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The Power of Virtual Distance

A Guide to Productivity and Happiness in the Age of Remote Work
Richard R. Reilly and Karen Sobel Lojeski
Wiley, 2020 
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Many workers feel increasingly disconnected and isolated due to the
unbridled use of digital communication technologies, organizational
divisiveness, and leaders who fail to nurture relationships and trust
throughout the workforce. Managers must work to shrink “Virtual Distance”
through connection and affinity, say founder and CEO of Virtual Distance
International Karen Sobel Lojeski and research psychologist Richard R.
 Reilly. The authors first drew attention to the phenomena of Virtual Distance
 in the book’s first edition in 2008. As they predicted, Virtual Distance has 
since become worse, and is threatening key business outcomes.

Take-Aways
• The widespread use of digital communication tools creates “Virtual
Distance” within organizations.
• Eliminating telework or forcing employees into open-concept
workplaces doesn’t shrink Virtual Distance.
• Physical separation represents just one component of Virtual Distance.
• Three main types of exclusion and separation increase Virtual Distance:
Physical, Organizational and Affinity.
• Assess the Virtual Distance within your organization, then make a
plan to reverse its effects.
• Today’s teams come together temporarily and remotely, allowing little
time for traditional cohesion.
• Adopt a new, “soul-based” leadership style to lessen Virtual Distance.

Summary
The widespread use of digital communication tools creates
“Virtual Distance” within organizations.
The widespread use of digital communication technologies, and workers’
increasing reliance on those tools, isolates individuals, even when they share
a workspace. This widening gap between workers creates a barrier to effective
collaboration and innovation. Managing Virtual Distance has, thus, grown
into a critical leadership responsibility. Analysis based on a global data set
proves that this new imperative affects firms and workers everywhere.

Unchecked, Virtual Distance grows. As the distance between employees,

managers, customers and other stakeholders expands, trust erodes
dramatically, as does leadership impact, creativity, performance, employee
engagement and overall organizational success. Leaders can stop and reverse
the decline by taking active measures. First, they must recognize, assess and
prioritize the problems Virtual Distance creates. Then, they should employ
new and traditional leadership and cultural techniques and practices that
reduce Virtual Distance across the enterprise.

Eliminating telework or forcing employees into open-concept

workplaces doesn’t shrink Virtual Distance.
Today most employees fit the description of a virtual worker: They use digital
means of communication, work remotely on a regular basis, or answer emails
and texts during evenings, weekends, while at professional events or on
 vacation.
 
Banning remote work or removing cubicles in favor of open work spaces
doesn’t help decrease Virtual Distance. Instead, work to reduce the various
forms of physical and relationship distance that exist between workers –

“
especially between those of different generations – leaders and stakeholders.

”
“Virtual Distance can be described as a felt sense of distance
that grows unconsciously when we rely heavily on mediated
communications through smart digital devices.”

Too few firms appear to manage the elements contributing to Virtual Distance
well. According to the research organization The Conference Board, a
majority of employees report dissatisfaction with workplace communications.
The fact that more and more workers engage in virtual work often
complicates the problem, but does not cause it.

Physical separation represents just one component of Virtual

Distance.
Numerous studies show that when people work thirty or more meters apart,
they may as well work a hundred miles apart. Thus, neither open floor plans
nor requiring employees to report to an office helps lessen Virtual Distance.
Indeed, firms which replace offices with open floor plans often see face-to-

“
face communications drop significantly – by 70% in some cases.

”
“All human beings need to feel as though they are part of
something bigger – and this remains elusive and unfulfilled in
the group known today as the virtual workforce.”

For most people and organizations, psychological factors contribute most to

Virtual Distance. Since researchers started formally studying the workforce a
century ago, the human need for interaction, feedback and recognition has
grown increasingly apparent. Drawn from Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne
Experiments in the 1920s and Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in the
1950s, and beyond, the data reveals that people’s psychological need for
meaningful social inclusion and interaction is as potent as their need for
physical sustenance and shelter.

Three main types of exclusion and separation increase Virtual

Distance: Physical, Organizational and Affinity.
Unfortunately, workplace culture often starves employees of psychological
sustenance. Physical distance facilitates exclusion, but it represents only the
smallest part of the problem. The main culprits of Virtual Distance include
 overreliance on digital communication tools, cultural gaps and poor
 leadership practices. 
The “Virtual Distance Model” describes the causes of workforce and
stakeholder alienation. The model consists of three components:

1. “Physical Distance” – This includes geographical separation, but it

also describes differences in time zones and the distance that silos
between an organization’s various departments create. According to a
Stanford University study, one in five workers worldwide have never
met their manager in person. This means people must build trust
without traditional go-to’s such as eye contact and non-verbal cues
possible only in face-to-face encounters. Yet people do establish trust
and rapport virtually. They lower Virtual Distance despite their
geographic distance. In many cases, people separated by division, time
zone and physical distance have much lower Virtual Distance than
people sitting right next to each other. Like physical distance, opposite
time zones can prove difficult though. For example, leaders should
balance meeting times to avoid burdening some people with middle of
the night meetings while team members at HQ, for example, always
meet during office hours. Work to break down the walls that create
collaborative distance between divisions across the organization.
2. “Operational Distance” – With or without technology, operational
snags often interrupt or downgrade communications. These issues
include bandwidth problems on video calls or delays in making
technologies work, or employees who have no time for meaningful
interactions because of their heavy workloads. Colleagues may write
unclear and out-of-context emails to one another, or make wrong
assumptions about others that cause them to misinterpret their
communication. Particularly during online meetings, participants often
lack full context, and email proves especially troublesome because it can
arrive at any hour, out of the blue, and the recipient has no idea of the
sender’s current state of mind. Email responses may come instantly or
several days later, again, without context. With several ongoing projects
and a heavy workload, people may misread texts or emails, or not read
and respond to them at all, especially when Virtual Distance is already
high between communicators.
3. “Affinity Distance” – Virtual Distance increases less from physical
distance than from Affinity Distance. When leaders overcome the
elements of Affinity Distance –cultural, relationship, social and
interdependence distance –they do more to reduce Virtual Distance
than lowering either Physical or Operational Distance. Cultural distance
doesn’t refer to language or national differences. It occurs when people
hold different values, or, more often, when they fail to discover each
other’s shared values. Relationship distance shrinks or expands
depending on how well people know each other – their historical ties,
including mutual friends or associates. People require trust to work well
 together, and familiarity breeds trust. Social distance increases
 wherever groups enjoy disparate social status, wealth and power. 
Emphasis on hierarchies and rank feeds social distance.
Interdependence distance decreases when teams, collaborators or
stakeholders feel like “they’re in the same boat” due to shared goals,
common purpose, and the rewards or consequences of their efforts and
outcomes.

