Executive Summary
In the present world, virtual teams have become increasingly common in the present day workplace environment. They are providing businesses with opportunities for accessing employees based in distinct geographic locations, providing them with opportunities for working together in an efficient and economical manner. Some of the newly established virtual teams attain considerable success in the efforts of collaboration whereas others might encounter challenges when it comes to getting started. In this sense, the Internet has played a critical role with respect to creating an avenue for establishing virtual work teams, which have the capacity of working as groups despite the members being based in distinct locations. Additionally, it is crucial to note that sustaining effective virtual teams demands each member to portray significant levels of dedication. This, the paper discusses the issue of virtual team development from various viewpoints. Firstly, it revolves around an overview of organizational best practices for virtual team development. Secondly, it gives a description and overview of the predictable stages of developing virtual teams. Thirdly it gives recommendations for moving through each stage and an actionably stage for every recommendation. Lastly, it undertakes an analysis of the technologies that would best support virtual team development strategies.
Overview of Best Practices in Virtual Team Development
When it comes to development of virtual teams, best practices become essential to facilitate in effective functioning of the teams. The best practices to follow in developing virtual teams are as follows
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Setting ground Rules
Procedures as well as rules of conduct are responsible for governing a group. In the case of a virtual team, the best practice prevails when the manager establishes roles that would govern work as well as rules of Internet etiquette, which dictate the manner in which the group needs to interact. In this case, the group needs to make sure it reviews the prevailing rules, while the leadership needs to dictate more than one session of online training concerning the procedure that the practicing group needs to follow to ensure that each person understand the manner in which the team needs to function (Lee, 2016) .
Facilitating Exchange of Information
Virtual teams usually lack the advantage of instant collaboration between persons, as it is the case with typical offices. Every virtual work member is required to check email or other kinds of messaging systems several times on an hourly basis as well as make sure they respond to the messages in a prompt manner. This plays a critical role with respect to sustaining efficient information exchange, which is vital to the success of any virtual team (DuFrene, 2011) .
Scheduling
Challenges usually prevail when it comes to setting up impromptu meetings for virtual teams due to the chances that members might not be close to their computers. In maintaining efficiency, it is essential for a virtual team to focus on developing a work schedule that can ensure that all members are online simultaneously. In this manner, it would be possible for the team to deal with the issues that emerge during the set schedule. The leader of the team should also be accessible via the Internet or phone all the times in the event of emergency cases (DuFrene, 2011) .
Multiple Lines of Communication
Virtual employees usually feel isolated from the other employees sometimes even in cases where the virtual team is operating as a group. A virtual team needs to have lines of business communication as well as personal lines of communication for every member. Such initiatives ensure that the team members are able to distance work information from person one, although it should provide an office banter, which virtual employees do not have. For instance, each virtual employee needs to have a business and personal email address to facilitate in communicating with the other team members (Zofi, 2011) .
Empowerment
Managing virtual groups at micro levels might frustrate both the employees and the manager. The leader of the team needs to focus on empowering the employees on a daily basis while making decisions concerning work while at the same time establishing guidelines that need clearing via the manager. This practice assists in boosting workflow in lie with allowing the members of the team take possession of their job tasks (Zofi, 2011) .
Predictable Stages in Virtual Team Development
When it comes to virtual team development, certain predictable stages become apparent. These comprise of the following:
Forming
The stage of forming prevails in the event where the team meets each other for the first time. During the initial meeting, teams members are usually introduced to each other while they also share information concerning their interests, backgrounds, as well as experience hence establish initial impressions concerning each other. The team learns of the project they need to work on, discuss the objectives of the project, and commence thinking of the roles they would play. They have not yet started working, although they are starting to know how they would work together (Abudi, 2013) .
Storming
The team commences working together in the storming stage. Each team cannot avoid this stage, especially in the event of a new team that has not worked together previously. During this phase, the members of the team usually rival each other for acceptance of the ideas they raise as well as status. They usually have differing opinions concerning what needs doing and the mode of doing it, hence resulting to incidences of conflicts within the teams. As the team realizes progress via the stage while at the same time receiving the team leader’s guidance, they learn ways of solving problems together as well as function together as both a team and independently (Abudi, 2013) .
Norming
Once the team reaches the norming stage, it starts working in a more effective manner. They no longer lay emphasis on individual goals, but focus of devising a way in which they can operate together (procedures and processes). They develop respect for the opinions of each other as well as value the differences that prevail between them. They commence identifying the value apparent in the differences within the team. Operating together as a team in this phase appears natural. During the phase, the team agrees on the rules to follow while working together, modes of sharing information, addressing team conflicts, and processes and tools they would utilize to ensure that the job is done. They also commence developing trust toward each other and request assistance from the team members when they need it (Abudi, 2013) .
Performing
The performing phase entails a stage where the team performs at significantly high levels. The major area of emphasis in this case is to ensure that the team reaches its goals. The team members have already managed to know, each other, have high levels of trust among each other, and are reliant on each other for assistance. Not each team is capable of reaching this level of growth. The team that performs highly usually functions without oversight while the team members have emerged as interdependent. The level of motivation is considerably high to make sure that the job is done. The team members are also capable of making decisions as well as addressing any problems in an effective and rapid manner (Abudi, 2013) .
