Virtual Teamwork and Global Leadership

Futurist Topics - Leadership

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virtual teamworking, virtual management

* Virtual Teamwork is about managing people at a distance using technology.
* Virtual Teamwork can produce travel cost reductions of up to 50% with huge gains in team productivity and morale.
* Virtual Teamwork can be a high risk strategy unless corporations are committed, and requires significant investment in technology as well as in team training.
* Virtual Teamwork means maintaining close working relationships with colleagues in many different locations, without the need for as many meetings as traditionally needed.

Old team management models are: "if in doubt, go travel to sort it out". But this is inneficient in a rapidly growing global organisation. Many corporations are at the limit of what they can manage without huge structural changes, unless they develop a different way of working altogether.

Many executives are already spending up to 6 weeks a year at 35,000 feet, not including all the hassles of flying delays, taxis, hotels, and jet lag. So what happens next year or the year after? The model of team management followed by most corporations is completely unsustainable and will be a number one survival issue.

Teams that can bridge the distance gap will win a clear competitive advantage - travelling less but with greater impact during each visit, backed up with regular videoconferencing, shared space technologies, chat, e-mail, telephone conference calls and other digital tools. And forget old-style video-links in board rooms. Think wireless, everywhere, anytime, video-links that can start as spontaneously as a telephone call.

Virtual Teamwork is vital to corporate growth.

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