Distributed working – practical and social aspects of virtual collaboration

“We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.” (Winston Churchill)

In any translation project, it is quite common today for project members to be distributed over different offices, cities or even time zones. In many cases, project members don’t even know their team mates, let alone, have experience in working with them. Under such conditions, how can project managers guarantee a smooth workflow and combine each member’s skills, experience and knowledge to bring out the best possible result?  

When I started working at what was then the Nixdorf language services department in 1988, my boss would put the texts to be translated on my desk, I would dictate my translations into a dictaphone, a group of typists would type them, I would make corrections, and then I would give my translation to my boss or to a colleague for revision – after all, I had a lot to learn, both about translation and about the subject matter. The secretaries then made the necessary changes, I made a final check, and the translation went back to the customer, usually in the form of a printed copy as well as on floppy disk.

Except for the customer, all those involved in the process were within eyeshot and earshot of each other, because Heinz Nixdorf was a pioneer in open-plan office architecture. course there was also some kind of virtual cooperation, but it took a very different form than it does today.

The customer might have been on a different floor, in a different city, or even in a different country, and could only answer questions or clarify ambiguous passages via telephone or fax. Like today, the quality of the result depended on being able to contact the customer, on successful time management (although no one called it that), and on good teamwork in the office.

Today, in a typical project, the customer sends a request via e-mail to translate a text into five languages. As the project manager or a contractor, you have to get in touch with (at least) five colleagues and ask them whether they can take on the job. You have to make sure that each translator has the right native language and field of expertise, has access to the required tools, and is able to complete the job before the deadline, with enough time left for checking. The translations are then collected, revised, and delivered to the customer.

In most cases, the project manager does not see the other members of the project team, but there are usually phone conversations during the course of the project.

These days, almost all job ads – regardless of the sector – call for “team players.” If you have ever played on a sports team or been a member of a band, say, the Three Musketeers’ principle of “one for all and all for one” may have become second nature to you. But even then, it can be hard to transfer these skills to a work environment, particularly one in which the only contact is via electronic means.

The benefits of virtual collaboration

The following aspects define a virtual team:

• Employees are at different sites, in different fields of work and/or responsible for different project stages.
• The team has a joint identity and a common goal.
• To reach this common goal, the virtual team must recognize and make use of each member’s skills and capabilities as everyone does his job in collective responsibility and across all sorts of boundaries.
• Technical tools are used as the basis for cooperation
• Teamwork is subject to time constraints; the members of the team are spread out geographically and communicate primarily by phone and electronic means.
• If nothing else, the temporary nature of a virtual team and the geographical distances involved make it different from a conventional team.  

Let’s identify some of the goals of geographically distributed work:

It lets customers and members of the project team take advantage of the knowledge and skills of all team members, even across long distances, to bring together individual contributions and produce a high-quality translation.

Virtual cooperation can sometimes be necessary simply to meet a deadline. This situation arises with texts that – although they only need to be translated into one language, say – are so long or have such a tight deadline that they have to be split up between different translators. When this is done, of course, the associated risk of a reduction in quality must always be kept in mind.

The EN 15038 standard has also become a factor by requiring the “second-set-of-eyes” principle. This has increased the number of colleagues who no longer work directly with the customer in a team of two, but now in a team of at least three.

Sometimes, it is the complexity of a project that increases the number of people involved – for example the need for special DTP skills or a sudden request from the customer like: “Don’t you have someone who can translate the brochure into French as well? Could you handle that for us, too?”

More stringent requirements

Virtual collaboration requires individual responsibility, a high level of organization and a proactive attitude on the part of each team member.

In addition, team leaders have to exert a more immediate kind of leadership, with more direct instructions than those necessary for teams that have grown together organically. As a result, they have to be able to judge the skills and attitudes of the individual team members very precisely in the context of the roject requirements.

The forms of communication used, the way conflicts are dealt with and the use of virtual collaboration tools can have an enormous impact on efficiency.

Project preparation/putting together a team

The professional qualifications of the team members are, of course, the most important criterion. But social skills should also be taken into account. Questions that should be asked include: Does everyone accept me as the team leader? Is there a climate of trust between the team members? Is everyone capable of dealing with criticism? Is everyone able to discuss and formulate issues clearly and concisely?

Nationality and ethnic background can have a direct influence on communication and discussion styles, interpersonal relationships and attitudes about time.

