Have a disagreement? Resolve it virtually

Interesting piece, "Resolving Disagreements in Virtual Teams," about how being virtual actually can help resolve conflicts rather than make them worse. Even more, Loyal Mealer says, face-to-face teams might try the same things. I like this kind of counter-intuitive thinking and am hereby placing one more chit on the ROI scale of things that can't actually but measured about virtual work. This idea supports the conventional, if you can call a relatively new idea conventional, wisdom about virtual teams--that you should save the tough stuff for conference calls rather than insisting on face-to-face meetings. Excerpting the bits that really stand out to me:

Whether you are managing a virtual team or a traditional one, I have learned from many years of team experience that even the most emotionally charged of disagreements can be resolved when people bring hard data to the table to support their positions and engage in an open, honest, respectful dialog around the data...

...Having something visual on which everyone can focus their attention removes a great deal of the ambiguity and misunderstanding nearly always present in a disagreement. The very act of putting ‘pen to paper’ requires that ideas be articulated, enumerated and quantified...

...As it turns out, this process can actually run better with a virtual team than face-to-face provided everyone has access to a decent real-time PC desktop sharing tool. I personally believe this is true because people are unable to see eye-rolling and other body language cues from others that tend to escalate emotions.  Instead, everyone is forced to vocalize their feelings and ideas, making intentions clearer to everyone.

Comments

[wangchuk]

This is a terrific post. However, what do you do when there is no hard data? Or when the gulf is great between what the parties think is hard data, such as Tibetan and Chinese views of the state of the Tibetan people before the Chinese invasion (liberation?).

[jessica lipnack]

Wangchuk, this is quite a profound question. Often, I think, what one side considers hard data, the other considers soft or wrong. You have made me think about whether virtual communication might be an interesting bit of diplomacy for the Tibetans to try. I'm certain this will sound absurd to many people but so much that sounds absurd often turns out to be the breakthrough. Please understand that I am in no way attempting to minimize the severity of this terrible situation.