A virtual team — also known as a geographically dispersed team (GDT) — is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. Members of virtual teams communicate electronically, as they may never meet face to face.  Many Global teams have team members spread out over the globe. GDT present collaborative challenges which can be overcome with a combination of best practices and Collaboration software.  Here are some special techniques that can be used to manage these virtual teams. #1: Establish team objectives The team members need to know and understand what it is that they are doing together. If they understand only their own role and their own work, they will always just be individual contributors. #2: Remind everyone they are a team If the team members think they are all working independently, they will act independent. If they know they are part of a team working on common objectives and deliverables, they will tend to feel better about their work and be more active in their collaboration with other team members. #3: Establish ground rules Even though the team members may be remote, they still need to exhibit a common and acceptable set of behaviors. In fact, this is probably more important for virtual teams. Ground rules include things like setting the hours during which the team members are expected to be working, establishing lunch times, determining which meetings are mandatory (in-person, Web-based, or via telephone), and defining expectations for communication turnaround times #4: Obtain the right technology I suppose there have always been virtual teams. However, this trend has accelerated in the past few years. The technology is there to support virtual teams — there is really no reason to be without it. This includes fast access to the Internet, audio conferencing, videocams, collaborative software, and shared directories. #5: Look for opportunities to socialize Team members located together have opportunities to socialize throughout the day. Virtual teams don’t usually have this same opportunity to interact with each other, so it is more important for the project manager to look for ways they can bond. This might include getting everyone together one time in a face-to-face setting — perhaps for a project kickoff meeting. #6: Be sensitive to cultural differences It’s possible that your virtual team all thinks and acts the same way. However, more and more virtual teams consist of people from multiple countries and cultures. If you are the project manager on this type of team, make sure you have some appreciation for the differences in how people work and how they behave. #7: Proactive Communication You need to be extra proactive in your communications to make sure everyone understands what is expected. People can start to feel isolated if they do not receive regular communications. It is hard enough to keep everyone informed on a “regular” project. The communication lines on a virtual team must be opened up especially wide. As project manager, you can provide this steady stream of communication. #8: Adjust and compromise on time differences Remember that what’s convenient for you may not always be convenient to the team members. I was on a project team at a large global company where the manager insisted that team meetings start at 9:00 am. That was convenient for him but resulted in hard feeling from people in other locations who needed to stay very late for these meetings. #9: Be extra diligent in workload management Be precise and explicit in assigning work to the virtual team members. You also need to ensure that work is completed on time. #10: Give people shorter assignments This is not the time to give people long assignments and hope that they are completed by the deadline. Instead of assigning a six-week activity, for instance, assign the work in three two-week activities. In the former case, you won’t know for sure if the work was done for six weeks. In the latter case, you can tell every two weeks if the work is on track. Source: TechRepublic