Adjourning
In the event of the adjourning phase, the project seems to be ending while the team members seem to be heading to distinct directions. The stage usually views the team members from the team’s wellbeing as opposed from the perspective of team management via the original initial growth stages. In this sense, the team has already matured and can take on different directions (Abudi, 2013) .
Recommendations for Stages
During the initial growth stage, the team leader needs to exercise clarity concerning the goals of the team as well as offer clear directions concerning the project. The team leader also needs to make sure that all the members take part in determining the responsibilities and roles of the team while at the same time working with the team to assist them in establishing ways of working together (team norms) (Lee, 2016) .
For the second stage, the team leader should ensure to facilitate the team via the stage by making sure that members of the team listen to and learn from each other while at the same time respecting the differences that prevail between them. They should not allow a single member to control the differences in conversations, but should ensure they encourage all team members to take part. In addition, the team leader should ensure to coach some of the members ways of being more assertive while others become effective listeners (Lee, 2016) .
During the third stage, the team leader might not be involved I the process of making decision or in solving problems because the team members work better when together as well as portray increased responsibility. In this case, the team usually has increased self-direction while it is also capable of solving conflicts and issues that prevail in a group. In this case, the team leader needs to make sure that team members always work in a collaborative manner while starting to operate as a coach to the team members (Lee, 2016) .
In the fourth stage, the team leader does not participate in the process of making decisions or other activities related to the daily activities of the team. The members of the team operate effectively when working as a group while they do not require oversight needed in the other phases. In the case of the team leader, it is essential to continue monitoring the team’s process while also celebrating the milestones achieved. The team leader can also function as a gateway in the event that a need arises for reaching decisions at higher levels inside an organization (Zofi, 2011) .
For the last stage, the leader needs to make sure that sufficient time prevails for team members to celebrate the successes they realize from a project and focus on capturing best practices to govern the future. In the event that the project did not succeed, the team leader can lay emphasis on reevaluating the issues that prevailed and capture the lessons learnt to guide projects in the future. The team also gets a chance to wish each other well until they meet for the next endeavor. In this case, the team leader can also focus on connecting the team members to ensure that they can undertake similar projects in the future successfully (Graham, 2016) .
Technologies for Supporting Strategies
Virtual teams offer various benefits to organizations in such a manner that an organization is not constrained to staff members or geography, while they offer increased flexibility. Nonetheless, certain challenges prevail when it comes to interpreting communication, collaborating, and building trust among virtual team members among other issues. Thus, in supporting strategies for predictable stages in virtual team development, certain technologies prevail, which can assist in compensating for the shortcomings that might emerge (DuFrene, 2011) . The common technology tools that can assist are as follows
Document Collaboration
In a virtual environment, it becomes increasingly important ton share documents, which team members can edit, especially without the need for having to download or upload. Ideally, collaborative editing makes it possible to see the edits as they take place. For instance, Google Docs has been utilized as a way of brainstorming, such as the use of flip chart or white board, which offers an amazing experience. The technology encourages increased participation (Graham, 2016) .
Virtual Phone
In a virtual environment, a need arises for transferring calls between individuals while at the same time having a major number in the directory. Various options prevail for virtual phone, such as RingCentral, which offers individuals with increased flexibility since the individuals can receive as well as place calls. With RingCentral, team members can receive calls via their cellphones, landline, or their computers. Such a technology makes it easier for individuals to communicate easily in an online environment (Graham, 2016) .
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing also serves as an ideal technology for virtual teams. In the event that individuals interact only via voice, they end up missing a considerable communication layer, which is affiliated with body language and facial expression. Video is becoming the norm for virtual teams, especially in the event of highly integrated virtual environments. For instance, a technology such as Skype has the capacity of offering best audio and video on low bandwidth, while others, such as Google Hangouts are ideal in the case of faster connections, particularly because it is possible to integrate it to the entire Google Apps platform, which offers significant convenience (Graham, 2016) .
Chat
In the area of virtual work environments, chats are also appropriate in the event personal or certain minor official conversations. For instance, an app, such as Google Hangouts serves as an ideal tool, mostly because it can fit seamlessly with various other Google tools. Here, it is possible to create channels for posting announcements, vacation pictures, jokes, or questions related to the work setting. In this sense, such technologies play a critical role in making a virtual working environment seem like a real one (Graham, 2016) .
References
Abudi, G. (2013). The fve stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.php
DuFrene, D. (2011). Managing virtual teams. New York: Business Expert Press.
Graham, K. (2016). 5 essential tech tools for virtual teams. Retrieved from https://www.idealware.org/5-essential-tech-tools-virtual-teams/
Lee, M. R. (2016). Leading virtual project teams: Adapting leadership theories and communications techniques to 21st century organizations. Lanham: CRC Press.
Zofi, Y. (2011). A manager's guide to virtual teams. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
