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Executive Interviews: Interview with Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps on Building High Performance Teams
May 2009
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
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What kind of organizational
structure, organizational culture and
leadership do you think are required
to achieve the desired results from
virtual teams?
Virtual teams operate within and
between networked hierarchies.
Visible and shared information is
essential for teams to make good
decisions that serve the larger
organization. Leadership is shared as
needed. Virtual teams need more, not
fewer, leaders than traditional face-toface
teams. Cultures must be
conducive to and reward
collaboration, not just individual
work. For what kind of industries/
companies, do you suggest virtual
teams, instead of, face-to-face teams?
Is there any verifiable evidence in this
regard?
Except for those organizations that are
manufacturing tangible stuff that truly
requires hands-on expertise (not to be
too flip, but brain surgery, cooking
dal, raising chickens), all industries
can benefit from virtual working.
However, even brain surgeons can be
observed and aided by true experts
from afar! Even dal-cookers can learn
fromchefs at a distance! Even farmers
can and do share best practices
online! In your article, you have
highlighted three principles/rules that
guided the virtual teams of your
research? Can you please elaborate on
these three rules highlighting the
efficacy of each of the rule?
Exploiting diversity is most evident
by the increase in innovation that is
possible when people can work
together without being collocated,
which always limits who can be
involved. Technology is used to
simulate reality, like conference calls,
which support communication at a distance, but the real benefit comes
with the use of persisting,
“asynchronous” tools, such as team
rooms and wikis that support shared
memory. Hold the team together by a
constant stream of communication
using multiple media, not just one
collaboration tool of choice. Do you think the current economic
times have necessitated more of
virtual teams?
Yes. The times require less travel to
do more work with fewer people. We
believe this may be the watershed
point when virtual teams become the
mainstream way to work. The world is in the midst of an
unprecedented crisis created by a few
greedy investment bankers. The
effects of this crisis are quite
pronouncing.What is the importance
of team work and high performance
in such troubled times?
Teamwork is critical and this is a real,
immediate, compelling opportunity
for us to perfect our virtual working
skills. It underscores the trust that is
so vital to launching and sustaining
virtual teams, a quality sorelymissing
in conventional organizations,
especially those most responsible for
the crisis. And, it reinforces the need
for transparency, not only for
building trust but also for sharing the
information required for distributed
teams to make smart, informed
decisions. What according you are high
performance teams? What are their
unique characteristics? Can you give
examples of a few companies that
have created and nurtured high
performance teams?
The US Army is an unlikely
exemplar of high-performing teams.
These teams have the qualities of
shared vision, trust, competence, and
confidence – the emphasis here is on
the “shared” part. What propels these
teams beyond the conventional
bounds is the use of information
technology and knowledge
management while practicing the shared qualities of high performance.
Our own experience of working
closely with ProdEx, a software
development company with a teamof
engineers in Chennai, on a complex
project without a single conference
call points to how important virtual
working is for small companies as
well as large ones.
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