Emergence

Welcome to Satellite News. I have emerged from a transitionary year - emotionally moving from a long and extensive career in the corporate world through a year of isolating yet mind awakening study, to now. (By the way what an exciting journey this has been)

I've had the time to reflect on what really excites me in the business world and my passion and learning for working smarter and more effectively in the virtual space.

During my time out I completed reseach on effective virtual teams and virtual team leadership as the foundation to my MBA thesis. I am interested in discussing some of my findings and gaining some feedback on different approaches - both what's working and what's simply not working.

Many of us work in virtual teams, whether we are physically located in different countries, different states, different branches or even between functions within the same business. If you communicate predominantly through technology and you don't see your team members face to face you are working virtually.

Taking a broad view of virtual working, optimally your organisation would have a Virtual Working strategy that is aligned with your organisational goals. For example the strategy may allow for multiple technological mediums to ensure you have options when communicating with your team members. Policies may be in place around flexible working arrangements, thus providing the environment to accommodate late night telecons to the other side of the world or locally to accommodate personal requirements like family commitments. Interestingly though I question whether these policies and guidelines are being lived by the organisation. Does the organisational culture behave accordingly? Are organisations heading in the right direction to embrace virtual working? Lets explore this concept ....I'll be back too with some further thoughts on Virtual Working Strategies.