Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric said it best: the economy today is going througha fundamental “reset.” The old rules just don’t apply anymore. We are seeing a genuine explosion of distributed/mobile/flexible work across all market segments, including large organizations, small businesses, and free agents/entrepreneurs. In fact, our research suggests that fully 15% of the U.S. workforce now spends one or more days a week working outside a corporate facility, and we project that number to grow beyond 25% within the next five years. (1) Describe the economic “reset” that is changing the rules for creating value;

(2) Discuss the rise of mobile work and virtual teams and the challenges to

managers;

(3) Suggest a basic set of guidelines for keeping the members of distributed teams

in touch with each other, with their joint activity, and with the organization as a whole.

Yet managing mobile workers and distributed teams can be an enormously difficult challenge. When your staff is working asynchronously and at great distances from each other, keeping them focused on their tasks and connected with each other and the larger organization often seems impossible. But connecting and engaging distributed, or virtual, teams  It’s not simple, but it is certainly doable; and the payoff in increased productivity and performance makes the effort well worthwhile.