Researchers at Purdue, Indiana and Ohio State universities set out to discover just how much of a crimp. Comparing virtual teams (people who may have not met) with in-the flesh-type, they asked two teams--one virtual and the other in the same location--to hold meetings dealing with two kinds of tasks, according to an article in Business Week online.

One task involved brainstorming where people exchanged ideas. The other task called for team members to be interdependent and work together to solve a problem.

They found that virtual teams do better at brainstorming. The folks who were face-to-face were more productive in the second task where they had to make decisions and negotiate.

In other words, if your team is engaged in problem solving, it's best to know each other first. Then you can start holding meetings out of sight. If your team is involved in brainstorming, whether you know each other or not doesn't seem to be as important.

Even when you know someone, the chances of miscommunication and lower productivity increase dramatically when you're using the wrong vehicle for communicating. Say, for example you're not actually talking to someone, but trying to communicate via e-mail.

To illustrate, look at this e-mail scenario that took place in a company recently. Mary, who works in an advertising agency sends her associate, Mike, who writes ads and develops advertising strategy, this e-mail:

"I need the tag for the TV spot that we're doing with XYZ client."

Mike shoots back: "I didn't know we were doing a spot for XYZ. What spot are you talking about? What tag line are you referring to? What campaign is this for? When do you need it?"

Mary responds: "It's a co-sponsorship that the client negotiated." End of message.

Mike sends back his three other questions, which Mary ignores. A day later, she writes him: "I'll have someone from the ABC Production Company send you the tag."

Mike's wondering, "What tag? Who's this other person? I didn't know we were working with ABC Production. I thought she needed the tag from me. And when does she need it? Should we even be doing this?"

Mike picks up the phone and calls Mary. In a two-minute conversation, they clear up the confusion that had accumulated over two days of e-mailing.

The morale: Choose your method of communication based on the circumstances and the task at hand.

If you use e-mail to get work done, think about what recipients will need to know when you craft your note. Better yet, before you start pecking away on your keyboard, ask yourself: Can this issue be dealt with effectively by e-mail? Should I even be discussing this by e-mail? It could be too complex, sensitive or emotional. Even harmful if someone pushes the forward key and passes on your message to folks who were never intended to read it.

A huge part of work requires you to communicate with others. You may have sophisticated tools and technology to do that. But they are useless--even harmful--without good judgment.

© by Andrea Kay