Cyberspace Accountability
Article | Accountability Insights
Virtual teams are becoming more and more prevalent as organizations strive to build global presence; reduce costs associated with travel, relocation, and office space; promote home offices; attract and retain key talent; and outsource select functions. However, managing dispersed teams operating across time zones, geographical borders, cultural differences, and organizational functions presents new challenges, especially when it comes to establishing and maintaining accountability. So when people only see each other in person once or twice a year, they must learn to embrace and cultivate a new dynamic that fosters virtual or cyberspace accountability. Here are a few suggestions:
| • | Establish periodic alignment meetings. This is important because in a virtual workplace you can’t just walk down the hallway and have a conversation. These meetings are cyberspace “time outs” when you talk or iChat about “what” needs to be done as well as about “how” and “why” you are doing it. | |
| • | Fight against “accountability by proximity.” We need to be more conscious and deliberate in the virtual world to not only manage accountability with those closest to us, but to also identify our Expectations Chain and manage the Accountability Connections along the entire chain. | |
| • | Make more of a point to seek feedback. Feedback creates accountable people and accountable people seek feedback. In the virtual world, if you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it. Use video chats to facilitate feedback. There is no substitute for seeing one another face to face, albeit virtually. IM, email, and the telephone can work, but they are often less effective. | |
| • | Use the complimentary assessments offered on www.partnersinleadership.com to help gather feedback from your virtual coworkers. They can serve as “check-ins” about how things are going. You can also find out about our new set of virtual accountability tools available on our industry-first blended learning platform, PILtools.com. |
Remote teams, operating with strong and robust virtual accountability, can bring enormous advantages and benefits to the organization, including drawing upon a wider pool of talent, 24/7 availability, increased efficiency, improved performance, reduced need for real estate and office space, greater agility, and higher levels of engagement and fulfillment among workers. But don’t forget, achieving success through virtual teams depends primarily on how well you establish and maintain accountability for achieving results.
Expectations Chain and Accountability Connections are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc.