Collaboration — Best Practices for Virtual Teamwork

There’s no question that digitalization is changing the world of work. This is especially true for knowledge workers, whose collaboration is a fundamental prerequisite for keeping up with fast-moving developments. It’s all the more important not to neglect knowledge collaboration any longer, but to give it the strategic importance it deserves.

But what exactly lies behind the term “knowledge worker”? At first, you probably think of think tanks — specialists sitting behind desks drafting their concepts. But this image is long outdated in today’s working world. In their spotlight analysis “Virtual Teams Need Strong Leadership!” commissioned by the American software company Citrix, the analysts at PAC put it clearly: knowledge workers today also include mechanics, carpenters, and farmers. 150 executives from multiple companies were surveyed as part of the study.

What exactly is knowledge work? According to the study authors, it is defined by three characteristics:

• It involves a complex task,
• whose execution requires knowledge, creativity, and teamwork, and
• which cannot be completed following predefined routines.

The knowledge and creativity of employees are existential key factors for productivity in today’s businesses. Yet all too often, the framework conditions fail to sufficiently promote open exchange and effective communication.

It is precisely communication that determines the success or failure of a project: Employees spend more than a third of their working time — according to the study, the share is 38 percent — on communication and cooperation. This also applies to virtual teams, which, according to the study results, also need to meet in person from time to time. The share of mobile colleagues and home office workplaces is continuously increasing. More and more projects require teamwork across departmental boundaries. Without collaboration, today’s challenges can no longer be mastered.

Yet a staggering one in two of the decision-makers surveyed considers the framework conditions for collaboration to be merely average. This concerns technological, organizational, and cultural conditions alike — even though the market offers mature collaboration tools. But often the capabilities of these tools are simply not fully utilized. The result: frustration among employees, dissatisfaction with the employer — and focus on core tasks suffers.

Before we address how to improve this situation, it makes sense to look at the causes. Three reasons stood out particularly in the survey:

1. Neither performance management nor incentive systems promote the use of collaboration technologies. This was reported by forty percent — a high number — of the executives surveyed.
2. Another reason goes hand in hand with the first: Many executives do not support the use of corresponding technologies (38 percent of responses), which also
3. relates to bureaucracy and cumbersome procurement processes (37 percent) as well as a conservative corporate culture (32 percent) that hinders the use of collaboration tools.

Conclusion: It is not technology, but corporate culture that represents the real barrier to effective collaboration in companies. Germany still struggles somewhat in this area. Citrix estimates the penetration rate of domestic companies at just 25 percent — in international comparison, Germany still has some catching up to do. Reason enough to take a look at the experts’ best practices.

The PAC analysts have summarized their findings in five pieces of advice that can fundamentally improve virtual collaboration. They all have one thing in common: Without the clear commitment of senior management, improvement cannot be expected.

Best Practices:

1. Improving collaboration is without question a strategic topic. Only with the support of top management can the framework conditions for virtual teamwork be optimally designed. For improving collaboration, the same applies as for classic process optimization: This topic belongs on the strategic agenda!
2. Build trust! Change processes triggered by the introduction of new software solutions create fears and resistance among employees. But when leaders successfully lead by example in using new technologies, concerns and barriers are quickly dismantled. Bosses serve as role models!
3. Trust is also the magic word when it comes to the new understanding of leadership. Leaders, according to the analysts, must learn to delegate responsibility and instead agree on clear goals and definitions. Creating a culture of trust works wonders!
4. And once more, trust: Virtual teams are also made up of people who need to look each other in the eye from time to time. Respect within the group and recognition from leaders is just as important in virtual teams as in traditional collaboration. An in-person meeting or a video exchange should occasionally be on the agenda!
5. The points above already show that leadership behavior must change in the course of virtual collaboration. On one hand, contact with employees must be maintained; on the other, responsibility must be delegated. Finding the right balance here requires high emotional competence and sensitivity from leaders. Situational leadership is the way forward!

And what about the role of IT in deciding on the right technology? As mentioned earlier, there is no lack of functional collaboration tools with great potential. What matters, however, is embedding them properly into the organization. The analysis shows that the decision about technology use is increasingly being made by business units rather than IT. But that doesn’t diminish IT’s importance. IT remains an indispensable opinion leader and a decisive factor when it comes to maintenance and security.

A foundation for effective virtual collaboration is also provided by collaboration tools like Allegra. The web-based technology of the project and task management software enables real-time collaboration — all involved teams and employees are connected through Allegra, even across company boundaries and worldwide.

Further Reading

If you’re interested in reading more about project management calendars, you can do so here. In this article you can see an overview of various collaboration software tools.