Virtual Teams: People Working Across Boundaries with Technology
"Virtual teams and networks?effective, value-based, swiftly reconfiguring, high-performing, cost-sensitive, and decentralized?will profoundly reshape our shared world. As members of many virtual groups, we will all contribute to these ephemeral webs of relationships that together weave our future." ?from Virtual Teams, Second EditionThere are no such things as boundaries in today?s work environment. Virtual teams from all over the world use technologies like the Internet, intranets, and groupware to work together on projects?but the major drawback to these teams is their high failure rate. Virtual Teams examines the numerous problems that arise and provides you with proven techniques to solve them.Written by the two leading experts in networked organizations, this Second Edition shows you how to effectively start, implement, and maintain virtual teams in your own organization. Lipnack and Stamps present a comprehensive framework that makes virtual teams accessible and practical, describing the best practices to use in order to make your group excel.The authors present the 90/10 Rule, which stresses how a virtual team?s success is based 90% on the people involved and 10% on the technology. They also take you through the seven steps that every team must complete in order to achieve their results. These include:Creating a team identityDrafting a mission statement and setting goalsDetermining milestones and establishing a scheduleIdentifying team members and their rolesChoosing the appropriate mediaAlong with the authors? experiences, case studies from Sun Microsystems, Shell Oil, Pfizer, Motorola, Ernst & Young, and others are integrated throughout, offering insights from key executives on virtual teams and adapting to the virtual workplace.With its in-depth look at this increasingly important way to work, Virtual Teams, Second Edition gives you the tools you?ll need to create and build a winning virtual team for your own organization.