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Tips for Successfully Managing Your Idealist Group This list from Global Knowledge offers insight on how to manage a group that’s doing most of its work and communication online. Managing teams can be a challenge. When you try to manage teams across different geographical regions and perhaps time zones, you have a situation that can be difficult for even the best manager. However, with advances in technology, there is now a broad array of communication methods to enable remote teams to function more smoothly and cohesively. Here are some great remote team management tips: Try to have an initial face-to-face meeting and incorporate team building activities to build trust as you launch your remote team – this will help you dramatically if problems arise later.
Establish strong procedures around communication– phone, e-mail, and video conferencing etiquette and guidelines for sending and replying to email and phone calls.
Establish how meetings will be scheduled and who needs to attend.
Determine how work will be managed and information shared, reviewed, and modified (develop a change control procedure).
Vary the time of meetings so that no one group or individual is consistently having to meet after hours.
Put multilingual people in key positions to bridge the language barriers, and make sure the team members know who they are.
Encourage social interactions between remote teams.
At any virtual meeting, have someone make introductions at the beginning of meeting and include what their responsibilities to the team are.
Make sure everyone participates, otherwise, silence will be taken as agreement.
Encourage personal communication whenever possible such as face-to-face or over the telephone, as long as it does not interfere with the work being done. Remember—technology tends to be very impersonal and can easily lead to misunderstandings.
Keep your information tight, such as up-to-date mailing lists, to keep everyone informed of current questions, answers, and general progress on work being done.
Ensure your team is attuned to cultural sensitivities. This may require cultural sensitivity training and should be done as close to the beginning of the team forming as is possible to avoid misunderstandings.
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