Teamwork across time and space

Abstract

Many corporations have invested millions of dollars in communications technology to support global teamwork, only to be disappointed when expected improvements in performance fail to materialize. It is easy to forget that though technology creates business opportunities by enabling us to communicate with colleagues on the other side of the world, we cannot rely on technology alone to capture them. Human relationships are still paramount. Effective teamwork is hard to pull off at the best of times, but when team members come from different cultures, speak different languages, and live on different continents, it can seem beyond reach. Working across time and space can lead to misunderstandings, shoddy results, and unlooked-for extra expense. The answer, this article argues, is for teams to take steps to build common beliefs, trust, and a shared space to compensate for the human elements that are invariably lost when members work together, yet apart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]