To be competitive, organizations constantly need to bring together the right mixes of people who, together, have the appropriate set of knowledge, skills, information, and authority to solve problems quickly and easily. Unfortunately, traditional task forces, like traditional organizational structures, have been proven to be ineffective in solving problems quickly. Organizations need flexible teams that can be assembled quickly and can solve problems effectively and efficiently.
Time is of the essence.
Employees may, at times, find themselves on multiple teams, and the life of a team may be very short. In addition, team members must have easy, flexible access to other team members, meeting contexts, and information. Consider the following scenario for a virtual team. To delay solving these problems may mean angering a customer, losing a sale, or promoting an image of poor quality and service in the marketplace. The members of the virtual team must interact quickly to determine how to solve this problem.