The “virtual team” has been the natural outgrowth of globalization. On a recent Stratos, LLC team development project, some of the team members were based in Moscow, others in the Far East, some in Houston, and still others in Ohio. The basic workday for all of the team members spanned the entire 24 hours of the clock. To even function as a team, much less excel, was a challenge.

These globe-spanning virtual teams are becoming increasingly more common. Another type of virtual team, the co-located team, has been around for a long time. These teams are usually project teams where part of the team is based at the project location and part is based at company headquarters.

Modern communications tools like e-mail, video conferencing, and shared databases are clearly the technological glue that is supposed to bond these virtual teams together. Two popular phrases during the initial boom of the Internet were the “death of distance” and “geography doesn’t matter.” That hyperbole has generally proved insufficient in the face of needs of human systems. Experience has now shown that for working teams distance and geography do matter. To succeed, virtual teams need to implement communication protocols and work processes that will nurture the personal relationships essential to team success. From experience of working with a number of virtual teams, Stratos has developed a team development process that addresses the specific team challenges created by time and geographic disconnections.