Page 261 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

240 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

Adjourning
One of the goals of any organization—and any leader—is to build
organizational capacity. Therefore it’s important for teams that have
completed their task to learn from their activity and also to continue
building the opportunity for future collaboration. In a virtual envi-
ronment, teams can be formed and disbanded quickly, and you never
know when you’ll have the opportunity to work with someone again.
So it’s in everybody’s best interest to maintain relationships, even after
the team has adjourned.

` keys to deVelopIng VIrtuAl teAms—
kIt Brown-hoekstrA

Kit Brown-Hoekstra has worked with virtual teams all over the world.
She is an award-winning author and recently coauthored Managing
Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wiki’s Blogs and Other Collabora-
tive Tools. Her book is a “how-to” that gives detailed instructions on
everything from project planning, to collaborating in troubleshooting,
to conducting reviews, to evaluating virtual team tools. We asked her
what was most important for leaders to know about managing virtual
teams. 12

you Can’t Be expert in everything
Technology is changing too fast for anyone to keep up with all of
it. “The key is [to surround] yourself with people who are savvy in
certain areas and who have the knowledge that they can take and
extrapolate into a strategic perspective,” says Kit. Social media may be
the hot button now, she thinks, but that will change with the next big
thing. Managers, especially high-level ones, need to know what the
tools can do, and what their limitations are, so they can manage their
team more effectively. Nevertheless, they should trust the tools gurus
on their teams to create an effective virtual work space.