2024 – Discussion 2 Shared Practice Managing Teams in a Virtual Environment The internet age now allows you to connect

Discussion 2: Shared Practice: Managing Teams in a Virtual Environment

The internet age now allows you to connect to work from virtually anywhere in the world. However, managing a team of remote employees presents unique challenges. Monitoring, communicating, organizing, and motivating remote employees and coworkers can be difficult, even with available technology that helps remote employees meet and collaborate in virtual spaces. As you review the Learning Resources this week to prepare for your Shared Practice posting, imagine the following scenario:

At your current employer, or at a company where you would like to work, you have been assigned to manage a virtual team. Your virtual team is composed of some individuals in the office, some that work from home in various time zones, and some others that work out of another office several time zones away. Consider the challenges of managing virtual employees and how these challenges compare to managing a traditional “non-virtual” team.

Post by Day 5 a response that addresses the following:

• Explain benefits and challenges that a manager has when developing, leading, and motivating virtual teams and how those challenges are unique to virtual teams.
• Explain which of the challenges you identified that need to be addressed directly by a manager, and which challenges should managers empower or allow the team to address.
• Describe how you would meet the challenges and contribute to the virtual team if you are assigned to manage the team. Be sure to identify obstacles you think you would have and how would you address them. (Hint: An exemplary response will draw on the themes from previous weeks, such as ensuring a positive and productive environment, handling difficult conversations, motivating employees, providing feedback, maintaining levels of trust, etc).

• Collaboration and teamwork is an inescapable aspect of work life. You depend on co-workers and colleagues to meet their deadlines, contribute their fair share to projects, and to behave ethically and supportively. Of course, you have a role as a collaborator as well. Your role is defined, in part, by your particular skill set, professional experience, and expertise. Beyond this, the dynamics of the organization where you work also determines, to a certain extent, how you can contribute as a collaborator in the workplace.

  Unfortunately, many teams within organizations lack clear direction and established boundaries. When communication breaks down between members; when decisions need to be made quickly; when infighting or turf wars threaten a project, how can team members get back on track? One tool in both preventing and resolving team conflicts is a Team Charter. A Team Charter helps “team members recognize their complementary skills, their common purpose, common goals, and mutual accountability” (Byrd & Luthy, 2010, p. 14). Imagine for a moment that you were given the opportunity to design a Team Charter for the workplace. What roles would others need to have for the team to function effectively? What processes would you put in place to resolve conflict and promote effective collaboration? What would be your role as a collaborator on such a team?

  For this Individual Reflection, imagine that you are applying for a position in the hypothetical United States-based company Walden Consulting Inc., (WCI). WCI’s mission is to improve teamwork at organizations worldwide. To accomplish this, WCI is interested in constructing a model team to “shop” to other organizations that want to increase their teamwork skills. This model team must be an exemplar of positive teamwork, successful collaboration, and be able to work with teams of all sizes, revenue, and experience levels. WCI is asking all interested persons to create a sample Team Charter as evidence of his or her ability to think through how a model team should effectively operate.
  Of course, as a Walden MBA student you have always been passionate about teamwork and teambuilding, and think that your experience, collaborative skills, and expertise on how teams operate would be a great asset for WCI’s model team. You have decided to apply for the position and need to develop a team charter.

  To prepare for the Individual Reflection, first research the library and the internet for reputable sources on the content and format of team charters. (Hint: There are many different ways to format team charters. The format of your team charter should be your original work to incorporate your unique vision of how a team should operate and interact. Your team charter should synthesize ideas from a variety of reputable sources you have found through your research. Simply copying a format you found online is not appropriate for this assignment.)

  At a minimum, incorporate the following in your team charter for the Individual Reflection:

  • the type of skills an effective team needs to demonstrate collaboration and teamwork;
  • the characteristics that enable effective collaboration and  teamwork;
  • strategies you think are needed to ensure that a team can operate effectively;
  • strategies for managing disagreements at the point of conflict and managing conflict upon escalation;
  • contingency plans teams should make to mitigate potential risks to the team’s ability to function and achieve its goals (Hint: reflect on the challenges you have seen teams encounter that risk the team’s success or ability to function. Your contingency plan should address these potential challenges); and
  • your personal strengths and weaknesses and how they might (or might not) functionally complement other members of the team (Hint: be sure to give honest and careful reflection of these based on your experiences and what you know about yourself and how you interact with others. This is an important piece of your charter and warrants additional consideration and attention).

  For Part 1 of this 2-week assignment, create a team charter that includes specific guidance for the operation of and interactions for the model team at WCI. Use references from the resources provided in the course to date, resources from the Walden Library, and—if applicable—examples from personal experience to support the content of the Team Charter.

  Note: Even though you will submit your Team Charter by Day 7 of Week 6, you should complete it as you complete this week’s activities and then review and edit it again prior to your final submission in Week 6.

  Assignment: Individual Reflection: My Role as an Effective Collaborator (Part 2): Resume and Cover Letter

  Last week, you designed a Team Charter as part of the application process for a position at WCI, a fictional organization whose mission is to improve teamwork at organizations worldwide. Creating a Team Charter is only the first step in this process, however. In order to consider you as a candidate for a position on their model team, WCI also requires that you submit an up-to-date resume and a cover letter.

  For the second part of the Individual Reflection, you will build off the Team Charter you developed for the Individual Reflection from Week 5 to finalize your application for the position at WCI. To complete this week’s Individual Reflection:

  • Create and submit a resume that highlights your individual skills critical to teamwork and effective collaboration. Your resume should be at least one page, but not more than two pages. You should include relevant examples to support your experience and skills.
  • Draft and submit a one page cover letter in which you try to “sell yourself” to WCI. Your goal is to get hired on the model team, so be sure to talk about your passion for teambuilding, past experience in team work, and any other information you think would be helpful to WCI. Your letter should be addressed to:
    

    Ms. Bonita Joueur, Director of Worldwide Consulting, 
    Walden Consulting, Inc. (WCI)

  Submit by Day 7 of this Week, your Cover Letter, Resume, and Team Charter as one document.