Keeping up the spirit in virtual teams

Our way of working has changed considerably over the last few decades. Some days we spend more time in conference calls and video meetings than in live gatherings. Well, brace yourselves, the changes will only accelerate, especially for knowledge workers. Working in virtual teams will become the norm. What I find important is striking the right balance between remote collaboration and seeing each other, face to face.

I vividly remember my first day at Dell, in May 2005. When driving to work, I got stuck in one of the worst traffic jams in the long history of horrible traffic jams in the Netherlands. As I did not own a private cellphone at that moment, I had no way of letting Dell know I would be late. When I arrived, at 11 a.m. instead of 9, I realized I should not have worried: everyone was held up by traffic that day. But still, getting that nice and shiny Blackberry on my first day at the new company, was a big relief.

We have come a long way since then and smartphones have become a commodity. We are now using all kind of tools to communicate and collaborate and most organizations are adopting a borderless and agile culture: teams can work together while meeting face to face only very rarely. It is completely possible to be part of a team with people that you may actually never meet in person. Borders have disappeared and we can work anytime, anyplace and on any device.

Efficiency vs culture

Over the years, I have found that conducting skype calls and video conferences is very efficient. For one thing, if you are working in an international context as I am, conference calls are much cheaper and climate-friendly than flying out to meet everyone. Also, calls that are planned for half an hour, take only half an hour and are strictly business, most of the time. Should we have the same meeting in an office, we would perhaps chat about the weather, some political events, the adventures of our children and so on. Pleasant, for sure, but also necessary, if you ask me: looking each other in the eye creates a different kind of relationship. That’s why I flew out to meet all the country managers reporting into me when I first came into my new regional role. And although most of our contacts are through digital means, I still visit the local management teams as often as possible. Human beings are social animals, and the depth of a relationship is important. It is very much like in our private lives: you may be in contact with your friends through WhatsApp or SMS, but nothing beats meeting them live and hanging out with them.

That’s the kind of balance we need, just like we require balance on other levels. While many argue that we are moving towards a gig economy and we no longer need full-time employees, I believe that you cannot outsource everything to hirelings who hop in to do a project and then disappear. If you want to build a strong culture, like the one we have at Dell, you need a strong core team of dedicated employees.

Youth practices what we preach

In my hometown, I am coach to a hockey team of 16-year-old girls. A sports team is not a virtual team. Before or after a game we can huddle, motivate each other, celebrate together or comfort each other. So far, technology cannot help virtual teams reach the same level of interpersonal interaction. But as new innovations see the light of day, we are slowly but surely getting there. The young people that I am coaching, will shortly bring new ways of collaborating to the workplace. When I look at how my teenage daughters are using new technology to stay in contact with their friends, I am amazed. They are constantly video chatting with each other and have already had long heart-to-heart conversations by the time they meet at school. And even when they are studying in their rooms, they have video windows open and are studying together, asking each other for advice or explanations. I believe they are already practicing the new way of working that many of us are still preaching.

As Dell’s recent Gen Z research clearly shows, the new generation of workers is entering the workforce with a deep understanding of technology and its potential to transform how we work and live. But although 98% of respondents in our survey have used technology as part of their formal education, and 91% say the technology offered by an employer would be a factor in choosing among similar job offers, they are still yearning for personal contact too. In-person communication (43%) is the preferred method for communicating with coworkers, followed by phone (21%). What’s more: more than half (53%) prefer to go to a workplace versus working from home and 58% prefer to work as part of team versus working independently.

Closing the cap

The human-machine partnership is yet another balancing act in the workplace. It is clear that a growing number of structured repeatable tasks will be automated over time. Chances are that some of our coworkers will consist of software powered by Artificial Intelligence and algorithms. Yet here too, we will need to strike a balance. It made me laugh when I read the story of the first Japanese hotel that was fully automated. It was forced to fire some of its robots and replace them by people because humans proved to better at certain tasks than their droid colleagues.

I have high hopes on how emerging technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality will close the gap between personal contacts and digital collaboration. Videoconferencing already allows you to have a better idea of who you are dealing with and, as technology improves, I am quite sure that digital meetings will get a more physical touch, further breaking down barriers. And that is something I am truly looking forward to: combining the efficiency of a virtual team with the human depth and warmth that I feel in coaching my hockey girls.