How to Build Community in a Virtual Team
In the UK today 1 in 8 workers are in roles that are fully remote, and 1 in 4 are in hybrid roles. This is a massive change from 2019 when only 4.7% of people worked from home. This change did not initially happen in a planned way; it was a necessary response to the pandemic that meant it happened suddenly and without choice. It was not a strategic decision made to help organisations thrive, but a response to a crisis. The change opened up opportunities in a way that has brought many benefits to people who want and need more flexibility. There are also benefits for businesses in increasing the possible talent pool for recruitment, as geography and 9-5 attendance no longer matters so much and virtual working has decreased the need for expensive office space.
Since then, organisations have found new ways to build teams and work together as more people work from home. Some businesses have reverted back fully to in-person working, whilst others as the statistics show today, have kept a much higher level of remote working than before 2020, and many have adopted a hybrid approach. Leaders have had to work out (initially rapidly), and now in a more considered way, how they can enable high performing virtual and hybrid teams.
How virtual teams are different
Leading virtual teams is different to leading teams that frequently work face to face. There can be time zone challenges, spontaneous conversations are less frequent, it can take longer to build trust as non-verbal cues are harder to read, and making memories together takes a more concerted effort. All of this combined means creating the feeling of community can be more difficult for a virtual team.
What is community in a team?
Community in a work team is having a shared sense of belonging, mutual support, and connection. Team members care for each other as people rather than just task-doers and see themselves as a collective, not just independent silos. Community in a team is created by the culture in the team, which itself is heavily influenced by the leader of the team. How does the leader behave as seen through emails, video calls, on Teams or Slack? How does the leader choose to communicate with people and how often? All of these behaviours’ role model a culture for the people in the team.
Why community is important
Community is vital to high performing teams whether they are virtual or face to face as it:
· Reduces stress leading to less sick days and calmer, happier teams
· Increases the feeling of belonging which improves performance
· Increases staff retention as people enjoy where they work and feel more loyal.
The type of team culture that builds community
The competing values framework helps businesses measure, understand and change their corporate culture. It is a model developed by two US academics that completed a major study to find out what makes organisations effective. The model divides organisational culture based on competing values:
Flexibility versus Stability
Internal focus versus External focus
There are four types of team culture based on the four competing values:
Clan Culture: High internal focus and high flexibility.
This culture values teamwork, collaboration, and has a family-like atmosphere.
Adhocracy Culture: High external focus and high flexibility
This culture values innovation, agility, and risk-taking.
Market Culture: High external focus and high stability
This culture values competition, achievement, and results.
Hierarchy Culture: High internal focus and high stability
This culture values structure, control, and efficiency.
The model gives an insight into what is most effective at creating community at work. The research shows that Clan culture has the strongest positive association with employee perceptions of community, including a sense of belonging and community responsibility.
In modern businesses often a blend of these cultures is required for a business to thrive. If the clan culture is too strong then there can be lower accountability and lower productivity.
Therefore, the leader needs to ensure that the clan culture behaviours are strong enough to help create community for their virtual team, without overplaying them to the extent that they stifle adhocracy culture and market culture.
Using clues from clan culture, which has been proven to increase community, these behaviours help create community in virtual teams. They are behaviours that happen more spontaneously in face-to-face teams but need extra thought and planning for virtual teams to be firmly in place, but without being overplayed.
1. Increasing open casual communication. Have virtual team check-ins that focus on personal well-being, not just task updates. Dedicating the beginning of every video meeting to casual conversation, weekend chat, or low-stakes icebreakers before talking work.
2. Rewarding collaboration. Structure team goals around shared metrics rather than individual performance. Pair team members on short-term tasks or collaborative brainstorming sessions to prevent people from working in isolation
3. Installing virtual rituals. Have regular, optional events like virtual coffee breaks, trivia sessions to build shared memories.
4. Having virtual buddy systems. Onboard new recruits with a dedicated peer buddy or mentor to guide them through the informal cultural norms of the team.
5. Ensuring peer-to-peer recognition: Have a public shout-out system where people can openly thank and praise each other for helping out.
How are you leading your virtual team and what could you do more of to create community?
How are you balancing clan culture behaviours with other cultural behaviours to ensure high accountability and productivity?
If you would like help with building stronger connection, trust and community in your virtual or hybrid team get in touch now to explore transformative ways we can support leaders and teams to enable high performance and happy teams.