Leading Virtual Teams in the Agile World : How Mastering the Basics Makes It Easier to Lead More Successful Virtual Teams

Who Should Attend/Prerequisites

This workshop is suitable for people working on virtual teams, meaning teams with members from more than one:

• Internal Organization
• Location
• Time zone
• Discipline
• Company
• Culture
• Country

Class Size Limit: 100 (Minimum 15)

Course Overview

In this rare public workshop, you'll spend the day learning directly from the world's leading expert on virtual teams, Jessica Lipnack, CEO of NetAge. Co-author of "the definitive book" on the topic, Virtual Teams, and co-author of "Can Absence Make the Team Grow Stronger?" - the landmark Harvard Business Review article on "far-flung" teams - Jessica will take you through the fundamentals.

Based on many years working directly with virtual teams around the world (including at Apple, GE, Pfizer, Shell, Volvo, UN, and US Army), Jessica brings the first-hand experiencefrom a variety of industries and sectors.

Here's Jessica's perspective: anyone, regardless of personality type, leadership style, or familiarity with technology, can successfully lead virtual teams. All it takes is understanding a few simple ideas and knowing how and when to apply them.

You'll spend the day mastering the concepts and tools required to lead in this new and rewarding way. And you'll come away more confident, convinced, and capable of leading people at a distance.

In this session, you'll learn:

    * A simple model for leading virtual teams that's used in organizations around the world
    * What really works for getting projects done when people are not face-to-face
    * What causes virtual teams to fail and how you, as leader, can avoid those pitfalls
    * How to assess where your virtual team is strong and where it needs improvement
    * How to conduct a truly successful conference call that people look forward to attending
    * How to turn your team into a "high performing virtual team"  

After attending this workshop, you'll be able to:

    * Lead virtual teams with more confidence
    * Communicate more effectively with your team
    * Quickly diagnose and address problems when things go wrong
    * Probably travel less -- because you won't have to

Why take this course? It used to be so easy. Call a meeting and everyone would show up. Launch a new initiative and you could bring everyone together. But no more. Work has changed so radically in the past ten years and even more dramatically in the past twelve months that face-to-face is the exception rather than the norm. Outsourcing, homesourcing, flex-time, partnerships, and, yes, layoffs have left fewer people in the traditional office. Nowhere is the need for mastering the principles of virtual teaming more critical than in the agile world, with its imperative to worker faster and smarter.

You'll learn the fundamentals of leading teams at a distance, the key skill for agile development in the new world of distributed work. The art of leading virtual teams requires all the expected competencies of managers—and then some. The quick footwork required by agile development can pick up speed when done at a distance, providing you become proficient with the best methods and tools for virtual team leadership.

Read what others who've taken Jessica's workshops say:

"Thanks for sharing your very practical solutions, energy, and humor with participants ..Your passionate commitment to great communication is evident. You brought not only valuable learning but real joy to the group; truly, you were empowering." -- Liz Barron, Director, Leadership Programs, The Brookings Institution

"The excellent program you facilitated for our team will be a big part of the satisfaction ratings...I was especially impressed with the really effectve - and relevent - combination of practical, pragmatic tips, and powerful philosophy to guide how we build and sustain our organizational teams." -- VP, Human Resources, Global Insurance Company

"Jessica spoke to our Knowledge Management Forum about virtual teams and we could not get enough. She knows her stuff and knows how to share it with a rare combination of style and humor.” -- Brian Hackett, Partner, Apex Performance

"Jessica posesses incomparable experience in virtual teams and networked organizations. This together with her great personality made her a great mentor and source of inspiration." -- Lennart Warmlind, Business Development Manager, Sigma AB Consulting, Sweden

Agenda

Agenda:
During the day, we'll intersperse short lectures with exercises that you can take back to your organizations and use immediately:

• What does it mean to work in the Age of the Network?             
• The 50-foot Rule                     
• What Is a Virtual Team?                  
• Gauging Your Team's Virtual Index
• The Challenges and Advantages of Virtual Teams          
• Three Rules for Virtual Teams
• Applying the Virtual Team Assessment             
• Crafting Useful Operating Agreements for Virtual Teams         
• Understanding the Virtual Team Model: People, Purpose, Links, Time          
• Improving Your Conference Calls                  
• Deciding When to Go Virtual
• How Do You Take the Learning Home?

Cost:

$695 per attendee.