Most companies have a set of basic tools in place, without formal recommendations and procedures to help new employees to get connected to global collaboration. Some people do not adapt their communication style to the different types of technologies available, generating misunderstandings and conflicts. The chapter 21 of the Global Project Management book describes how the implementation of basic rules and practices can improve the efficiency of communications by e-mail and telephones.

The first step is to understand how the global team members see the use of e-mails, telephones and other basic technologies, identifying areas for improvement. The second step is to prepare an interview, adapting the questions to technologies used by your organization. You should include discussion topics for webmail, remote connections and other components of the basic infrastructure discussed under basic tools. The next step is to combine all the suggestions received with the basic recommendations in the book, and write the first set of good practices. You can use the same interview at a later stage in order to detect the effectiveness of the practices and to identify areas for improvement.

Types of good practices for basic collaboration techniques:

-          What to consider when writing e-mails

-          What to avoid in e-mail discussions

-          When to use telephones instead of e-mails

-          What to avoid in telephone discussions

-          Considerations of different time zones when using e-mails and telephones