What: CIO News article interviewing CIOs who believe virtual collaboration tools enable creativity when properly chosen and implemented.
Posts to which it is related: Virtual Teams – Beneficial or Detrimental?, Leading to Increase Commitment in Virtual World Collaboration, The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web.
Bottom Line: The article recaps what several CIOs had to say during an MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. The broad discussion question was about balancing between standardization and efficiency on the one hand and enabling creativity on the other. The CIOs on the panel generally believed that implementing virtual collaboration tools for efficiency may be one issue, but that it in no way thwarts innovation. They discuss some of the creative ways in which corporations are using company-wide virtual collaboration technologies to encourage and enable creativity and innovation.

What: An article in Rochester, NY’s Democrat and Chronicle highlighting how successful virtual team leadership can be accomplished with basic leadership principles.
Posts to which it is related: Lesson from the Military for Collaboration in Virtual Teams, Building Trust in Virtual Teams.
Bottom Line: The author suggests that many leadership principles from non-virtual contexts can help leaders of virtual teams be effective and successful. The principals that apply to both contexts are: 1) communication is crucial, 2) team member involvement must be encouraged, even when geographically dispersed, 3) rewards, recognition, and small celebrations can help keep up morale. The author points out that while virtual collaboration is often adopted for its efficiency benefits, the human touch is still crucial.

What: Business Week book review of Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise by Karen Sobel Lojeski and Richard R. Reilly.
Posts to which it is related: Manipulate Perceptions to Improve Virtual Team Performance, Rethinking the Value of Virtual Worlds for Virtual Team Collaboration.
Bottom Line: The authors of this book focus on the idea that technology makes it very possible to work or collaborate virtually, but that the psychological experience of doing so much be taken into account by managers and those doing virtual work. They use the term “virtual distance” to highlight the feeling of being isolated when telecommuting or doing regular virtual work.