learning about learning….

With an increasingly distributed workforce globally, it has become a critical skill for today’s knowledge worker to be able to work in a virtual team as well as leading it. In the same vein, online learning allows the organisation to train its employees in a timely and cost effective manner.

In fact, the participants in an online programme do not only take away the content, including the concepts and skills, they also learn about working in virtual team as they make contributions to the team-based projects. Not only will they learn about how to get their ideas clearly across to others, i.e. communication skills), they must also be sensitive to the diverse cultural differences which will have an impact on the managing of relationships.

Participants in a virtual team learning programme will realise the importance of distributed leadership at the workplace. Since each individual is an expert in his or her own area, it is important to tap on the rich experiences of all team members. Indeed, in a large scale project, it makes sense to appoint leaders to lead sub-teams based on their expertise.

If the geographical (e.g. time differences), operational (e.g. communication) and relational (e.g. cultural) challenges are managed appropriately in virtual team learning, the participants will be able to continue to build upon the undestanding and rapport that have been established. For instance, if John and Seng were teammates in the virtual team learning programme, they would be able to get started on a work project quickly since they already knew each other. In addition, their earlier collaboration opportunity means that they have some understanding of each other in terms of communication style, working style etc.

Reference: Wickman, L.E. “Virtual Teams in Learning“, Chief Learning Officer (Nov 2008)