As a business student at Kogod, I've had a team project/presentation/paper in literally all my courses, except one. Last semester was absolute hell because I was taking five business courses. Every one had a team project. There are numerous challenges with teamwork in general. Everyone has conflicting schedules, so face time is hard to do. Also, face time can be extremely unproductive. People show up late, without having read the assignment, and it's easy to get off task. Also, so often we're thrown together, with no previous relationship to each other, so there's no real time to "feel" out your group and establish norms. The focus is "let's just get it done."
But with that said, from my experiences, I've gathered some useful tools/tips for handling team project, especially when there are time conflicts. One, I think it helps a lot to know your teammates before you work on a major project together. Technology has made this easy with Facebook and AIM. In one group, we even went out for lunch. I mean this is rare, but it helps establish trust within the group, and gauge everyone's expertise.
The other thing I live by now is GoogleDocs. No longer do you need to do that annoying "I'll send you my part." This is so helpful with group papers because you can build off of what has already been said. I work for the Office of Business Communications here at Kogod. Our website has some pretty good tips from team projects in general http://kogod.american.edu/ArtPage.cfm?ItemID=956&AudienceID=16
So to carry these team-building tools to virtual teams, technology definitely has facilitated communication and reduced costs of flying people in, but I think it has limitations. You lose the non-verbal interactions, and the personal connection when you talk to someone face to face. I think these often make and break the team. So where do corporations draw the line and decide when teams need to meet face to face, and when they can they rely solely on virtual tools?
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5 comments:
Colleen,
Yes, the concept of distributed teams is increasingly the way businesses operate today, and your experience being in several teams (with different roles) is great training for most multi-national companies.
We developed a product called Mercury Grove Web Groups designed to help virtual teams be more effective. It has become very popular among students - you should check it out.
Good luck with your studies.
I just checked out the Mercury Grove Web Groups website and it seems like everything you would need is provided as a free service from them. It serves as a home base for groups to collaborate. I suggest we consider using it in the future.
I think that online collaborative tools do provide a huge cost-savings benefit and like you, I also think that there are limitations. It is no longer solely a question about cutting costs. Today, more and more credence is being put into the idea of relationships and maintaining ties with other people in other companies or other parts of the same company.
I agree with you colleen. Technology has defiantly played a positive role in managing team’s communication, time, and overcoming other conflicting issues. I certainly agree that its advantages out-weigh its disadvantages. But managing relationships within teams is extremely important especially in defining the organizational culture to keep the company’s image alive. So I suggest that companies or organizations should have like an “introduction session” for the team members just to get to know each other before starting a project.
I agree with you that group projects are much easier to accomplish if you trust your team members. Sometimes it is hard to work with people that you know nothing about. Knowing your members beforehand makes it so much easier. Technology helps us get in touch and know more about these people, but can you really build a relationship just by adding them to your Facebook account or talking to them a few times through AIM? I still think that face to face meetings makes everything less complicated.
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