Strive Notes

A new report that looks at the productivity of virtual teams finds that teams that are dispersed over several locations suffer from reduced productivity and increased employee conflict.

The research, conducted by occupational psychology consultancy Pearn Kandola for Cisco, shows that poor communications management is the root of the problem. Apparently, it takes four times longer to communicate using email, compared to face-to-face conversations. And because almost two-thirds of communication is non-verbal, virtual teams struggle to build trust, so there’s more employee conflict.

This isn’t our experience at Strive, but then, our team members have known each other and worked together, in various combinations, for many years. We started with a pre-established trust base and have enjoyed pretty smooth sailing. And, we use different communications tools.  Depending on the need it could be email, Skype, wiki, Web cam and of course, our blog.  

That said, I would dearly love to spend more face-time with the team. I think it would enhance our collaboration and improve certain aspects of our virtual company.  For example, business development would certainly get a boost if Strivers could spend more time together.  I’m adding a UK team meet to my “must do” list.  And I’ll be in Canada in a few weeks’ time and will set something up there too.

See more details from the report in IT Week.

Filed under: public relations