CREATING TRUST IN VIRTUAL TEAMS AT ORANGE

Knowledge Management Review, May/Jun 2006 by Lawley, Debbie

Trust is the foundation for teamwork and collaboration, whether face-to face or in virtual teams. But trust is hard to establish, especially when teams are frequently changing and team members haven't had long to gel. At Orange, low levels of trust among teams was proving a hindrance to product development with higher levels of collaboration seen as the remedy. Here, Debbie Lawley explains how the company overcame the barriers to trust and succeeded in embedding it at the heart of its virtual team operations.

Overcoming barriers to collaboration

Orange is a fast moving business in a dynamic market and an unpredictable, competitive environment. Mobile handsets no longer just make calls but can browse the internet, make transactions stream video and more. With changes in charging mechanisms too, following the entry of players like Skype, the telecommunications field is particularly demanding. A major difficulty is managing the balance between cost competitiveness, the need for excellence in delivery to maintain customer satisfaction and the drive for innovation to sustain long term growth. Consequently, product development in this area is a considerable challenge. In addition, the complexities of working in a multinational environment mean that collaboration is critical.

Boosting collaboration

The focus of knowledge management in this area of Orange was on increasing collaboration and recognizing that improved performance here would be of substantial benefit. More innovation was the main objective and the virtual team structure was a key enabler. However, the issue of trust was causing less than effective co-operation across these virtual teams. The KM work had to focus on this issue, achieve insight into what approaches work well here and embed those approaches into the collaborative working program. In this article, we'll look at exactly how this happened.

A colorful background

Orange launched in 1994, the fourth entrant in the busy UK market where its operations were focused. Product development at that time was largely focused in the delivery of calls and network excellence. Many of the business demands revolved around meeting exponential customer growth.

Through advances in mobile technology and, in 1999, a new owner in France Telecom, the landscape had changed for Orange. Product development had been conducted in the operating company in the UK. Now as a largely pan-European organization, together with presence in Africa and the Middle East, a different approach was required.

The strength of the brand was a key aspect in the desirability of Orange for France Telecom and ensuring the benefits of the brand were maximized in all the operating companies was essential in consolidating the Orange Group. This meant that the products and services coming through to delivery in all the operating companies needed consistency and yet local flavour appropriate to the market concerned. The challenge was to execute this exceptionally well.

The KM team was asked to assist the Orange product marketing and development teams in enhancing product delivery and innovation. Working with the process definition team, the KM team developed several approaches to support this goal.

Virtual teams

Most of the people working in product development in Orange Group work in virtual teams. The product manager is usually the leader of the team. Virtual teams are flexible and versatile in many companies but they have their challenges. Few people choose to work in virtual teams and often, only a critical business issue will force people to collaborate in such a way.

Upon analysis, the KM team found that the working life of many people in the Group function consisted of working in several different forms of structures, in any one week. Sometimes they would be in their functional teams, sometimes in co-located project work. But most of the time, people in the product development function were working across boundaries, across physical structures and across reporting lines in virtual teams. This is an emerging feature of global organizations, especially those in high tech industries.

The KM team needed a framework for great practice in virtual team leadership. There was precious little information around that suited the context at Orange. At the time, Orange participated in a network of industries on the subject of knowledge and innovation (KIN), overseen by Warwick Business School where a project on virtual teams was underway and Orange was taking part. The project's outcome was a series of key points that summarized good practice in this field. The KM team took these points and added Orange anecdotes and stories to make a source book. This was then developed into a collaborative training program to include familiarity on communication methods as well as an action-learning workshop on virtual team leadership.

Further work was undertaken to assess specific virtual teams using a questionnaire method, report and coaching. The pilots went well and acted as an important tool in team building.