Beware virtual teamers: you're not sexy

Pat Lencioni, the team book writer/expert (disclosure: though we've had the same publisher, I've never read his books, so apologies to him), says so in The Catholic Reporter. OK, not exactly. Here's the precise quote:

"..one of the most frequently asked questions I get has to do with managing groups of people who are geographically dispersed, a.k.a. virtual teams. This surprises me a little because the topic, as well as the solution for addressing it, is certainly not very sexy."

I'll skip the next couple of possible paragraphs of speculation about how face-to-face teams might or might not be sexy, depending on the circumstances, and go directly to Lencioni's ideas about how to make virtual teams better, or, I guess, less not-sexy.

I quote again: "Once a team understands the disadvantage of not being co-located, then it will be more likely to take on the next mistake that virtual teams make: wasting the precious time that they do spend together."

Read the research, Pat. Disadvantage has been turned to supreme advantage. See just about anything on the NetAge Library page and particularly, "Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?" and "The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams." And there is no prerequisite, no iron-clad rule that says that face-to-face is the only way to launch a virtual team. Or that it even necessarily produces superior results.

But rather than play the part of the cynic-critic (even if I find people throwing out ideas about this as if they were really well informed), I'll leave it here: When Lencioni says, "What teams have to do—and I told you up front that this is simple and unsexy—is make a serious commitment to one another that they will maintain a high standard of behavior during conference calls, even higher than they would for an in-person meeting," I have no disagreement except that it's just not enough.

There is evidence, and plenty of it, that commitment is not enough. There are practices, outlined extensively in the above research and by numerous other thinkers, that turn conference calls into superb, better-than-in-person events. Combine the best practices of virtual teams in your face-to-face groups and ooo-la-la. Veddy sexy. And very effective, Mr. Lencioni.

Uh-oh, I just can't leave it without mentioning the new media tools. Much as I believe in the "90% people, 10% technology" dictum that we've been espousing forever, those 10% tools have gotten so remarkably better in the past few years that mentioning virtual teams without encouraging use of the new media is, well, uninformed.