It is tough staying in close contact with all those we need to in business these days, isn’t it?
Business is global of course, which means we all are dealing with an increasingly complex worldwide network of customers, regional subsidiaries, strategic partners, and consultants who are critical to our business success. The actual distance between many of those in our business networks is growing, and at a rapid pace.
Inside our own headquarters or company subsidiary, we’re also often so busy that it is also very difficult finding the time to listen to and share ideas with our bosses, peers, and employees. In this case, the apparent distance between us and those we should be communicating with more often is also growing.
So how do we all deal with this? For the best of us out there, we carefully allocate our time for the personal contacts we feel are musts, then make the best use we can of the modern tools of email, social networking structures, smartphones, and voicemail to keep in touch with the rest. Because the problem is both so big and so complex, however, the end result is often that we end up leaving many of those we need to stay connected with much too isolated.
Thankfully, there are solutions for this.
According to our most recent podcast guest Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski (shown at left), Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Distance International, one of the first steps is to be able to measure the effective “Virtual Distance” between members of a company team. The obvious problems which were known before will surface quickly, of course, but more subtle issues that are perhaps equally or more critical will also become visible. From there both short-term fixes and long-term process changes can be made that can dramatically improve team and company connections.
In our podcast interview with Dr. Lojeski, she also tells us about some of the false steps some companies have made as they have tried to solve this problem in too reactive a fashion, plus shares comments on the value of social networking tools such as Facebook or MySpace in shortening the “virtual distance” between us as individuals.
It’s an important podcast, and we encourage you to listen in. You can connect directly by clicking on the link below.
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