Team members that seldom – if ever – meet in real life. Diverse time zones. Collaboration across borders, cultures, and languages. There are a lot of challenges for global virtual teams.

But there are also opportunities if you understand how to take advantage of them: increased flexibility, being closer to customers in new markets, and drawing on the expertise of global talent, without an explosion in travel costs.

Training in global virtual collaboration is for people who work in teams or project groups across borders, and where most of the communication takes place online. The training helps you both tackle the challenges you may have and take advantage of the rich opportunities in this form of collaboration.

After the training, your team will:

• Be aware of cultural differences in your team and understand how that affects your teamwork
• Know how to put differences in national culture, professional background, and organizational position in play, so you get the best possible results
• Be aware of typical pitfalls in virtual communication, and know how to avoid them
• Have a toolbox of simple and sharp tools to navigate your global collaboration
• Get better at building up personal relationships and trust in the team
• Understand how each individual team member can contribute to good cooperation in the team
• Collaborate more effectively across time zones and diverse understandings of time, planning and deadlines

We can tailor a short workshop or a longer training programme to an individual team or to a larger group of employees working together virtually. We can also focus on virtual collaboration with colleagues from one or more specific countries, such as Denmark, India, China, Russia, Brazil, or the USA.

Together we’ll decide on the duration of the training, the learning goals, the content, as well as the time and place for the training, which can take place either face-to-face, virtually, or some combination of the two.

We have a lot of experience designing virtual learning processes for both small and large groups, and this can be a cost-effective solution if the members of your team are spread across the globe.

Examples of what we can work with as part of the training:

• Cultural understanding and cultural self-understanding
• Practical cultural tools, for example the "4R Model" and the "Cultural Investigator"
• Myths and facts about virtual collaboration – what does the newest research say, and what does it mean for you?
• Preparing for, holding, and following up on virtual meetings: How can you as the meeting leader make your virtual meetings productive and be certain that you get input from all the participants?
• What type of framework do your colleagues in various locations work within – and how can you as a team member adapt your communication to your global colleagues?
• Workflows and rules for the team: How do we make decisions? Give each other feedback? Share knowledge?
• Which communication tools work best for the various types of assignments and messages? (For example e-mail, chat, telephone, video conferences, social media and online forums)
• Matrix organization: which extra challenges does it create for team leaders and team members?
• Tools for handling misunderstandings and conflicts in virtual collaboration

• Contact us! We’ll have a chat about how we can meet your needs for training in global virtual collaboration.
• See how we've helped improve virtual collaboration for a global team at Vestas.
• See how we've helped improve online global collaboration for Grundfos IS - User Experience Center.

Check out our blog posts about virtual and hybrid collaboration

• 10 tips for effective global email communication
• Succeed in your global hybrid collaboration: 7 quick tips.
• 3 assumptions you should challenge if you want to be successful at virtual collaboration.
• 7 smart tools that can boost your virtual collaboration.
• Bring in the humaneness: 6 techniques for building online relationships.