Multi-industry, combined assessments reveal that Physical Distance accounts

for half as much Virtual Distance as Operational Distance, which, in turn,
proves only half as critical as Affinity Distance. Affinity Distance has four
times more of an effect on organizational success than Physical Distance, and
is more critical, overall, than Physical and Operational Distance combined.

Assess the Virtual Distance within your organization, then make a

plan to reverse its effects.
Estimate your firm’s Virtual Distance. Map the connections and various
distances between key people and/or teams. Don’t rely on email to gauge
meaningful organizational network activity, because people tend to send
more emails as Affinity Distance increases. Think about Physical,
Organizational and Affinity Distances. Look for your Critical Relationship
Paths: places where even slight improvements can greatly shorten distances.
Your analysis may not get everything perfectly right, but the exercise will help
you identify real and potential problem areas.

Develop a “Virtual Distance Action Plan” that prioritizes what you aim to
improve and how you’ll do it. Start with quick wins by addressing easier fixes
across each of the distance types. Leaders should consider the level of effort
and payoff for dealing with the issues of Virtual Distance’s three components.
Affinity Distance issues should always take priority because they cause the
most harm.

Where geographical distance is an issue, simple measures, such as getting on

a plane, might solve the problem. Take these quick wins, but remember that
solving Physical Distance issues will have less of a long-term effect on overall
Virtual Distance, and on your firm’s performance.

Improvements in Operational Distance should take priority over Physical

Distance issues. Such changes can include relatively easy measures, such as
managing time zone challenges, upgrading technology and ensuring the right
people know how to use it, or longer-term measures, like improving the
clarity and frequency of communications.

When lowering Affinity Distance, first consider trust. Deep, long-lasting trust
is difficult to build, thus, you may only achieve shallow and short-term trust.
This base level of trust may, nevertheless, suffice for project-based work.
Select people who exhibit high trust naturally or even this level of trust may
 not develop. Otherwise, instill shared values, deliberately connect co-workers
 beyond social media, and ensure that leaders recognize people for their pro- 
social behavior.

Today’s teams come together temporarily and remotely, allowing

little time for traditional cohesion.
Teams today barely resemble those from decades past. People come together
more like jazz ensembles – temporarily – to work on discrete projects. Given
the transience of teams, try to ensure that at least some members know each
other, or share common interests and social circles.

Where teams work remotely, remember that teleconferencing tools, including

video, only work well when Virtual Distance between the members is low.
Make sure that team members share a common understanding of a project’s
vision and objectives, otherwise, communication technologies will only drive

“
deeper disconnect.

”
“Making decisions to bring people back into the same location
because it seems like this will predictably improve outcomes is
based on an assumption that is not supported by the data.”

Don’t expect to create team cohesion by forcing everyone into a room

together. Counterintuitively, putting teams in open-concept work
environments often results in less face-to-face interaction. In many cases,
separation may actually drive more creativity. To get the best of both worlds,
bring teams together physically at the start of a project, if possible, and again
when complex issues arise. This allows team members to build relationships
and deeper trust.

Adopt a new, “soul-based” leadership style to lessen Virtual

Distance.
Organizations require a new form of leadership. Foremost, leaders must
communicate clearly and often to overcome the cloak of invisibility. Leaders
must strive to humanize work and bring life to organizations through the
principles of soul-based leadership. This means encouraging team members
to experience each other as real, live humans, even if they never meet face-to
face. Leaders must work to ensure virtual workers get to know each other
personally. Do this by encouraging personal storytelling, emotion and as
much laughter as possible in meetings. Soul-based leaders also emphasize
team empathy. They know the importance of having team members who can
take each other’s perspectives, and understand differing points of view.
 “
 
“Soul-Based leaders actively seek out disconfirming

”
information and exercise how to see things from others’ points
of view, which then enables them to express empathy more
often as they reduce Virtual Distance.”

Leaders should deliberately practice these approaches, both on-the-job and

through personal reflection. Quietly conjure scenarios (actual or imagined)
and picture yourself acting in those scenarios. Observe your words and
behaviors. Consider your thinking. Practice mindfulness. Find a quiet place
and practice conscious breathing. Think about how you feel. Practice pausing
before you react. Slow down your thinking so that you don’t do or say things
reflexively. Shed your leadership bad habits. Use soul-based leadership to
stop, reverse and manage Virtual Distance.

About the Authors

Karen Sobel Lojeski leads Virtual Distance International, a research and
consulting firm that helps organizations manage Virtual Distance. Professor
emeritus Richard R. Reilly taught in the Stevens Institute of Technology
School of Business.

This document is restricted to the personal use of Yogi Bassie (yogi.eng@hotmail.com)

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