How do you match virtual team tools to your company culture?

Culture is the most important element while deciding the right tools for virtual connect. Unless the right culture to collaborate, share & engage, maintain knowledge centrally, along with apt governance exists, the virtual teams tools will not help. We should first look at the culture, our audience, various skill groups, geographic spread etc and then assess various factors like social collaboration, knowledge collaboration, transparency and visibility of ongoing work, content accessibility, and integration options to pull data from various other sources too…

Understanding the organization’s culture is important, but it is also essential to understand the organization’s vision. When the organization’s vision is clearly communicated and understood by the team, it will be easier to select the optimal virtual team tools to use. The team will adopt new technologies if necessary and will adapt to existing tools as long as those are in concordance with the organization’s medium and long term objectives.

More than just your current culture, think about your aspirational culture. Once the team is clear on the culture they want, selecting tools to support it will be easier.

When identifying your needs, don't just focus on skills and tasks for challenges and outcomes. Prioritize accessibility too. Incorporating accessibility when choosing virtual tools for your company is ethical and strategic. Addressing employees with disabilities enhances inclusivity, fostering innovation. With accessible virtual tools, every employee can contribute effectively. This proactive approach showcases social responsibility, attracting talent and boosting productivity. Embracing accessibility aligns with modern values, amplifying your company's potential for success.

Once you have done this important inventory, look at your existing tool set. Make sure that there aren't options and features available that your team hasn't used before searching for a new, shiny object. If your existing tools can help in ways you haven't used, you will save money and perhaps gain acceptance and adoption much faster too.

Get clear as a team about which tools you use for the basics of comms and collaboration before you tackle more specialized tasks and tools. One, and only one, is your teams “home” tool. The better your team is at using a few tools deeply (esp Slack or Teams) the easier it is to explore new tools. When you’re ready, make sure those tools integrate easily into the one you’re already using. We often enough tools. We don’t have enough clarity on how we can use them best.