TRUE STORY:

He remembered saying “How hard can it be leading a Virtual Team?”

After all, everyone on the team had access to each othervia phone (land line and cell), email, Blackberry.  He thought it wouldn’t matter that the team members lived so far from each other.

The team had an initial face-to-face - - a one day meet-and-greet session to review the specs for their assigned project.

The goal was clear:  develop a new marketing plan.

And then reality…

The team wasn’t acting like a team at all.  10 months had elapsed and there was nothing to show for their efforts.

Working with the team was like herding cats - - the team was all over the place.  Hard to lead.

Team members complained about the lack of face-to-face meetings and that the project appeared to have come to a halt with poor communication being the major problem.

The team’s sponsor needs results now.  Flying everyone in for another face-to-face seems like the only way out but the cost (time, money) is prohibitive.

How do you get this team remobilized and working given the resource constraints?

On Thursday May 25, 2006 my colleague Michael Goldman of FacilitationFirst.com and I led our tenth Teams In Trouble teleseminar in which we shared proven strategies for running Virtual Team meetings.

Topics we covered:

• Defining Virtual Teams
• Typical Virtual Team Meeting Issues
• Preferential Methods for Communication
• Advantages of Teleconferencing
• Getting Ready (how to prepare)
• How To Lead a Virtual Team Meeting
• and more...

Listen to the 60 minute teleforum now for free (limited time offer).  Click the link below to download the mp3 file.

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Download directions to the team building game (Virtual Team Maze) I shared during the teleclass for free (limited time offer). 

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Michael provides a free (limited time offer) detailed step-by-step write-up of Virtual Team meeting process at his website.  free offer expired