46
Geotechnical News • June 2012
ASFE NEWS
ing them yourself. The folks who can
tell you what a benefit they’ve recently
realized are:
James M. “Jim” Handanyan, P.E.
North Attleboro, Massachusetts
Robert John “John” Byrne, Ph.D.
Redmond, Washington
Business 101
Technology has made virtual teams
far more common, if only to deal with
many workers’ desire to telecommute
at least one or two days a week. Man-
aging a virtual team is far different
from managing a “real” team, how-
ever, creating new challenges for those
who are far more comfortable with
“old-school” situations. The virtual-
team manager’s challenge is to make
the virtual team a real team, to achieve
communication, cooperation, coordi-
nation, collaboration, innovation, and
satisfaction.
In her book
A Manager’s Guide to Vir-
tual Teams
, author Yael Zofi identifies
eight fundamental characteristics of
high-performing virtual teams. Those
who manage virtual teams could strive
to achieve these characteristics:
• Team members look outward
where they can identify a com-
mon goal. Once team members
have a shared goal, they can share
in development, refinement, and
maintenance of the mechanisms
needed to get from here to there.
The process creates buy-in, mutual
respect, and realization that a team
effort will be required to get the
job done sell.
• Team members realize they
all are vital
when it comes to
achieving the common goal. They
understand that they are mutually
dependent, thus engendering the
mutual respect that leads to self-
respect within the team environ-
ment. Self-respect helps overcome
the isolation that can otherwise
occur in a virtual environment.
• Team members value the candor
needed to create an atmosphere
of trust and authenticity,
thus
helping to counter the miscom-
munication problems that are more
frequent in virtual situations. Team
members need to focus on behav-
iors, not personalities; all need to
“walk the talk.”
• Team members exhibit a “can-
do” attitude
based on the idea
that, if everyone does what they
are supposed to do when they are
supposed to, all will share in proj-
ect success. When conflicts occur,
they should stem principally from
the desire to get the job done well;
i.e., differences of opinion about
which approach will be best for
all. In the case of other problems –
e.g., failure to deliver X when due
– the goal would be to establish
a work-around rather than assign
blame.
• A project plan is essential
,
especially when team members
are geographically dispersed. All
need to contribute to achieve a
coordinated work plan designed to
achieve the desired outcome ahead
of schedule and under budget, thus
creating cushion to account for
issues that may not and/or could
not have been considered in plan-
ning.
• Team members have access
to various technologies to
enable the reliable information
exchanges
need to achieve an
easy information flow; all team
members must have access to
appropriate technology, too. The
flow should rely more on “pulled”
data (e.g., websites and e-bulletin
boards) than “pushed” informa-
tion (unfiltered e-mails and phone
calls).
• Team members hold one another
accountable for communicating
meaningfully
, in part by creat-
ing and maintaining protocols for
when communication will occur
(e.g., every X-many days or weeks
and/or when certain millstones
are reached) and the modes of
communication that will be used.
Team members should speak with
one another synchronously at
critical times, be they scheduled or
unscheduled.
• Conflicts, while inevitable, are
kept to a minimum
, because they
can rapidly erode the trust that is
essential to smooth-functioning
virtual teams. The virtual-team
manager needs to be able to iden-
tify potential conflicts and work
to deter their realization. When
conflicts become real, the virtual-
team manager needs to encourage
positive outlooks and work to
resolve the disagreement. Ideally,
those who are in conflict should be
able to resolve the matter on their
own. The manager needs to follow
up to ensure that is the case. The
focus needs to be on what’s best
for the team.
Dr. English
Given that most geoprofessional
instruments of professional service
– proposals, reports, and messages
delivered via memo, e-mail, and texts
– rely on the written word, geoprofes-
sionals need to be masters of their
language. For that reason, the Fun-
damentals of Professional Practice
program emphasizes proper language
use. Everything participants write
is reviewed and commented on, and
“everything” includes e-mails that
commonly begin with just the recipi-
ent’s name; e.g., John. or Mr. Doe. The
FOPP reviewer in those cases circles
the salutation in blood-red ink and
marks it “41A.” The number refers to
item 41A in the
You Need To Improve
Your Writing Skills
guidance document
that is part of the course. Item 41A
states:
In conventional correspondence,
people usually write
Dear Name
followed by a colon (in business)
or a comma (when the letter is
more personal, like a thank-you
