As a new student at Royal Roads University in the MALAT program, the 2018 virtual symposium comes to a close. I look back on the more than 15 hours of content I have consumed and cannot help but have a paradoxical feeling excitement and anxiety. Each one to two hour webinar contains new ideas and concepts that I only recently became aware of. The main themes I took away from the experience were:
- The various branches of Open
- The role of technology and innovation
- Understanding people and culture in regards to open and technology, with potential clients and team members
- What the MALAT program will look like at the end of two years
I heard from others in my cohort express similar thoughts and fears which made me feel all-the-more comfortable in my new group of associates. Although we are from different backgrounds, experiences, and locations, I felt a sense of comradery as we each took turns asking questions setting the foundations of social presence (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000, p. 89). After experiencing the symposium, I know have a greater depth of understanding and my newfound perspective now alerts me when I see the use of creative commons, open tools, learning, and how my fellow cohort members might be feeling. It was this last point that might have made the greatest impact on me. I personally enjoy collaboration, but I understand how it can be difficult with group members across vast distances.
“What does it take to build effective virtual teams?” (Dyck, 2018, 5:34) This was the question that Trish Dyck proposed to us at the beginning of her webinar titled Key Success Factors for Virtual Teams.
Throughout the webinar, Trish covered many factors of success but the one factor that carried the greatest magnitude for me was the concept of creating safe psychological space. Psychological safety is “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking” (Edmondson, 2009, p. 350). Findings in studies like Google’s Aristotle Project (Google LLC, 2014) and other research, state that “trust and psychological safety [have a significant impact on] intention to continue sharing knowledge” (Zhang, Fang, Wei, Chen, 2010, p. 432). However, “strategies such as these lay the foundation for developing a psychologically safe work environment over time” (Vincent, 2017, para. 15). Within the MALAT cohort, our conundrum is this: in our group we will only be working with some of our cohort members for one or perhaps two weeks, therefore a new question arises, how do we effectively create a space for psychological safety to allow for sharing of knowledge and ideas under a very short timeframe?
Dr. Elizabeth Childs mentioned in the chat that Moore’s concept of Transactional Distance is what [the MALAT programs] is trying to mitigate in some ways by turning on cameras; by sharing; by being human and authentic (Childs, 2018). As Elizabeth said “based on the feedback that [she] hears, it gets easier as we go through the program” (Childs, 2018).
Childs, E. (2018). personal communication.
Dyck, T. 2018, April 18). Key Success Factors for Virtual Teams [Video Webinar]. Retrieved from https://ca.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/playback
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from http://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Performance/Edmondson Psychological safety.pdf
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6
Google LLC. (2014). Re:Work. Retrieved April 26, 2018, from https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/
Vincent, S. (2017, January 5). Psychological Safety Characterizes High-Performing Teams. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.pressganey.com/blog/psychological-safety-characterizes-high-performing-teams
Zhang, Y., Fang, Y., Wei, K., & Chen, H. (2010). Exploring the role of psychological safety in promoting the intention to continue sharing knowledge in virtual communities. International Journal of Information Management, (30), 425-436. Retrieved April 22, 2018, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401210000289
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