Innovation Through Virtual Teams

Course overview

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and COVID-19 have dramatically changed how we work, from offline to online, from PC to mobiles, and from email to messaging apps and high-definition video conferences. It has facilitated the increasingly globalized nature of business and has given us better ways to collaborate and communicate. It has become the norm to work with colleagues and customers across town and across the planet as members of Global Virtual Teams (GVTs). How to effectively work with our colleagues on GVTs defines our success and that of our organizations.

In this course, students will learn how to communicate and collaborate effectively and how to use technology and tools to drive innovation from Global Virtual Teams, both as team members and as team leaders. By the end of the course, students will have gained the knowledge and skills required to work effectively with their colleagues worldwide. They will understand the different social dynamics of remote work – how to build trust, manage conflict, ensure results, ideate, overcome cultural and linguistic gaps and use technology to mitigate social distance, all while driving innovation and creating value.

As the class is a GVT, students will be able to apply what they learn throughout the course through interactions with classmates. Each student will be assigned to work in a group that will create a group research project on “Creating a Virtual Learning Team,” reporting back to the class and making presentations on Day 6. Decisions made on how to collaborate with classmates, based on Days 1- 5, will be captured in the group project and individual reflection. Students can apply knowledge gained from this course on the job and in future GLOBIS online courses.