Mastering some of the communication challenges in

geographically dispersed teams

Sjur LarsenProject manager, the Norwegian Corporate University

Researcher & PhD candidate (sociology), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

PhD dissertation

Developing the conditions enabling the effectiveness of internationally dispersed project teams

The Norwegian Corporate University(BedriftsUniversitetet)

An incorporated company, co-owned by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Norwegian School of Management, the University of Oslo, and the Foundation for Technical and Industrial Research (SINTEF).

The Norwegian Corporate University: Purpose

To offer tailored training programs or courses, with or without credits, to companies and public sector organizations with competence from the owner institutions.

“Cooperation and Cooperation Technologies”

Newly developed course at NTNU, a part of the “Organization, Information, and Management” Masters degree program at NTNU

Tailored specifically to the needs of internationally dispersed project teams in Hydro Automotive Structures

In charge at NTNU: professor Per Morten Schiefloe (sociology) and professor Eric Monteiro (information science)

“Cooperation and Cooperation Technologies”: learning goals

• Provide understanding of central conditions for cooperation, including cooperation and interaction in cooperative situations.

• Provide understanding of conditions for the development of effective teams.

• Provide an overview of different kinds of cooperative situations and tasks.

“Cooperation and Cooperation Technologies”: learning goals

• Provide an overview of different kinds of cooperation technologies

• Provide an overview of what cooperation technologies are useful for what purposes

• Reflect on possibilities and constraints related to uses of existing cooperation technologies in one’s own organization, and finding more effective and useful ways of using these technologies.

Geographically dispersed teams

Virtual teamsDispersed teamsInternational teamsInternationally dispersed teamsGlobally dispersed teamsGlobal teamsGlobal virtual teams

Reasons for explosive growth in geographically dispersed teamwork

• Advances in computing and telecommunications

• Increase in work from home.

• Utilizing personnel from different sites – after M&As

– in strategic alliances between companies

Reasons for explosive growth in geographically dispersed teamwork

• Globalization- The need for close customer contacts on a

global scale and subsequently increased reliance of companies on resources outside their home country

- Maintaining a 24-hour work cycle

Reasons for explosive growth in geographically dispersed teamwork

• Fierce competition and exponential growth of information creates a need to integrate cross-functional, cross-cultural, and cross-organizational know-how and expertise.

• Companies can pull in outside resources for a project without adding people to the payroll.

Why does communication become more difficult in dispersed collaboration?

Communication becomes less frequent when people are working apart.

The 30 meter rule: When the distance between workplaces increases to about 30 meters or more, the communication frequency among individuals drops considerably. If two people reside more than 30 meters apart, they may as well be across the continent. After 30 meters, they are mentally distant because they are in different work state: out of sight, out of mind.

We (the good and trustworthy ones) and the (not so good and trustworthy) “others”

The global-local dilemma

8

Team Member’s Perspective

Global Local

or

Global and LocalAligned Together

(Janice Klein,MIT)

The global-local dilemma and “human nature”

The hierarchy of priorities of the human being:1. Oneself2. One’s family3. One’s friends and local community4. The “others” (e.g., people at other

organizational units)

Why does communication become more difficult in dispersed collaboration?

Due to less frequent communication, it takes longer time to correct misunderstandings, and dysfunctional views of the “others” at other locations.

“There are some things that one takes for granted in collocated teams, that you don’t think consciously about, for instance small talk where you solve many problems by talking quickly to one another. In distributed teams you often don’t have the mechanisms for solving things that rapidly” (manager).

Finding common ground in dispersed collaboration

Effective communication depends on establishing “mutual knowledge.”

Mutual knowledge is knowledge that the parties to a communication share in common, sometimes referred to as “common ground.”

Catherine Durham Cramton (2002). “Finding Common Ground in Dispersed Collaboration”. Organizational Dynamics, 30(4), pp. 356-367.

Finding common ground in dispersed collaboration

When assessments of “common ground” or “mutual knowledge” are accurate, communication is more likely to be understood as intended.

Mutual knowledge

Mutual knowledge is a building block of successful communication and coordinated activity.

Without it, people speak and understand what is said on the basis of their own information and interpretation of the situation, often assuming incorrectly that the other speaks and understands on the basis of that same information and interpretation.

Mutual knowledge

In face-to-face communication, it usually is easy to sort out this kind of confusion.

However, working from different locations increases the likelihood that people will have different information and not know it.

Mutual knowledge

Still worse, electronic means of communication make it difficult to discover and resolve such misunderstandings quickly.

Even when misunderstandings are discovered, damage to working relationships tends to linger.

Mutual knowledge

Failure to establish mutual knowledge can damage trust and destroy collaboration.

