Introduction
A national organization operating in the United States has offices in all four time zones in the country. The organization wishes to complete an important and confidential project within the next three and a half months. The completion of the project will require the formation of a virtual team comprising of mostly senior managers and directors from all major business departments of the organization. For the project to be a success, a team charter needs to be created to direct the different team members on what is required of them. Also, since the team members will be working from different time zones, effective communications and collaborations technology needs to be adopted to ensure virtual collaboration of the team.
Team Charter
This is a written document that is developed by top management and presented to teams. The team charter clearly defines the objectives and establishes boundaries of the team. The charter should be developed early in the formation of a team so that it can be used to increase team focus and productivity. The charter also helps other non-team members and organizational leaders to understand the purpose of the team, allowing them to support the team (Halbert, 2010).
A team charter is more like a job description for the whole team. It shows who the members of a team will be, their responsibilities and interaction with each other. The information in the charter should be clearly defined to reducing rework and enabling the team to get things right on the first attempt. This will consequently provide a solid foundation for success in the project.
Team Charter Recommendations
Several sections of importance should be included in the team charter document. This will be helpful in guiding the team in the right direction and enable them to achieve the team’s objectives.
Team Name
A team name that reflects the group’s project should be chosen. The name will help in building team unity and identifying the team to other members of the organization who are not part of the group. It is important to choose a phrase that is simple and will be easily remembered by everyone.
Team Purpose
The team purpose should define why the team has been formed, the scope of the project, expected outcomes, and duration of the project. This will make the team understand its role in the organization’s work. A well-defined purpose should be enough to make the team aware of its mission and objectives (Halbert, 2010). This will develop a sense of willingness and commitment by the team to making the project a success. The scope sets parameters and defines the beginning and the end of the project. Under the scope, all the business units of the organization that will be included in the project should be listed. The scope is important in identifying tasks that fall within the parameters of the project and minimizing scope creep. The expected outcomes should be clearly stated to allow the team to start working with its objectives in mind. This makes it easy to observe the magnitude of change as the project progresses. Finally, time is a very important factor that should be included in the team charter. In this case, it should be documented that the projected should be completed and be ready for presentation to the executive management of the organization after 90 days. With this in mind, the team members will be able to plan ahead and make sure they beat the deadline.
Membership
The names and departments of all the team members should be listed in the team charter. However, the name of team leader and the names of regular members of the team should be listed separately so as to enhance recognition (Halbert, 2010). Leadership skills and experience should be the only consideration while selecting the team leader. This will address any concerns regarding the leadership of the team as the team member with the most experience in such projects, and best leadership qualities will be selected as the team leader. Without a transparent leader selection process, the chosen leader may not gain the respect of the team.
Ground Rules
The ground rules that will act as the terms of membership should be included in the document to prevent any conflict of interest among the chosen members. The ground rules should include the amount of time every team member will dedicate to the project and their specific role depending on their area of expertise. This will help prevent any team member from being overloaded with too much work while others are being underutilized. There should be a process to measure the work delivered by team members so as to know if they have done their assigned work. This will make team members aware of what is expected of them and also measure the work done fairly. A communication process for feedback and meeting of all team members should also be put in place. Since team members belong to offices in different time zones, the communication process should consider the time difference. This will ensure that all members are aware of any news and progress of the project. Without proper communication, collaboration among team members will fail. Also, the reasons that might validate the resignation or removal of a team member from the team should also be stated. Reasons for resignation may include sickness and reasons for removal may include non-performance or breach of membership terms. This should be accompanied by the replacement process for removed and resigned members. A list of alternate team members should be included in the charter to shorten the replacement process.
Conflict Resolution
A clear decision-making process should be put in place to resolve any conflicts among team members. A conflict within the team will be identified when team members fail to come to consensus regarding a project related issue that is not in stated in the charter. In such a situation, the conflict should be presented to the team leader and analyzed in terms of what are its sources and its impacts on the project. The team leader should then address the conflict by first listening to the opinions of the conflicting parties. This is because this is a joint project comprising of members from different business unit each with a different areas of expertise. Failing to include all members in decision making will lead to project failure since their work is linked. After listening to both sides, the team leader will then make a decision based on what is best for the project. The leader should also explain the decision to the conflicting parties to enhance collaboration between them.
Communications and Collaborations Technology
Communications and collaborations work technology are very critical to organizations that have operations across different time zones. This is because there sometimes scenarios exist where the combination of remote working and co-located working is unavoidable. Employees need to continue working at different geographical locations to avoid inconveniences yet they need to remain updated on other organizational developments. For the companies to be effective in their operations, they need to choose right communications technology to ensure that employees do not miss anything when they are out of the office. The right blend of synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies need to be implemented to promote collaboration between these workers.
Communications and Collaborations Technology Recommendations
For the project to be a success, the team members who are different geographical locations need to communicate regularly. The members who have different roles need to collaborate with each other and report on the project progress. Asynchronous communication is the best type of technology to be used in this situation because it does not require immediate feedback. This type of communication will be useful in for reporting and submitting team members work so that the other members who depend on the work to complete their tasks can easily access them. However, there are certain situations such conflict resolution and problem solving that require synchronous communication. This is because conflict resolution requires the input of all conflicting parties in real time so as to come to provide quick and inclusive solutions. Synchronous communication helps problem solving because sometimes problems arise due to lack of proper understanding of other team member’s work since all the work is related. This type of communication provides a platform where every single member will be present and allows for brainstorming because team members can argue out and explain their points. Since members are from different time zones, the selected time for use of synchronous communication should be such that no one member is greatly inconvenienced.
The best asynchronous communication means that can be used in the completion of the project is an enterprise social network called Jive. Jive is cost effective enterprise social network that cost only $12 a month per user. Jive has a feature that allows the creation of groups and also provides a feature known as structured outcomes that enables workers to tell their peers the tasks that are complete. The advantages of enterprise social networks include enhanced innovation, higher employee engagement, and improved decision-making (Srinivasan, 2011). The major disadvantages of the technology is that may promote inconsistent work contribution from team members, and others may disregard the communication. Also, the lack of immediate feedback may lead to misinterpretation of communication.
For synchronous communication, the most suitable method is video teleconferencing. The main advantage of video teleconferencing includes the creation of meeting environment where people can see and hear each other. The technology also saves on traveling costs and facilitates brainstorming and quick decision-making as multiple people can speak at once (Chibois, 2011). Video conferencing also has the disadvantage of requiring a strong internet connection, a webcam, and microphone. Also, the technology is easily affected by technical glitches.
Conclusion
The team charter is a very important document in ensuring the success of team projects. After the team members and their leader have been selected and the team briefed of their missions and goals. The team members should be left to develop their own ground rules. The right synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies should then be selected to ensure effective collaboration of the team. Jive that is an enterprise social network for asynchronous communication should be used by members to report and submit their work. Teleconferencing that is a synchronous communication should be used for brainstorming and conflict resolution. However, care should be taken while selecting the time for synchronous communication so as to ensure that all team members are available.
References
Chibois, J. (2011, November 18). Advantages and Disadvantages of Teleconferencing in Business Settings. Retrieved December 31, 2016, from Assembly of Information Systems, http://laspic.hypotheses.org/208
Halbert, S. (2010). How to Develop a Team Charter. Retrieved from http://extension.missouri.edu/staff/sdeteams/Documents/ELD2010Documents/Charter%20Guidelines%20(2).pdf
Srinivasan, B. (2011). Enterprise social networking. Retrieved from http://mackinstitute.whaton.upen.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Srinivasan_BhuvanEnterprise-Social-Networking-V6-Mack-Center-Ford-Fellowship.pdf
