According to Albert Mehrabian’s research, a message is conveyed 55 percent by body language and 38 percent by tone of voice. That leaves just 7 percent for the actual words. On the phone, the message is conveyed 87 percent by tone of voice, and just 13 percent by the words. Communication is obviously more than what is coming out of your mouth – and that presents a great difficulty for geographically-dispersed teams.

When you can’t watch for body language or hear the tone of someone’s words (which is notoriously hard to do in emails!), it can difficult to get at real meaning. Throw in a language barrier, and you have quite a challenge. But not an insurmountable one.

Clear communication is one of the pillars of effective global teams. Implementing a sound governance structure based on the Centre of Excellence approach enables you to reach people and deliver your message, even if you’re not face-to-face. It also enables team members to have their voice and know that it is being heard.

• 24/7 Communication. Scheduling a 3:00pm meeting is fine. But whose 3:00? If you’re in Ontario, it’ll be after midnight in India and 3:00AM in Hong Kong and the Philippines. To make global teams work, you communicate during the team’s work day. You’re on a 24 hour clock, and you need to meet across time zones. When we were working on a global SaaS solution, we had 5:00AM calls with Hong Kong and 11:00PM calls with India. You have to get people when they’re awake and working so you can get input from as many people as possible. This is essential for buy-in.
• Communication Tools. Is coffee a tool? It should be, because you’re going to need it for those early morning/late night meetings! Technology allows us to do more than pick up the phone, though that’s helpful and expedient. We can Skype and video conference, which enables us to catch on to body language and nonverbal cues; we can use email and repositories like SharePoint to share information and ensure everyone, regardless of location, has access to key documents in real-time.
• Minuting Expectations. Recording decisions and actions is important because we can eliminate misunderstandings. We know exactly what we have to do and by when. It nails down specifics on accountabilities to ensure everyone is aware of their responsibilities.
• In-person Meetings. When possible, bringing teams together is incredibly helpful. You might not be able to fly everyone to a central location, but why not bring Southeast Asia teams to Manila, for instance? For our global SaaS implementation, we did just that. We included a few people from North America and were able to have meetings, decide next steps, and provide training.
• Project Lead Meetings. Having these key people in a central location a few times during the project allows you to make major announcements, discuss processes, provide training, and tackle other goals. Leads come away with an understanding of the project rationale and alignment with strategy. They can communicate that out to their individual teams.

A note on face-to-face meetings: research indicates that to have these meetings early in the project lifecycle can make them more effective. As well, if you are able to have multiple meetings, schedule them at predictable times gives participants the chance to plan and “save” complex topics for FTF time. Teams that meet predictably outperform those who meet on an as-needed basis.

Whenever and however possible, you have to get people together Communicate endlessly. When you pull it off, the results are dynamite because people know what is going on, they know what they are supposed to do, and they buy into the project because they have ownership of it. They’re not a bunch of people scattered all over the world. They’re a team – and a powerful one at that.