A Global Case Study in Virtual Teaming: Introduction
A year ago, I was supposed to be in Johannesburg, South Africa. I was finishing up a graduate program that involved short-term residencies. The final one was scheduled for China in May 2020. Well, we knew that wasn’t going to happen. Then we tried to reschedule for South Africa. Our professors made connections with a local business school in Johannesburg, and we had a beautiful South African intensive planned. Then a global pandemic hit.
Like many of you, our class quickly realized that travel wasn’t happening at all. We had to make a decision: go forward with a virtual intensive (which had never been done in the program’s history) or pause our studies. Honestly, I was not a fan of a virtual intensive for several reasons. First, our cohort of 30 students had grown incredibly close in the last 18 months. Our final intensive was meant to close out our experience together. Virtual interactions felt like a cheap alternative. Second, I wanted to go to South Africa! The history of the country drew me close as a social justice advocate. Moving to virtual tours and consulting projects felt like winning the lottery and realizing it was fake money. Finally, I was not excited about designing for a virtual teaming experience. That felt like more work than I was willing and able to offer in the middle of a pandemic. However, we moved forward.
Do you ever feel that way? Like virtual interactions just aren’t enough? Like virtual projects lack the enthusiasm of in-person experiences? Like virtual teaming is just too much work? This is the first blog post in a six-week series about virtual teaming. I am looking back at a global virtual teaming experience that happened early in the pandemic and bringing forward insights for the future. Consider this a global case study. I am defining virtual teaming here as situations where groups of people are tasked with working toward a common goal within a virtual environment. This virtual environment may include all remote participants or a hybrid work environment where some are virtual and others are working from a collective office space.
I’m offering this series as a way to start and continue discussions about virtual teaming in the business environment. The virtual workplace allows us to connect and work locally and globally without leaving our working spaces. Yet, virtual teaming does not come naturally. It requires a special effort within the entire group to build and sustain virtual connections in a new way.
Case Study Overview
The Master of Science in Organization Development (MSOD) program at Pepperdine University includes six short-term residencies, ranging from 10-14 days. The first three are based in the United States. The second three are spread across the globe so that students can experience consulting in different cultural environments.
The final consulting engagement for MSOD cohorts is a culmination for students, measuring their ability to navigate complex cultures and consulting projects. The teaching revolves around the elements and dynamics of large-scale organization change. Specifically, the preparatory work and this virtual consulting engagement followed class studies of organizational agility and design. The addition of a virtual component added potential new skill sets in virtual teaming, virtual meeting facilitation, virtual organization development (OD) consulting, and virtual leadership.
The design and coordination for this event was managed within a trans-organizational system. A Steering Committee composed of Pepperdine MSOD faculty, adjunct faculty known as Learning Group Consultants, and students served as the referent organization for the stakeholders. The students on the Steering Committee were drawn from each of the six Learning Groups that make up the cohort. I was one of the students serving on the Steering Committee with five other students. I’ve asked the following student colleagues to contribute their thoughts to this series:
· Chris Aiken - University Health Network; Leader, Strategy and Planning for People, Culture and Community Portfolio; Toronto, Canada
· Shelly Dhamija – LinkedIn; Product Program Manager; San Jose, California
· Erin Hall – Independent Nonprofit Consultant; University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, Instructor; Charlottesville, Virginia
· Hannah Nichols – Health Leads, Inc.; Director of Organization Development and Effectiveness; Boston, Massachusetts
· Christine Parcells – People Development Professional; San Francisco Bay Area
The six of us became a research team and natural support system for each other during this virtual teaming experience.
In the coming weeks, I will share the situations we faced and steps we designed to navigate a complex and changing situation. This includes gathering stakeholder feedback, dealing with personal impacts from the pandemic, designing an engaging virtual experience, conducting rapid virtual consulting across continents, evaluating a first-time process, and documenting our learnings. This will alternate between academic research and everyday life musings, so buckle up. It’s going to be a fun virtual ride.
Read the next post in this series here.