Building and Managing High-Performance Distributed Teams

Book excerpt: The age of the distributed team is upon us. Teams can now operate and collaborate from locations other than a central office, and events surrounding the 2020 COVID pandemic have thrown its practicality into sharp relief. Managing a team whose members are distributed across several locations requires a different mindset and will remain a must-have for all areas of business from this point forward. Building and Managing High-Performance Distributed Teams explains what the distributed teams concept means to the future of your company. Author Alberto S. Silveira Jr. leverages his industry knowledge to explore why the high-performance distributed team model is vital to the future of business, and explains how to build and maintain one through times of change. You will learn to differentiate between distributed teams, remote work, offshoring, and what each means in a modern context. Silveira also weaves in stories from his other life as a boater and sailor, using analogies and lessons gained from humankind’s thousands of years of maritime adventure to illustrate the value of well-managed teams, and to also convey the importance of life-work balance in today’s working world. The book analyzes team management strategies from some of the great successes and failures in recent years so that you can learn from the experiences of others. Building and Managing High-Performance Distributed Teams is your definitive guide for building a dynamic distributed team, using collaboration technology to attract and engage the most important element of any business—your people. Whether you are a department head, a business owner, or a team leader, this book presents the no-nonsense knowledge you need now to chart your course for success. What You Will Learn Understand what the new era of connected business means, and the role distributed teams will play. Differentiate between distributed teams, remote work, nearshore, and offshoring, and what each means to modern business. Discover the true heart of a high-performance distributed team (hint: it’s not the technology). Find out what the era of distributed teams means to existing infrastructure. Uncover what we can learn about team management from some of the great successes and failures of recent years. Appreciate the techniques honed by seafarers, pilots, and software designers combined to create a successful project plan for team management and company navigation. Comprehend the effective simplicity of the “power of three” in building successful teams. Apply proven techniques of measurement and metrics without leaving the human factor behind to improve team morale and productivity. Who This Book Is For Team leaders or officers of small-ish companies, with populations in the tens through to the mid-hundreds. It’s also for managers of somewhat autonomous departments within larger companies, and for everyone else in the boat because everyone in a company ultimately needs to know what being in a distributed team is all about.