Challenge:
Leaders of newly-created virtual teams lacking experience in how to work together in a remote setting most effectively.
Situation:
Multinational Consumer Goods company reorganised its global supply chain, creating a different structure, within which virtual teams were the norm. The leaders were used to leading locally and had no experience of leading virtual teams.
We created a blended learning programme, combining online learning materials set up within their own Learning Management System: virtual web-workshops; face-to-face classroom sessions and virtual action learning teams, including organisation-specific case studies. The whole programme was spread over four months, with activities of varying intensity and interaction between participants.
Result:
Programme participants felt more confident about their ability to be effective as a leader in the virtual world. They applied their insights in motivating and guiding their globally-dispersed teams, in turn contributing to the success of the re-organisation and delivering the benefits of high organisational performance.
“Learning these new skills within the technological environment within which I have to lead my organisation helped me to be much more at ease with virtual collaboration. The skills I learnt were immensely helpful in enabling me to be the leader I wanted to be in terms of inspiring my team and enabling them to perform well.”
