Virtual and Global Working
Our clients are increasingly working in teams that are distributed globally; spread across time zones and geographical distance, yet simultaneously tackling complex issues requiring high levels of learning, co-creation, and intimacy.
Our increasing familiarity with use of technology has meant that “business as usual” in this scenario is relatively straightforward. Most organisations are used to using web-based or telephone conferencing – with all its delights and drawbacks – to solve simple problems and complete routine actions.
Innovating and collaborating virtually, however, is fundamentally different. Attempting “business as UNUSUAL” – personal learning, complex problem solving, performance management, innovation and social experimentation – requires much deeper connection. It means listening for nuances, and more profound support and challenge, based in stronger relationships.
As this work spreads across very different cultures, leaders have to deal with profound shifts in behavioural norms - right down to whether "yes I understand" really MEANS "yes...". Many of the leaders we support in this work are learning from scratch how to develop the kind of listening and presencing skills that penetrate through the virtual space, to tap into much more subtle cues, feelings and nuanced behavioural patterns to appreciate what is really going on.
Leading these processes is specialised, as it requires new approaches to dialogue, leadership and facilitation, and the right quality media. The techniques to get the most of this situation can be learned. At Lacerta, we train and coach people to become highly expert in leading virtual learning and innovation “workshops” and calls, and build virtual processes into our leading-edge innovation processes.
Read - Remote Leadership: Making Long Distance Work