{"id":21300,"date":"2017-08-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/"},"modified":"2020-05-15T14:40:09","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T14:40:09","slug":"fancy-a-virtual-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"Fancy a virtual coffee?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A field study with 43 global R&D teams<\/u><\/a> from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in moderating the level of interpersonal and task conflict in distributed virtual teams, through stronger shared identity and shared context.<\/p>\n

So how can we encourage spontaneous communication, shared identity and shared context in our own virtual teams?<\/p>\n

Here are 10 practical, proven tips to pick from that will freshen up our online interactions, bind people together and keep innovation flowing:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep going back to your virtual team\u2019s shared and distributed goal \u2013 why the virtual team has been set up to collaborate across geographies and how success depends on each other (and if it doesn\u2019t, don\u2019t try to work as a team)<\/li>\n
  2. Early on encourage virtual team members to describe their backgrounds, the value they hope to add to the group, the way they prefer to work and to give a quick video tour of their workspace. Repeat this when anyone new joins the team<\/li>\n
  3. Take five minutes at the beginning of conference calls for everyone to share a recent professional success or some personal news<\/li>\n
  4. Create a positively loaded virtual team nickname<\/li>\n
  5. Rotate virtual meeting times every week to make sure one member is not always waking up early for meetings and that another is not going home too late<\/li>\n
  6. Acknowledge individual employee achievements with weekly \u2018shout outs\u2019<\/li>\n
  7. Celebrate virtual team success with a virtual reward ceremony. E.g. send a small present to all team members and get everyone to open it at the same time during a video call<\/li>\n
  8. Regularly check in on levels of motivation: for example if using WebEx, use an image of a \u2018virtual thermometer\u2019 for people to put their pointers against how motivated they feel, or use pulse tools such as 15Five<\/li>\n
  9. To lessen feelings of isolation and develop real relationships through achieving results together, create smaller interdependent tasks and partner people up to achieve a specific goal<\/li>\n
  10. <\/a> Strengthen peer-to-peer relationships by everyday chat via Whatsapp groups, skype chat or your online collaboration platform – covering life as well as work. Even better, encourage team members to schedule regular 10 minute informal \u2018virtual coffees\u2019 with webcams on<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And before we fall into the trap of thinking a \u2018virtual coffee\u2019 sounds like a lovely idea, but I haven\u2019t got time \u2013 remember the research above and think of it as 10 minutes invested now to save hours of hassle dealing with conflict later down the line.<\/p>\n

    See an interactive graphic of our virtual teams learning path and the content of our training modules<\/a> on these topics.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-virtual-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFancy a virtual coffee? - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fancy a virtual coffee?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"438\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465\"},\"headline\":\"Fancy a virtual coffee?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":440,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Capture2.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fancy a virtual coffee? - Global Integration\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Capture2.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Capture2.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/Capture2.webp\",\"width\":438,\"height\":330,\"caption\":\"Image\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fancy a virtual coffee?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"www.global-integration.com\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Global Integration\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/GI_logo_hero.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/GI_logo_hero.webp\",\"width\":312,\"height\":271,\"caption\":\"Global Integration\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uk.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/global-integration\"],\"description\":\"Global Integration are a leading global training provider specializing in matrix management, cross-functional teams, remote, virtual and hybrid working. They provide highly interactive face-to-face, virtual and online learning delivered globally\",\"email\":\"kevan@global-integation.com\",\"foundingDate\":\"1994-04-01\",\"numberOfEmployees\":{\"@type\":\"QuantitativeValue\",\"minValue\":\"11\",\"maxValue\":\"50\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465\",\"name\":\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/author\\\/debbie-marshall-lee\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fancy a virtual coffee? - Global Integration","description":"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fancy a virtual coffee?","og_description":"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in","og_url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/","og_site_name":"Global Integration","article_published_time":"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":438,"height":330,"url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Debbie Marshall-Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Debbie Marshall-Lee","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/"},"author":{"name":"Debbie Marshall-Lee","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465"},"headline":"Fancy a virtual coffee?","datePublished":"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/"},"wordCount":440,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.webp","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/","url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/","name":"Fancy a virtual coffee? - Global Integration","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.webp","datePublished":"2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-15T14:40:09+00:00","description":"A field study with 43 global R&D teams from a top five Fortune 500 petroleum firm found that spontaneous communication played a pivotal role in","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Capture2.webp","width":438,"height":330,"caption":"Image"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/fancy-a-virtual-coffee\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fancy a virtual coffee?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/","name":"www.global-integration.com","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#organization","name":"Global Integration","url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GI_logo_hero.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GI_logo_hero.webp","width":312,"height":271,"caption":"Global Integration"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/company\/global-integration"],"description":"Global Integration are a leading global training provider specializing in matrix management, cross-functional teams, remote, virtual and hybrid working. They provide highly interactive face-to-face, virtual and online learning delivered globally","email":"kevan@global-integation.com","foundingDate":"1994-04-01","numberOfEmployees":{"@type":"QuantitativeValue","minValue":"11","maxValue":"50"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465","name":"Debbie Marshall-Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Debbie Marshall-Lee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/author\/debbie-marshall-lee\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}