Training for Virtual Teams

Research shows that global teams are less effective than they would like to be because of the virtual nature of their work, and more fail than succeed because of the following challenges:

• Coordinating the logistics of teamwork across time and place

• Establishing effective work relationships without face-to-face contact

• Leading team members who are geographically dispersed

• Using virtual team technology

• Misunderstandings due to cultural and other differences

The Nomadic High Performance Virtual Team training suite is the first programme of its kind that addresses each of these issues in-depth. Through a series of facilitated, interactive modules delivered in a virtual classroom, participants practice and strengthen key virtual teaming competencies while at the same time becoming more skilled at collaborating effectively in an online environment. Special emphasis is given to leveraging the cultural diversity of the team, which is one of the biggest hurdles for high performance in geographically dispersed teams.

 

Training Designs

To increase the impact of the training solutions we offer we first establish the exact training needs of our clients. During the needs assessment phase we conduct interviews with people from the targer audiance, the project sponsors within the organization and the stakeholders. The outcome is a fully customized program that fits the culture and the business environment of the client. Depending on the needs the design can be completely virtual or a blended design where face to face training and virtual training sessions are combined.

Sample of a blended design:

 

Outcomes

• Increased performance, more focus on the team’s task and result

• Less time wasted on misunderstandings

• Productive instead of destructive conflict

• Better use of talent, knowledge and experience across the organisation

• More alignment between team members

• Increased motivation for team members

 

Special Features

• Double-level learning: as the training takes place in a virtual classroom, participants learn not only from what is presented but also from how things are run in the virtual environment

• Highly interactive: we make full use of the features available in the virtual environment to engage our participants

• Research-based content: the modules’ content is based on most recent research on effective virtual working

• Cross-cultural expertise: an international team of facilitators and coaches who are experts in working virtually and across cultures will share first-hand experiences with the participants

• Sustainable results: all participants have access to the Nomadic Cybrary, where tools, checklists, blogs and forums are available

• Learning circle: participants can join a virtual peer group focused on exchanging experiences and learning from each other

 

Benefits

Besides the high impact virtual training has due to double-level learning, it is also a huge cost saver. Take a look at the following example of the average cost of a typical two day face to face training program for a global group of 12 participants:

This means that:

• Delivering a two day training programme virtually instead of face to face can lead to an immediate cost saving of more than 20.000 Euro

• During the average time of 12 hours that a participant is travelling back and forth to the training location, he or she could have attended online training sessions

• Virtual training saves money, time, the environment and puts less strain on employees

• Carbon footprint: no greenhouse gas emissions from travel

 

Contact us now

Are you interested in our training soluations for virtual teams? Would you like to find out what we can do for you? Fill in the contact form you see on the upper right corner of this page and we will get in touch with you shortly.