Preparing for the first (phone) conference

Ideally, the first meeting of the team members should take place face-to-face. If this is not possible, all necessary documents should be sent out to the participants a few days prior to the first conference call to give everyone a chance to prepare. The team leader should make a list containing the following information:

• Names of the team members and their roles in the team
• Phone numbers
• E-mail addresses
• Native languages / nationalities
• Availability times, particularly if there are different time zones involved or if some members of the team only work part-time
• Personal aspects

The first conference

At the first conference, all team members should be given enough time to introduce themselves. In spite of tight deadlines, there should always be time for a bit of small talk, even at the later conferences.

After all, emotions are an important aspect of smooth cooperation. At the first conference, the joint goal should be discussed, and some time should be spent on clarifying everybody’s roles. Responsibilities for the individual stages of the project and for deadlines should be explicitly agreed on and documented. In particular, the role of the project leader should be clearly defined:

• Acting as the only (!) point of contact to the customer
• Allocating responsibilities
• Calling meetings and documenting their results (this can be delegated if the group is so big that the team leader has to moderate the discussions (five or more participants))
• Ensuring that commitments are met  

Arrangements should be made about the frequency and type of follow-up conferences and the general exchange of information, on how quickly e-mails should be answered, and on times of telephone availability.

Telephone conferences with more than five participants can be very exhausting, especially if those involved do not know each other well. This makes it very difficult to distinguish the different people by their voices alone. The team leader needs to act as a moderator in such cases, address each colleague by name, and encourage those who are not participating in the discussion to express their opinions. The individual team members can help clarify the situation by opening their comments with short introductions, like this: “This is Gundi, I’m in charge of xyz, my opinion on this subject is…”

Regular conferences

Depending on the project duration, a conference should be held at least once a week. Minutes for the conference call should be prepared and distributed to all participants promptly after the call. If unforeseen circumstances prevent team members from taking part, the situation could be handled as follows:

• If the group is relatively small (up to four people), the team member who has to cancel should suggest at least two alternative dates when informing the team leader of the problem.
• If the group is larger (five or more people), the conference should go ahead as planned, and another team member should discuss the results with the absent person after the conference.

Incidentally, www.doodle.com is an excellent online tool for arranging meetings and polling team members.

The team should draw up a style guide for questions and answers. Together with the minutes of the conferences, this document forms the backbone of the project. It should record all questions and answers that arise. Specific times should be allocated for updating the file. Experience has shown that questions and answers can be helpful to all those involved in the project. Maybe some of the translators have not yet reached the passage in question, or maybe someone else already knows the answer from a previous project.

It should go without saying that participants should not make coffee or answer e-mails during phone conferences. Concentration is even more important in virtual teams than it is in face-to-face meetings.

Stumbling blocks

Problems can arise in any project – technology can fail, people can become ill or there can be bad chemistry between people for whatever reason. Each team member should feel responsible not just for his or her part of the project, but for the project as a whole. For this reason, team members should inform the team leader immediately of any delays or problems that may arise or have already arisen. Depending on the problem, the team leader will have to find a solution in cooperation with the customer and/or the other members of the team.

Team leaders also have a special role to play in maintaining good relations among the members of the team. The leaders must develop an ability to recognize signs of personal conflict at an early stage. These conflicts should be resolved in individual discussions in which both parties should remain objective, even when deadlines are looming and nerves are frayed. The tone of these conversations should always remain professional, and each side should make sure that the other does not lose face. Problem-solving activities should be agreed on, scheduled and documented. If agreements are not honored, the team leader should remind the offending team member of the agreement at the next conference and publicly request compliance.

All members should continuously remind themselves that virtual teams lack certain vital elements of communication. Regardless of how good a webcam may be – in a video conference with five participants, each person will see a bunch of shaky images the size of stamps. Under such conditions, participants need to know each other quite well to be able to interpret facial expressions and gestures correctly, and even then, it may still be hard. Another problem is that participants do not have a chance to chat between sessions. And, of course, communication on the phone with (near) strangers is twice as difficult. But it is not impossible – those involved just need to be aware of the difficulties and develop strategies to counteract. At the end of each project, there should be a final conference. It lays the groundwork for future cooperation, either in the same team or a different one. As a result, it is highly important.

Conclusion

Virtual teamwork is much more difficult, because you need to read between the lines. All team members need to develop a sort of sixth sense for things that are normally expressed through facial expressions and gestures in face-to-face conversations. You need to find words to articulate your feelings.

It is important to recognize these differences and adapt to them. All members of a virtual team have to develop a certain awareness and acceptance of different cultural identities. In doing so, trust-building is the most important factor. It is also essential for all those involved to get to know (and love) collaborative technologies that enable long-distance teamwork.