Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

/ Canadian Government Executive

// June 2016

Leadership

The time is right to build on the lessons-

learned and success stories of the private

sector. The challenge is to adapt those

lessons to the specific challenges and

myriad cultures within the public sector.

identify the required governance struc-

ture that can lead high-impact networks.

Although time-consuming, this phase al-

lows organisations to make deliberate

investments in relationship building and

identify where travel dollars are most ju-

diciously spent. Although commercial re-

lationship mapping tools are available to

help inventory and visualise high impact/

influence relationships, no tool or technol-

ogy can replace face-to-face human rela-

tionship building.

The Investments Required

To reach optimal connectivity and results,

virtually networked organisations follow a

rule of thumb that requires at least 20 per-

cent more initial time and up-front costs in

organizing virtual teams in order to reach

20 percent higher returns than traditional

organisational models.

Investment #1: The First Meeting

The literature is categorical that assem-

bling a team of geographically dispersed

members requires, at a minimum, a face-

to-face kick-off meeting. This important

investment of time must focused on build-

ing resilient relationships. This activity

will target relationship-specific trust strat-

egies, conflict resolution strategies and ro-

bust communication plans. If there are no

agreed-upon and enforced protocols for

how information is shared, decisions are

made, and conflicts are resolved, virtual

organisations will simply fail to deliver.

“Virtual leaders who fail to build and sus-

tain a trusting environment … will miss

team goals by 50%,” according to the Gart-

ner study. Such a meeting is vital because

it allows members to benefit from the rich

human reciprocity that is only possible

with in-person communication.

In the public sector, where travel restric-

tions are a constant constraint, the suc-

cessful virtual leader, and their sponsor,

will understand the importance of in-per-

son meetings and plan these strategically

as a wise investment as opposed to an un-

welcomed overhead cost.

Investment #2: Time for Forming and

Storming Teams

Creating a high-performing team takes

time and team members will go through

the basic four lifecycle stages described by

American psychologist Bruce Tuckman.

Virtual teams will experience “forming,

storming, norming, and performing”, ex-

cept that the first two stages are initially

more time-consuming to reach. Cisco, a

company that makes extensive use of net-

worked teams, has calculated that build-

ing these virtual networks can take up to

four times longer than traditional proxim-

ity-based groups. The leadership required

to lead groups through these critically im-

portant stages is demanding and requires

specific training to be truly effective.

Investment #3: Training

Private sector executives from around the

world are taking virtual leadership compe-

tency training seriously. The hiring / on-

boarding programmes for new executives

in some Fortune 500 companies includes

virtual leadership boot camps, overseas

experience, stretch assignments leading

virtual teams and an obligatory time to

reflect and write about their experiences.

Virtual leadership training is planned and

structured to ensure cost-effectiveness

and strong returns for the organisation

and their partners. The private sector has

discovered that the best predictor for suc-

cess in leading virtually dispersed teams

and initiatives is successful previous expe-

rience.

Deloitte’s Corporate

Learning Fact Book

reveals that in 2013, US companies spent

more than $70 billion domestically and

$130 billion globally on corporate train-

ing. Of that amount a full 35% was spent

on leadership development at all levels.

There are no statistics yet on how much is

being spent on virtual leadership develop-

ment, but there are clues.

The 2012 McKinsey & Company

State of

Human Capital

reports that almost two-

thirds of human resource executives iden-

tified leadership development as their

most significant concern both now and

into the future. The report was striking in

that it observed that “there are big oppor-

tunities to rethink organisational design

and workforce flexibility and recraft jobs

and the characteristics of how work gets

done across organisational and geographic

boundaries.”

A new industry has sprung up in the

private sector to meet the growing need

for virtual leadership development and

training Companies and consulting firms

around the world are responding vigor-

ously to the call to provide virtual leader-

ship training, development courses, pro-

grammes and certifications. An explosion

of literature, from practitioner case stud-

ies, peer-reviewed articles, private sector

best practices and social media discus-

sions recognises that one of the most criti-

cal challenges facing globally connected

organisations is leadership development.

They perceive that national-scale and glo-

balized companies are grappling with an

urgent need to change the way they work

in order to build the successful relation-

ships that will deliver sustained success.

In light of what is happening in multina-

tional companies, the efforts of the public

sector in Canada in developing the leader-

ship competencies of those who manage

networks and dispersed teams must be

multiplied. It must start with accepting that

the culture of a virtually networked organ-

isation must be intentionally designed to

enable new processes, structures and most

significantly, collaborating relationships.

The success of government in Canada—at

all levels—will depend on it.

eirdre

oore

is Manager of a dis-

persed Library team within the Chief

Information Officer and Security

Branch of Natural Resources Canada