‘‘If there is an office in the future,’’ wrote Charles Handy in a 1995 Harvard Business Review article2 on virtual work, ‘‘it will be more like a clubhouse: a place for meeting, eating, and greeting, with rooms reserved for activities, not for particular people.’’ Admittedly, most organizations haven’t reached that point yet, but the way we work has certainly changed dramatically since Handy’s mid-1990s predictions. Today, some organizations have created ‘‘hotelling’’ options for employees, in which they no longer have assigned offices, and it is increasingly common to leverage telecommuting and virtual teamwork.

To put this brave new world in context, consider the fact that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, few people had heard of virtual teams. At that time only a small number of companies were even using them. Today, of course, companies big and small are using some form of virtual collaboration.

Praise for Virtual Team Success

"There's no school for this yet, but when the first is established, Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance will certainly be the core curriculum."
—Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps, CEO and co-founders, NetAge

"Virtual Team Success is a must have for anyone managing geographically-dispersed teams. DeRosa and Lepsinger bring experience and credentials to guide us all through the labyrinth of problems that so often derail virtual teams. As our global businesses become increasingly complex, I can't imagine a more timely or better resource."
—Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar, vice president, talent management, The Gap

"For global teams that want to be top-performing, Virtual Team Success should be their team handbook. It's loaded with tools, checklists, models, and practical recommendations for working and leading from a distance. This is the kind of book virtual teams really need to be successful. I've been waiting for a book like this and look forward to recommending it as a resource that can help improve the performance of our teams!"
—Kathleen McGuire, manager organizational development, Bayer Healthcare HR Global Leadership Development

"Virtual teams are intended to make optimal use of expertise spread across the world, but performance excellence is the exception and mediocrity the rule. After extensive and careful study of real teams, DeRosa and Lepsinger have captured essential information, principles of operation, and tools in a highly readable volume that can help thoughtful readers elevate the performance of the teams significantly. The practical focus, collection of techniques and tools, and "how to" tips provide an essential foundation for anyone with virtual team responsibility. The organization of the book centered around challenges, differentiators, and lessons will facilitate finding answers to any problem the team faces. The RAMP model makes it easy to focus on what's important in enabling top performance."
—Mike Beyerlein, professor, Organizational Leadership, Purdue University