Teaming in the New Virtual World

Teaming in virtual space is challenging all of us, but recent Grove experience with teaching our Team Performance System online has left us excited and optimistic that real jumps in learning can happen in this format. In a recent certification workshop conducted for a client, participants expressed their sense of improvement in relationship building and team productivity through the use of high-engagement online activities.

Our certification workshop focuses on some key takeaways. We want people to 1) become fluent with the Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model® (Model) and the predictable challenges of teaming; 2) learn the Team Performance Survey and its graphic report for team self-assessment; 3) identify best practices for improvement; and 4) experience teaming and relationship building throughout. The virtual version adds 5) directly experiencing successful virtual work.

As it turns out, some activities actually are easier in virtual space than in face-to-face workshops. One is creating learning puzzles in Mural with graphic templates and sticky-note elements. Another is using graphic feedback functions to do easy consensus checking and dot voting. We also found that breakout groups work very smoothly using Zoom, and participants can be invited into one big Mural room so that the summary and feedback sessions reveal each team’s work to the other teams.

One activity that was particularly successful when done virtually involved asking team members to assess their working styles on a set of five continuum questions by putting a sticky note with their initials on their preferred choices (see below). The activity was fun, and the discussion was rich, leading to many insights on group norms.

We are also blending work from our published Team Leader Guide, which is full of best practices keyed to stages of the Model, with breakouts and discussion online. Below is an example of a small group mapping virtual teaming best practices to the Model.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to discuss arranging an online Team Performance workshop for your organization. We are also now offering a public Online Team Performance Workshop.