Karen Sobel Lojeski - The Power of Virtual Distance: A Guide to Productivity and Happiness in the Age of Remote Work

1. Preface
2. Introduction
3. Chapter 6

1. Preface
2. Introduction
3. Chapter 1
4. Chapter 3
5. Chapter 4
6. Chapter 5
7. Chapter 6
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Appendix 2
12. Appendix 3

Second Edition

KAREN SOBEL LOJESKI, PH.D.

RICHARD R. REILLY, PH.D.

2020 by Karen Sobel Lojeski and Richard R. Reilly. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 7508400, fax (978) 6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 7486011, fax (201) 7486008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Virtual Distance is a registered trademark of Virtual Distance International LLC

Soul-Based Leadership and Soul-Based Living are trademark pending by Karen Sobel Lojeski.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Sobel Lojeski, Karen, author. | Reilly, Richard R., author.

Title: The power of virtual distance : a guide to productivity and happiness in the age of remote work / Karen Sobel Lojeski, Ph.D., Richard R. Reilly, Ph.D.

Other titles: Uniting the virtual workforce

Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, [2020] | Earlier edition published as: Uniting the virtual workforce : transforming leadership and innovation in the globally integrated enterprise.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019058455 (print) | LCCN 2019058456 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119608592 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119608615 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119608622 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Virtual work teamsManagement. | CommunicationTechnological innovations--Psychological aspects. | Alienation (Social psychology) | Employee motivation. | Organizational effectiveness. | Virtual reality in management.

Classification: LCC HD66 .S648 2020 (print) | LCC HD66 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/022dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058455

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058456

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Image: Jackie Niam/Getty Images

Richard Reilly: For my wife, Laura

Karen Sobel Lojeski: For my husband, Paul

Ten years ago, we published our first book about Virtual Distance.

And what we predicted would happen, did happen.

Virtual Distance has continued to spread around the world. It impacts not only business performance but also families, education, healthcare, and any institution or community where people interact and communicate.

The concerns we had about Virtual Distance becoming an intensifying force pushing us toward an increased sense of social isolation and a reduced feeling of well-being are now mainstream. Discussions in popular media and policy-making circles attest to the concern over the declines that Virtual Distance continues to create.

Our early data documented the impact Virtual Distance has on various key outcomes. Since our first book we've collected a much larger data set of more than 1400 studies covering more than three dozen industries spread over 55 different countries over the last fifteen years. As we report in this book, the additional data confirms and expands upon our earlier findings. The statistical relationships between Virtual Distance and critical success factors are further validated with a much larger sample. The trend data also tell us that Virtual Distance is deepening and the effects are getting bigger. We suggest that leaders regard Virtual Distance as being foundational, rather than tangential to high-level organizational strategies.

Through our collaborations with organizations that employ more than five million people across the globe we can also report some good news. We've found that predictive solution sets put forth in the original work, along with strategies and tactics developed in our consulting and advisory practice since, can dramatically reduce Virtual Distance and improve business results with predictable accuracy. These strategies also open doors into a renewed and felt sense of human connectedness and relationship vitality that enhance almost every aspect of life lived in the digital age.

Simply put, Virtual Distance is a measurable social and emotional disconnect (conscious or unconscious) that arises when we increasingly rely on digitally mediated communication technology. We detail the Virtual Distance Model in but provide a brief summary here to highlight key points.

As shown in , Virtual Distance is composed of three major factors:

• Physical Distance: