+49 (0)30 - 788 66 61 info@intercultures.de
From Berlin, Germany to Tallinn, Estonia to Chennai, India, VPA Licensing Workshops hop the globe. By thinking differently about, and broadening consultants’ understanding of, virtual performance, participant-consultants are considering new possibilities that open their imagination to new questions.
The Sept. 2013 Virtual Performance Assessment Licensing Workshop in Tallinn was hosted in response to demand on the part of registered participants of the SIETAR [1] Europa Congress, an annual conference of intercultural practitioners from around the world. The 2013 conference theme was, “Global Reach, Local Touch.” Tallinn’s VPA Licensing Workshop—like all VPA workshops—supported consultant-participants in better equipping themselves to build “glocal” [2] and high-performing teams amongst the far-flung teams of their customers.
Photo: Courtesy of Stefan Meister

Photo: Courtesy of Stefan Meister

As one resource in a blended portfolio of  Virtual Performance Improvement products and services that boost performance in virtual collaboration, VPA is an assessment tool that lays the basis for high performing virtual teams, groups, and networks. It sparks and guides discussion for those endeavoring to increase performance in virtual spaces. In this process, strong competencies are needed on the part of process leaders to facilitate people in virtual teams, group and networks through a discovery of how they currently perform, and how they may reach increased levels of virtual performance.
The Workshop is framed around competencies needed in a global business world that is working and communicating virtually. Organizations’ team members—and the consultants that train them—must have an understanding and acceptance of the range of communication orientations that team members may take in various scenarios. With both understanding and practiced skill in responding to such relationship-mediated work scenarios, professionals help ensure that work flow is not hindered by misunderstood virtual communications—but instead facilitated by employees who can effectively get work done with different cultural personalities.
What about you? Consider the sample emails below that you have received from two colleagues with whom you work virtually:
Email 1
„Need meeting minutes by tomorrow end of business. Chuck
Email 2

„Dear [Your Name Here], How was your weekend? Did Barca win the derby against Espanyol? Following up from our meeting from last week (I liked the way you dealt with Chuck :), I wanted to ask you when you’ll be able to send me the Minutes as I want to distribute them internally. Warm regards, Maria

  • How might you respond to Chuck? To Maria?
  • What tends to be your orientation when communicating via email?
  • How do interpretations of the emails you receive and send affect the performance of your team, group or network?
The VPA Licensing Workshop provides solutions to the challenge of identifying a management model to fit modern businesses that are evolving quickly. If the first business management model began with the “family” model, it was followed by the “machine-like” model. The former was characterized by personal closeness; the latter was characterized by the all-important goal of efficiency. Both models were based on control by management of employees. Control has declined as an effective means to influence others. In today’s virtual work world, attraction is the key to influence.

Threaded throughout the Workshop is discussion about how to create a management model suitable for the global, intercultural and virtual environments in which professionals work and network. Some of the questions discussed in the workshop and subsequently in the online „Closeness at a Distance” LinkedIn group include:

  • How do we shift from a “push” to a “pull” management model?
  • Where is the border between virtual and non-virtual communication?
  • Does a virtual working groups’ perception of itself as a „team” affect its productivity?
Continue the conversation with fellow professionals within “Closeness at a Distance.” The group is open for all LinkedIn members to join.
Click here to learn more about upcoming VPA Licensing Workshops and / or Virtual Performance Improvement.
[1] SIETAR is an acronym for the Society of Intercultural Education, Training & Research, of which there are various regions worldwide.  Learn more at sietareu.org.
[2] The term “glocal” is used to characterize anything that seamlessly combines what’s global and what’s local.