Continuous Improvement Resources
at Arizona State University

Articles

Virtually Trusting: Creating Team Trust Virtually

Tips for Building Trust in Virtual Teams
“What do you think he meant by that?” It’s tough to create trust in cyberspace without being able to see people’s faces… but it can be done.
AQP; News For A Change; January 2002

As a result of global competition and advances in technology, virtual teams have exploded as a type of work group—nearly two-thirds of organizations in the United States utilize virtual teams to execute business strategies. Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel are examples of multinational companies that rely on teams, which interact electronically to run their everyday business. Within those organizations, company management, including top executives, are distributed geographically.

Virtual Teams Defined

“We need to work together as if we were all in the same room, although we’re not.”
Going Virtual, Grenienr & Meres

Virtual teams—also known as a geographically dispersed team (GDT)—are a group of individuals who work together on tasks, maintain healthy relationships to support the tasks, and are enabled by the use of technology to transcend barriers they encounter. Virtual team members have complementary skills, are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

While much has been written about virtual teams, there is a shortage of practical tips and techniques for developing trust on virtual teams. The remainder of this article contains best practices for building and maintaining trust in virtual settings.

Building Trust

“An understanding of people and relationships requires an understanding of trust. Trust requires the coexistence of two converging beliefs—competency and caring. When I believe you are competent and that you care about me, I will trust you.”
Team Handbook, Peter Scholtes

In all successful relationships trust is at the foundation. For teams to be successful they need to build their relationships carefully and intentionally. Trust is often the result of members’ working through complex teaming issues and knowing that each person can be counted on to complete his or her portion of the task.

Virtual teams with high levels of trust tend to share three traits:

1. They got to know one another before they focused on the work.
2. Roles were clearly defined for all members.
3. Members consistently displayed enthusiasm, eagerness, and proactive communication.

Team-level strategies for an atmosphere of trust include:

• Discuss as a team why trust is important.
• Maintain focus on problems, not people.
• Follow through—do what you say you will.
• Provide substantive feedback to improve the content of others’ work.
• Stay true to your team. Don’t make disparaging remarks in public places!

Characteristics of Trust

The following individual characteristics help build trust:

• Clear communication (expressing thoughts clearly, orally and in writing).
• Honesty (telling the truth).
• Vulnerability (willingness to share strengths and weaknesses).
• Self-disclosure (sharing personal information, thoughts, and beliefs).
• Valuing others (respecting team members whether they are different or alike).
• Sense of humor (keeping a healthy perspective even when stressed).
• Awareness (being attuned to others’ needs, perceptions, and reactions).
• Involving others (drawing out others, asking for ideas, input, and feedback).
• Accepting others (valuing differences and unique characteristics).
• Loyalty (commitment to team goals and team members).

Clear, Concise Communication

Virtual team members must learn to excel as active communicators. Their survival depends on their ability to exchange information despite the challenges of time and place.

Virtual teams must pay close attention to how the team communicates. Members must be clear, conscious, and explicit in their communication. Whether they are speaking on the phone, using voice-to-voice or voice mail, sending a fax, writing an e-mail, or asking a question in person, their communication must be responsive, clear, and complete.

Meeting Preparation

Teams that don’t have the benefit of regular daily interactions require more meeting management and explicit focusing than traditional teams. The team leader should hold mandatory team conference calls (weekly or monthly). If people are located in different time zones, vary meeting times to minimize each member’s level of inconvenience.

Once the meeting has been scheduled, send the agenda with the time, place, call-in number, meeting ID, and other materials ahead of time. Don’t consider holding a meeting without an agenda that includes start and stop time frames for each topic.

Leading Meetings

Use regular (weekly, bimonthly, or monthly) conference call meetings to share progress, provide updates, review priorities, challenges, or opportunities, and to motivate team members and maintain team identity.

During the first team meeting, have the team develop a set of ground rules or group norms. Once developed, the rules serve as a barometer for the team to assess the group process and provide feedback on meetings.

Keep the meetings focused and on topic, using a facilitator, timekeeper, or both. To keep topics from drifting; rotate responsibility for the roles so that all members have an opportunity to increase their skills in meeting management. Leave time at the end of the meeting for feedback about the meeting and to solicit input for agenda items for the next meeting.

Remain conscious of the communication medium, replacing unavailable facial expressions with clear statements (e.g., “That remark makes me smile.”). Schedule time during each call for a check-in, an informal process where each member takes a few moments to update the team on how things are going. Check-ins are a way to build the team and get to know one another on a personal level.

Identify yourself when speaking if more than two people are on the call and there is any uncertainty about voices. Remember time zone differences when referring to times, especially when scheduling a meeting. Be specific, indicate that the next meeting will be at 9:00 a.m., and include whether that is EST, MST, PST, etc.

Follow Through

Virtual team members must be persistent in obtaining information they need. They need to make clear requests of one another. For example, “Please respond to this message by sending an urgent voice mail no later than Friday noon, MST.” instead of “Please get back to me as soon as possible.