This article looks at ways to build a 'Culture of Courage' in virtual teams. It is also a good reminder, that improvement of virtual teams involve humanistic perspectives, rather than it needing to be improved by CSCW tools.
One of the things that I found important in this article, was the need to have an environment where people are able to raise questions or problems in the project. If this is done, members are able to feel more comfortable in speaking out on flaws/problems they see in a project. The article states that, "research found a strong correlation between team performance and the time span between problem's being identified and being raised (a study by VitalSmarts found that the average time was two weeks, and that was before teams dispersed virtually)". In order to mitigate these problems, work environment's needs to encourage workers to speak out on problems they have observed.
Additionally, managers need to remove the stigma of failure. The article states that in order to create a culture of courage, there needs to be an environment that encourages learning, unlearning and relearning and where mistakes are not viewed as a negative, but what is needed to progress. I found this part of the article important, as I have seen from other articles about this topic, that low levels of trust makes it difficult for members to take risks (admitting errors, asking for help, etc.). However, this tip, enables people to take risks and feel comfortable admitting errors. Overtime, this will lead to productivity and high levels of learning for each worker.
This article looks at ways to build a 'Culture of Courage' in virtual teams. It is also a good reminder, that improvement of virtual teams involve humanistic perspectives, rather than it needing to be improved by CSCW tools.
One of the things that I found important in this article, was the need to have an environment where people are able to raise questions or problems in the project. If this is done, members are able to feel more comfortable in speaking out on flaws/problems they see in a project. The article states that, "research found a strong correlation between team performance and the time span between problem's being identified and being raised (a study by VitalSmarts found that the average time was two weeks, and that was before teams dispersed virtually)". In order to mitigate these problems, work environment's needs to encourage workers to speak out on problems they have observed.
Additionally, managers need to remove the stigma of failure. The article states that in order to create a culture of courage, there needs to be an environment that encourages learning, unlearning and relearning and where mistakes are not viewed as a negative, but what is needed to progress. I found this part of the article important, as I have seen from other articles about this topic, that low levels of trust makes it difficult for members to take risks (admitting errors, asking for help, etc.). However, this tip, enables people to take risks and feel comfortable admitting errors. Overtime, this will lead to productivity and high levels of learning for each worker.