.” My particular topic was racism. Making this decision involved a lot of trust among all of us to do our specific part and do an acceptable job.

 NOW WHAT?

The workshop was a real success and I had no doubt it would be. Everyone was very reliable and that made me want to work that much harder to do my part too. I would say my group demonstrated a lot of cooperation, in a positive way—meaning there was never an issue of groupthink. Everyone presented their own ideas and we all got to be individually creative with our particular portion of the project. We had great communication throughout it, and honestly looking back I cannot recall an area of concern there. I was able to keep in contact with everyone in a timely fashion. I definitely consider myself very lucky to have been put in a group that worked out this way because I know that is not always the case. It was an awesome experience and definitely gave me a good picture of what the basic team process should look like.

Ultimate Team Characteristics!

WHAT?
Teams can take all kinds of forms, but, for me, my best team experiences have come from playing on different sports teams. Starting last fall of 2010, I joined the Women's Ultimate Frisbee Team here at Virginia Tech. It has been a very fun and rewarding experience so far. We went to a tournament held at Clemson University last weekend. It was a very fun weekend that allowed us to really work as a team and play well. Being put in a situation like playing on a sports team really allows you to get a feel for working with other people to achieve a task, and, ultimately, have fun doing it.
SO WHAT?

Characteristics seem to be similar whether you're on a sports team or work in an office. According to Levi, “A successful team completes its task, maintains good social relations, and promotes its members’ personal and professional development.” This is exactly what a team should look like and our tournament was no exception. Ultimately, our task is to win games, but mainly we just want to play well, have fun, and improve upon performance. During the games, we had to learn to work together and take each other's advice. 

NOW WHAT?

Looking back, it becomes evident how classic team characteristics have shown through. Social relations are a huge part when it comes to being on a team and that is where one of our biggest strengths occurred. You have to have good group cohesion (emotional ties to one another) and group communication is huge. Trusting and talking to your teammates is key. And, individual benefit occurs. We all improved upon performance and skill. I think just having a fun atmosphere such as this was key to our team's development.