I’m taking a Project Management course this summer semester, and my main reading assignment is “The Distance Manager” by Kimball Fisher & Mareen Duncan Fisher. I have poured through the first 3 chapters so far and it has been awesome! Even though many of the management and organizational development principles outlines are targed at Distance Manangers, it seems to me that many of these are more and more applicable for regular project teams.
I saw a comic strip a while ago where a co-worker leans over the cubicle and asks the other team member, “Why won’t you answer my emails?” I think this illustrates the growing physical “disconnect” that can exist even within the same physical work location. My point is that because of the communication techology and other rapidly evolving factors, “Distance Management” principles are more and more applicable even in teams located on the same physical location.