As Laurence Fishburne says to Neo “Welcome to the Real” referring to the real world as opposed to the dream world in the film ‘The Matrix’. This links nicely to the subject of this blog which is the effective management of virtual teams through matrix management systems - something nearly as complex as the film itself!
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A ‘virtual’ team refers to groups of people who work together across space, time and organisational silos. Matrix management is the term used to identify people who report into more than one line manager. People managing virtual teams using a matrix management process are often as baffled and challenged as Neo was in the film. If matrix management is difficult for the manager, it is even more so for the people who make up a virtual team.
Frequently matrix management and virtual teams run together as the team members have more than one manager and more than one task. However, on occasions, virtual teams are put together for one task/project and have one manager although all the team members might be in different locations or even different countries with different time zones. Confused? Well that’s the way many virtual team members feel most of the time.
Putting yourself in the shoes of someone who works in a virtual team will help to understand some of those challenges. Start by thinking about the best team you have ever worked with - how did you get on? what did you achieve? what made you so effective?
It was probably something to do with team dynamics, the way people interacted, playing to each others’ strengths and weaknesses; perhaps a strong sense of ‘we are in it together’, good humour, and a great work ethic? Now imagine that you had to do the same tasks but the members of that team have never met, they work in different countries and time zones and ask yourself just how effective would that team have been in those circumstances?
Ironically the answer to the challenges matrix management presents is surprisingly simple to summarise although exceedingly complex to deliver. As the character of Morpheus says in the film (if you haven’t watched the film you should): “I can give you the answer but you need to see for yourself.” The answer to good matrix management can be identified in three words; communication, communication, communication!
Told you it was easy. Now think about the challenges - firstly who do you as the manager need to communicate with? Unsurprisingly, it’s likely to involve a number of interactions, including:
1. Members of the team as individuals - they need your time.
2. Members of the team in various groups.
3. Members of the team as a whole - not possible? Make it possible.
4. The primary manager (if that isn’t you) of those in the team - you both need to understand the workload of individuals reporting to you or one, or even both, of you may be disappointed.
5. Team members also need to communicate with each other, perhaps in different countries and time zones - you need to facilitate this.
Of all the above, the most neglected is communication with other managers who have some degree of responsibility for the team members you are working with. Remember in many organisations where matrix management is the norm, there may in fact be more than one other manager involved. You must communicate with these managers collectively in order to understand the workload being placed on the individual - you can’t just rely on that individual to tell you. People find it easier to say ‘yes’ than ‘no’ and before you know it they are overloaded and struggling, making them feel overly stressed and pressured and resulting in quality and performance issues and deadlines being missed
Your task is therefore not just to communicate - hard enough for many managers - but to ensure that communication takes place effectively and frequently.
So how can you achieve this goal? Well if cost is not an issue, you might use a mix of trains, planes and automobiles to get everyone to a central location on a regular basis - great, but not realistic for most businesses. IT therefore becomes king, and let’s face it, it is available, it just needs coordinating. Skype, conference calling, video conferencing, are all pretty mainstream, and slightly official.
Internal communication systems such as Yammer and Chatter (and there are many, many more) allow for greater collaboration and in theory should encourage teamwork and knowledge sharing as the purpose is to enable employees to converse, collaborate and connect through real-time conversation. The nature of social media means that anyone can participate in discussions, allowing communication to flow from the top down, bottom up, and even from side to side. If you are part of a global company it also means you can connect with people all over the world on a more involved level than just email and phone.
But as with all things, it takes the buy-in of everyone, including managers, (see our earlier blog: Leaders and social media: a question of fight or flight?) for it to be used truly effectively and for the real benefit to be achieved.
Whatever the communication strategies you as the manager bring into play, arguably it will never be able to replicate the atmosphere created by a good, well-developed team working together in one location.
The question is how close can you get to it? The challenge, as it was for Neo, is to make it real!
(Blog post written by Chris Channer)