Problems in the exchange of information in dispersed work groups

1) Failures to communicate and remember information about context

2) Uneven distribution of information

3) Differences in what information is salient to sender and receiver

4) Differences in speed and timing

5) Uncertainty about the meaning of silence

Cramton (2002)

Uneven distribution of information

“When you work in the same place you are continuously updated on things that happen, and then you don’t need that much explanation of the things under discussion. You can only say, “The profile we discussed on Monday, how are things going with that?” When you are doing things with Germany you often have to sum up the discussions from the last time, what profile we are talking about, and so on. It is not impossible that this can be solved and improved by having a more continuous dialogue. I think that some of the reason why this happens, is that you have a limitation on how often you communicate, how often you get in touch with one another. And because it necessarily does not occur as often as you would do if people were in the same location, the number of events that have happened in the meantime increases. And this requires a more extensive update to a person you are to communicate with the next time in order to get the right answer. This makes the dialogue more difficult, and you may avoid getting in touch, and so you get into a circle” (project manager).

The meaning of silence

One of the biggest challenges faced by dispersed team members in Cramton’s (2002) study was interpreting the meaning of their partners’ silence.

The meaning of silence

I agree.I strongly disagree.I am indifferent.I am out of town.I am having technical problems. I don’t know how to address this sensitive issue.I am busy with other things.I did not notice your question.I did not realize that you wanted a response.

Silence halts the process of establishing mutual knowledge

The meaning of silence is ambiguous. Silence might signify meanings as wide-ranging as agreement, disagreement or indifference, or in dispersed collaborations it may mean only that a message was undelivered.

Silence halts the process of establishing mutual knowledge

Silence halts the process of determining what information others do and do not know and what conclusions they have drawn. Partners can interpret silence differently and not know this is the case.

Guidelines for practice

Leaders of newly formed teams whose members will be working from dispersed locations are typically advised to bring the team members together for a face-to-face meeting at least once at the outset in order to build relationships and trust.

A good idea, but does not adequately address the problems of mutual knowledge.

Guidelines for practice

It is better for people who will collaborate remotely to visit each other’s locations at least once.

This gives them an opportunity to see how a partner’s situation differs from one’s own and to absorb details that a partner may neglect to mention, as well as allowing partners to get to know each other better.

Guidelines for practice

In designing and launching dispersed teams, leaders should give careful attention to the communication system and norms. They should educate team members about the pitfalls of failing to share situational information and making assumptions about remote partners and locations.

Team leaders should monitor the effectiveness of communication processes across locations as a regular part of their job.

Guidelines for practice

Members of dispersed teams and people communicating via computer mediation should resist making assumptions about the situation and constraints of remote others.

Instead, they should actively seek out such information.

One also should take care to explain one’s own situation to remote partners, and try to see it through their eyes.

Guidelines for practice:keeping all team members informed

Ideally, all members of a dispersed team should be sent the same information.

Purpose: to provide each member with an accurate picture of the pace of activity in the collaboration, including any differences in pace among subgroups.

If there is a risk of information overload, adjustments to this principle should be made.

Guidelines for practice:keeping all team members informed

“I like to stay informed about what is happening in the projects I am working on. The very best project managers are those who keep me involved even about information on the status in projects that is not relevant for me. The messages should have headings that clearly tell what the message is about. Then it is easier to choose quickly what messages are important to read…. Some project managers don’t give any such information on a continuous basis. All of a sudden they might need something. Then I have to go to the customer to understand what they want, and I have to be updated about the status in the project. The most important in the job of a project manager is to ensure that the people who are to contribute get the information they need” (team member).

Guidelines for practice:keeping all team members informed

“Sometimes, for 5-6 weeks I don’t hear anything from the project. I would have appreciated to receive a report or update from the project manager, say, every other week, concerning the status in the project, what is the next step, and where we are in the project phase. I receive drawings with suggestions for changes from the project manager of product development. After receiving this, it is often completely quiet for several weeks. I need to know more about what is going on in order to be able to plan my time better. I have periods when I have very much to do, and other periods that are more quiet. I would have preferred to receive a message, say, a week in advance, that I will be receiving a drawing the following week” (team member).

Guidelines for practice

Establish clear understandings about how often remote teammates will check for and respond to messages.

When people suffer through unexpected silence on the part of a remote partner, they often draw inaccurate conclusions that linger even after communication resumes.

Guidelines for practice

Providing prompt feedback, even just a few words, can help people involved in dispersed collaboration feel each other’s presence, detect errors, and correct inaccurate interpretations and attributions.

Investigate ambiguous or unusual messages and occurrences before drawing conclusions, because of the many sources of uncertainty inherent in communication across distance and via technology.

In conclusion

Effective collaboration requires common ground. Establishing common ground without the advantages of shared location and face-to-face communication is a central challenge of dispersed collaboration.

Individuals and groups that wish to carry out stable, effective collaborations across space and time need to recognize and understand this challenge.

Co-located work and its challenges…