Developing Teams in a Virtual Environment: A Generative Approach
Date
2021
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Article
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Abstract
At the beginning of 2020, the operations of the Finance Hub of the Americas (FHoA) at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) were suddenly forced to shift entirely from face-to-face to remote work. To handle this challenge, an FHoA team started a team development process aimed at strengthening teamwork in virtual environments. The intervention was grounded in the principles of generative leadership and dialogic organization development. Through a scholar-practitioner collaboration that focused on identifying the drivers of the successful transition to remote work, we build a three-step process of team development using the metaphor of organic growth: (1) sowing, (2) nurturing, and (3) flourishing. Using GSK's example, we illustrate how this process became a simple but powerful strategy to help teams thrive in a virtual environment. The core of the process uses generative questions to configure a structured but adaptable process that can be easily implemented in different contexts and situations.
Description
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Citation
Pavez, I, & Neves, E. (2021). Developing Teams in a Virtual Environment: A Generative Approach. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. DOI: 10.1177/00218863211053881.
Keywords
Dialogic organization development, Generative leadership, Generative questions, Team development, Team building, Virtual teams