VTSI Background

Key Benefits of the VTSI

Traditional 360-degree assessments suffer from two particular drawbacks that the VTSI addresses.

• The VTSI generates personalized reports that are written in plain English and easy to interpret. They are loaded with development advice that can be acted on immediately. It is not necessary to employ a consultant to interpret the reports for you, but the VTSI may well be used by team coaches as part of their toolkit.
• The VTSI is extremely cost effective. A single fee of 495 Canadian Dollars allows the creation of a team assessment with up to 10 team members and 6 external reviewers. Contact Calliope Learning if you have larger teams.
• The VTSI is easy to administer. The online system takes care of everything for you, from generating email invitations to collating feedback, and generating reports.
• In the VTSI, raters are only asked to give feedback in areas that they know about. Traditional 360s ask for all raters to answer the same multichoice questions.
• The VTSI allows raters to enter their own specific feedback within the proven competency structure.
• In the VTSI, feedback is provided in a qualitative form that lists a ratee's specific strengths and weaknesses. Traditional 360s provide quantitative feedback that is harder to work with. For example, in a 360 taken by Dave Whittington, one of the authors of this system, he scored 46/50 for ethics and for creativity but only 39/50 for style. This type of feedback is hard to work with!

The VTSI is an international service, hosted in Canada. It complies with the Government of Canada's concerns regarding the USA Patriot Act. All data is stored on Canadian servers. International teams gain the benefit of an excellent exchange rate.

What are the features of the VTSI?

• Similar to 360-degree assessments, the VTSI draws on multiple perspectives to get a clear picture of a team's skills.
• The VTSI identifies strengths and development areas for teams and individuals through easy to understand qualitative reports.
• The inventory identifies opportunities for team learning by identifying potential coaching partnerships.
• The VTSI looks at a team from within and from an external perspective to reduce the risk of skill blind spots.
• The VTSI can be used with intergenerational and/or multicultural teams ... any team that requires clear and explicit communication.
• Although the inventory has been created with virtual teams in mind, it is just as applicable to all types of traditional and modern teams.
• The inventory is based on many decades of experience working in virtual teams and is structured on the VASE model.

How The VTSI Works

VTSI coordinators can create assessments and then invite team members and external reviews to take part. If you've received an invitation to take part you will also have received a login name and password.

What is the VASE Model?

The VASE model has been developed to help individuals, teams and organizations to understand and address some of the challenges of working with virtual teams. It is based on over 40 years collective virtual teaming experience and some recent research and development work based at Royal Roads University in partnership with Calliope Learning. The framework has four components: (1) build and maintain a Vision, (2), check Assumptions, (3), take a Systems approach, and (4) Expect white water. Each component has an associated set of competencies that we have found contribute to virtual team success.

Build and Maintain a Vision

Building and maintaining a vision is a critical component of virtual teams. According to Peter Senge, a vision is a picture of the future you seek to create, described in the present tense, as if it were happening now. The literature on virtual and face-to-face teamwork emphasizes the need for a team's goal and purpose to be well understood, shared among all team members and revisited at regular intervals. This may seem like common sense but Murphy's Law tells us that wherever there are opportunities for miscommunication then we need to pay careful attention. If team members are heading in different directions then a team doesn't really exist.

Checking Assumptions

While checking assumptions is a key skill for any teamwork, it becomes imperative in virtual and horizontal teamwork because so many taken for granted conditions are challenged. Remember that on virtual teams when things are not said, they may not exist. It is important to continually check assumptions about the three Cs of working in teams - communication, coordination and collaboration.

Taking a Systems View

Whether we are conscious of it or not, everything we do affects everything else in one way or another. Within virtual teams, there are intra-team and inter-team systems which need to be identified and dealt with on an ongoing basis. The flexibility of time and space inherent in virtual teams can make it difficult at times to see connections to the larger intra/inter team systems. Without regular attention to the intra/inter-team system dynamics, the ability of the team to effectively and efficiently reach its goal is compromised.

Expect White Water

Permanent white water is a term used by Peter Vaill to describe the complex, churning and ever-changing environment in which most of us find ourselves in our personal and professional lives. Most people are comfortable with some changes (i.e. in their field of expertise, with technology) but not others (i.e. organizational structural changes). However, what is needed is the development of skills to become comfortable around all sorts of changes. By not looking for stability but rather embracing and even expecting white water conditions, we need to become good learners, and, in particular, really good at being beginners.

What will you get out of the VTSI?

• An opportunity to assess your own virtual team strengths and areas for development
• An opportunity to provide similar feedback to others on your team in an anonymous manner
• An opportunity for others outside of your team to provide you with valuable feedback
• An individualized report that
• lists your individual virtual team strengths and areas for development
• lists the virtual team strengths and areas for development of the team
• provides development and coaching suggestions
• suggests other resources that could help you develop your team skills

How do you complete the VTSI?

1. You will have received your username and password in an email. Please use these details to sign onto the VTSI at http://www.calliopelearning.com/vtsi
2. Allow 30-45 minutes to complete an assessment for EACH member of your team. Remember that each assessment needs to be completed in ONE sitting.

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