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Virtual teams have become the new normal as a consequence of globalization and talent shortages. To foster growth and innovation, companies increasingly rely on global virtual teams, with compelling benefits for the workplace and marketplace. In the workplace, organizations benefit from deploying and developing their best internal talent, promoting a global perspective, deciding how to best allocate resources, building local stakeholder commitment, and improving innovation capabilities. In the marketplace, benefits range from understanding cultural norms at the local level and improving forecast accuracy, to better customer retention, identifying and addressing risks and benefits, and achieving scale and local relevance.

Traditionally, global teams were assembled based on obtaining the right mix of functional skills (marketing, manufacturing, finance, and compliance, for example), without being purposeful about other diverse factors, including cultural background, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. In fact, considering these diversity factors can provide the essential spark that leads to breakthrough thinking and provides greater career visibility for diverse talent. Leveraging diversity and inclusion When teams represent a diverse mix of geographies, nationalities, ethnicities, genders, and functions, being successful requires best practices in diversity and inclusion (D&I). Diversity is defined here as all kinds of differences and similarities, whether visible (such as age and gender) or characteristics that may not be seen on the surface (such as values, thinking styles, and sexual orientation). Inclusion is the purposeful practice of encouraging different viewpoints and creating an environment in which everyone feels accepted and contributes fully. Put another way, diversity means inviting a mix of people to the party; inclusion means everyone dances together. Talent and D&I leaders have to provide clarity about what inclusive behaviors look like, and provide training and reinforcement to maximize success on global virtual teams. Inclusion + teamwork = better results Research from multiple sources has confirmed the importance of D&I to promote high-performing teams: Recent research from the Conference Board demonstrates that the most innovative companies are four times more likely to be highly inclusive than those with sporadic innovation. Amy Edmondson from the Harvard Business School found that psychological safety, which encourages interpersonal risk taking, is a key indicator of highperforming teams. PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that innovation, a vital source for growth, requires not only new ideas, but also increased collaboration and a culture that rewards challenging the status quo. The Center for Talent Innovation found that serial innovation, which is sustainable for the long term, is directly related to leveraging D&I. When leaders promote D&I, employees are 3.5 times more likely to contribute fully and such companies are 45 percent more likely to improve market share. In the article How Diversity Makes Us Smarter, Scientific American reports that to build teams best equipped to innovate, diversityand the ability to leverage differencesis a requirement. Given the importance and ubiquity of global teams, it is somewhat surprising that implementation of proven processes to enhance D&I have not been standard operating procedure. While some organizations have team approaches such as Six Sigma (a set of tools and techniques designed to reduce defects or improve outcomes, such as reduced process cycle time or higher profits) or formal innovation processes, these often are not combined with explicitly addressing diverse virtual team interactions. Because of the added layer of complexity of global virtual teams, the need to address this is particularly important. To consider if your organization could benefit from a more systematic process and framework for global virtual teams, answer these questions: What is the additional value we could obtain if our virtual teams were fully effective? Are we capturing best practices for remote team interactions that can be applied more broadly and continually refined? Do current organizational processes inhibit or enhance virtual team effectiveness?