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Yes, distance relationships can work

Posted 4 September 2007 at 8:30AM by Simon Dickson in Doing business online

Virtual teams are becoming a standard feature of the modern workplace. More people working from home; more companies working with outside agencies and consultants; more work being outsourced to the other side of the world; and more people increasingly comfortable with online working methods. (Bear in mind, I've seen colleagues emailing and instant-messaging with people sat barely ten feet away.) But how do you get the best out of distant working relationships like these?

Researchers led by Lynda Gratton of London Business School have identified 'ten golden rules' to make virtual teams more productive: top of the list is an online way for the team to learn quickly about one another. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, she suggests that social networking tools can help make the necessary personal connections; arguably, it could be as simple as Facebook friendship. 'Our research showed that such practices are often unfamiliar to those who graduated from college years ago,' she accepts, 'but they can be enormously powerful when used in virtual teams.'

She also recommends the creation of a shared online workspace that can be accessed round the clock, allowing the team members to continuously follow the progress and insights of their colleagues. There are numerous options: Microsoft's SharePoint is attracting a lot of attention at the moment (and is the technology behind our own product, BT Workspace), but there are dedicated followings for more lightweight tools like Basecamp and Active Collab. Services like Elance, which connect you with freelancers around the world, often include interactive workspaces as part of the package.

Lynda also advises that you pick the right individuals for teams like these: start with a few people who already know each other, and include people with good connections around the organisation (but not too many). And to keep the team focused and motivated, it's important to choose interesting and meaningful work which can be broken up into modules.

Tags: activecollab, basecamp, bt workspace, facebook, lynda gratton, sharepoint, virtual teams

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