A topic of conversation that has recently become popular is the rapid adoption of video games by casual players. People who never played video games before and are relatively inexperienced gamers are now gaming regularly. We need to look no further than the success of the Nintendo Wii to see how the influx of casual gamers is changing the landscape of video games. Many “hard core,” or long time, gamers feel that the surge of casual players into the gaming arena has lowered the quality of games that are made and has changed both the hardware and the way in which games are played. How does this relate to virtual teams? Just like gaming has seen a surge in casual use, I feel that virtual teams are starting to be adopted more frequently by casual, or inexperienced, users. Like video gaming, this is changing the way in which virtual meetings are conducted and virtual teams are managed. In this post, I would like to discuss:

• What I think the changes are in virtual teams brought about by casual users and
• What the implications of this are for virtual teams.

As we often discuss on Leading Virtually, virtual teams are being adopted at a rapid rate due to advances in inexpensive and easy to use technology, globalization of businesses, and an increase in the popularity of telecommuting. Because of this adoption, those who are not skilled or well versed in the nuances of running a virtual team or being a member of a virtual team are becoming regular users of virtual technology. We write many articles discussing the “best practices” that virtual team leaders and participants should follow to make the most effective use of their virtual team time. These best practices are based on academic research. In my opinion, casual virtual team members do not have the time to read research and care little about the best practices of virtual teams as they see no use in applying these practices. They do not realize that virtual team meetings are very different from face to face meetings and that different methods must be adopted to make a virtual team meeting more effective. For instance, a colleague of mine at work conducts a virtual meeting once a week. It is her first encounter with virtual teams; however, she does not think that the meeting is much different than a face to face meeting. This leads to meetings that she describes as being highly ineffective and lasting longer than two hours with little getting accomplished. She absolutely despises her virtual team meetings, which are conducted by a geographically dispersed team. Little does she know that virtual collaboration has many advantages and that with a little bit of research she could turn her ineffective virtual team into an effective one.

Because casual virtual team users are becoming more prevalent and outnumber seasoned virtual team users, I hypothesize that virtual teams will become more ineffective as time progresses. As technology becomes easier to use, more casual users will jump on the virtual team bandwagon due to its convenience. In my opinion, this will lead to mismanaged virtual teams and will make businesses look at virtual teams as inefficient tools that fail to get the job done. There are instances when virtual teams are absolutely necessary because of geographical displacement; however, they will not be run effectively unless casual users embrace current research and best practices about virtual teams. We noted that there are many advantages to virtual teams and virtual collaboration; these would all be lost once businesses develop a negative opinion of virtual teams.

What can we do to change this? Those reading this post clearly understand and the embrace the connection between virtual teams, academia, and business best practices. The challenge is in taking the knowledge generated over the years and making it interesting to the masses so that it creates an awareness about the benefits and best practices in relation to virtual teams. By embracing the new “casual” user of virtual teams, we can ensure that all virtual team members will be engaged during virtual team meetings and that virtual teams will always be seen as an effective tool for collaboration. This requires us to make interesting and poignant connections with everyday business life that these casual users can relate to when reading about virtual teams. Since many of the things discussed on our site and other sites are very intricate, this is hard to do. However, I think that it is absolutely necessary to embrace this casual user as this is the direction that virtual teams are moving in. What do you think? Do you think that casual, or inexperienced, virtual team users are endangering virtual teams? If so, what can we do to change this and engage this user?