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Managing Global Virtual Teams

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Dates & Fees

Make distance and diversity your competitive advantages

Ten years ago there were few global virtual teams. Today it is rare for companies not to have teams dispersed across countries, cultures and time zones – colleagues who are expected to work together… while at the same time working apart. How should managers organise these globally dispersed teams? How can they build trust when their team members rarely come face to face? Which techniques bridge cultural, linguistic and geographical distances – not to mention time zones? When do cultural differences produce creativity rather than crossed wires? Above all, how can distance and diversity be turned into competitive advantages?

Managing Global Virtual Teams is a one-of-a-kind, action-based programme that will show you how to manage geographically dispersed and culturally diverse teams and achieve maximum impact. Through the use of simulations, frameworks, video-taped exercises, and group coaching you will develop the ability to design and manage a global team in a way that encourages collaboration, improves intra- team communication, builds cohesion and leverages your team’s cultural diversity.

Key Benefits

Explore the unique benefits that global teams can bring to international organisations when designed and managed effectively.
Maximise the performance of your global virtual team by implementing strategies to increase collaboration, trust and team effectiveness.
Create processes for overcoming barriers that often arise on global teams stemming from language and time differences.
Benchmark individual leadership styles against preferences from around the world and learn to adapt your own style to successfully manage team members from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

Featured articles

The Four Keys to Success with Virtual Teams (Forbes - 19th August 2010)

Today's financial woes have forced many companies to pick members of project teams from across various global locations and have them communicate virtually--by phone, e-mail and videoconference--thereby saving both time and money. Click here to read the article.

Working together effectively before it goes downhill (IESE Insight - 3rd quater 2010)

Multiple team membership (MTM) is a reality in today’s workplace, with high-value employees lending their expertise to a variety of project teams. But what is the effect of MTM on productivity and learning for individuals, teams and, ultimately, organizations? Read this article co-authored by Mark Mortensen, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and who teaches on Managing Global Virtual Teams.

Participants on the Managing Global Virtual Teams programme return to their roles with all the tools they need to manage more effectively. They gain a framework for decoding national differences, enabling them to explore the key dimensions of culture, tailored to their own and other participants’ experiences. Working with peers who are typically drawn from up to 15 different countries, along with the INSEAD faculty, participants gain a truly global viewpoint.

Participants take part in simulation exercises that replicate the dynamics of managing at a distance. Using video-conferencing, email and phone calls from different corners of the campus – with recordings played back in class – they receive feedback on their own personal managerial style. The programme covers the following themes:

Cross Cultural management
Self awareness
Trust
Communication
Negotiation
Cooperation
Innovation

The programme is designed to improve the performance of managers who lead teams of at least five people dispersed across two or more countries. It assumes experience of management and team building in general, focusing instead on the precise challenges of working across national boundaries and geographical distances. Participants come from a wide variety of functional, industry and national backgrounds, but they all have one thing in common: the challenge of Managing Global Virtual Teams.

"INSEAD's Managing Virtual Global Teams is a very insightful and powerful programme for any global executive who works with crosscultural teams in virtual environments."

Head Global Talent Management Pharmaceuticals Sector
Johnson & Johnson
Singapore

"An intense programme that has provided me with useful
understanding of how my virtual team works and how I can improve the team’s performance and motivation."

Vice President
Danske Bank
Denmark

"The cultural learnings from INSEAD's Managing Virtual Global Teams will enable me to better understand the behaviour of my global team and enable me to maximise cohesion and performance in the future."

Chief Operating Officer Global Transaction Services
The Royal Bank of Scotland
United Kingdom

"Not only was I impressed by the quality of the content of the programme but also by the return on time invested I got out of the week. As a result, our Solvay 3S global conference calls are now better organised, structured and animated, with or without video interaction, whilst also respecting the different cultures and personalities around the table. Participating in the recent Managing Virtual Global Teams programme has also enabled me to recently organise with success one full ‘Innovation Day’ between Lisbon and Brazil-Curitiba with more than 250 employees involved."

General Management - Director Geral & Gerente
Solvay Shared Services

Great minds don’t think alike

INSEAD’s professors represent many cultures, disciplines, and perspectives. Led by acknowledged world experts in their own particular fields, this programme faculty remain intimately close to business and most are engaged in cross-disciplinary research.*

Erin Meyer
Programme Director

Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Erin Meyer specialises in the field of Cross-Cultural Management, Intercultural Negotiations, and Multi-cultural Leadership. Erin's research and consulting services focus on training and coaching expatriates, senior-level executives and multi-national teams to work more effectively in a cross-cultural environment. Read more...