Differentiators/RAMP Components: Virtual Management.
4 pages NOT including cover and reference page
Instruction
Discuss four of the Differentiators and also Four RAMP Components. You essay should include examples for each differentiator / Ramp component discussed.
Differentiators and RAMP Components in Virtual Management
Name
Institution
Differentiators and RAMP Components in Virtual Management
Introduction
Virtual team management is the ability to organize and coordinate with effect a group whose members are not in the same location or time zone (Serrat, 2017). Leading a capable virtual team requires the identification of key differentiators and the use of the RAMP model components.
This essay will discuss the four differentiators and the four RAMP components. The differentiators are commitment and engagement, a shared process for decision making, information flow, trust, and collaboration. The RAMP components are relationships, accountability, motivation, and process and purpose.
Differentiators
Commitment and Engagement
In an organization or business, the performance of an individual can be influenced by whether they are in a high-performing virtual team or a low-performing virtual team. Individuals who are in a high-performing virtual team are more proactive and engaged, and also demonstrate a high level of initiative (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). The low score of the members involved in the low-performing virtual teams can be due to different factors such as involvement in many groups, in addition to their daily work.
Team leaders also play a role in commitment and engagement (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). A top virtual team should have a leader who is motivating all the members. The leader should also have a process or program that helps them follow up on the performance of their team members. The motivation of team members by their leader helps the members not to become disengaged or to lose interest. An example of an approach that a leader can use to ensure the members do not lose interest or get disengaged is by an often reminder to the members of their work and discussing how it impacts the organizations’ success.
Shared Process for Decision Making
The virtual team should be able to establish decision-making and problem-solving processes (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). People involved in a virtual team have the challenge of different time zones, and relaying of information is through the phone or via email. The team leader should come up with a solution that deals with these challenges. The leader should ensure that communication processes are established early on and revisit them over time (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). For example, the team members and the leader should take their time to discuss how they are going to make decisions together.
Getting the Right Information to the Right People
The second differentiator states that virtual teams have a communication challenge due to the different time zones and the medium of communication. Besides these challenges, they can also have the problem of delivering the right information to the right people in instances when cross-cultural differences exist (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). The virtual team leader should use this differentiator to create a process that ensures the right information gets delivered to the right people.
Members of a top virtual team should have a quick response to problems and be willing to keep each other updated on the information required for the job. The leaders should include every member in the decision-making process, and give their feedback to the other members.
Collaboration
Any virtual team that is set to succeed should find ways to collaborate effectively and work together to achieve their collective goal. Members of a virtual team can collaborate in different ways. They can help one another and put their effort together to fulfill their shared purpose and support every member of the team. An example of a way that can help achieve collaboration is by making sure the members have a good understanding of one another’s role and responsibilities and that the group as a whole had clearly defined the team objectives (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010).
RAMP Model Components
Relationships
A healthy relationship among team members and leaders in any organization requires trust, sharing of similar goals, and having a common interest. The connection needs time to develop, and it is cultivated by different reasons, such as interactions between the team members. Due to the challenge of having members located at different places, the virtual team lacks the opportunity to build strong relationships through a one on one interaction. Various team leaders of virtual organizations use different approaches to build relationships. The first example is by hosting virtual birthday parties and baby showers using WebEx, live meetings, or they can go to a live session once in a while(Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2015). Another approach used is encouraging the team members to know their fellow members on social media.
Accountability
Virtual employees need to take more individual responses to meet deadlines, so it is critical for someone to hold them accountable even though virtual leaders have fewer chances to observe the employees (Serrat, 2017). To address the challenge that the leaders have of watching the employees, they need to develop project management software. Examples of such programming software include Basecamp, WorkZone, and Wrike. These software’s are designed to make the job easily accessible and visible to all the members. From the software, every member can see their assigned work, and the team can communicate easily by sharing documents and helping each other out in the project. The leaders can also choose to establish metrics that will be used to assess the accountability of the members. The parameter will concentrate on members’ results and not on the number of hours that an individual works.
Motivation
Alignment between individual goals, team goals, and broader organizational goals is an essential component of engagement and motivation (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). The team leaders have the responsibility to motivate the team members and ensure that they do not lose interest or become disengaged in the project. The leader can use practical ways to stimulate the members, such as the use of active listening and not making assumptions on the clarity of the given instructions. The leader should ask the members to first analyze the instructions before undertaking the order.
Process and Purpose
A virtual team should lay out its clear goals, roles, and processes before starting the project. The leaders should not make any assumption based on the use of the different programs involved in the program. Virtual leaders should maintain process documents in a shared file so that all the employees understand the protocol for setting up meetings, using project management software, and interacting with the team (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). The leaders can enhance a smooth process by training all the members on the programs to be used.
Conclusion
Leading an effective virtual team requires the collaboration of both the team members and the leaders. The leader should be able to identify and incorporate the key differentiators and also incorporate the use of the RAMP model components. Due to the challenge of location and different time zones for the virtual team members, understanding and using the key differentiators will help to ensure a smooth flow of the project and ensure that no member is left out.
References
Lepsinger, R., & DeRosa, D. (2015). How to Lead an Effective Virtual Team. Ivey Business Jornal. Retrieved from http://www.iveybusiness.com-how-to-lead-an-effective-virtual-team
Lepsinger, R., & DeRosa, D. (2010). Virtual team success: A practical guide for working and leading from a distance. John Wiley & Sons.
Serrat, O. (2017). Managing virtual teams. In Knowledge Solutions (pp. 619-625). Springer, Singapore.
Olariu, C., & Aldea, C. C. (2014). Managing processes for Virtual Teams–a BPM approach. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 109, 380-384.