Impersonal Teamwork: Effective or Not?

In The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams, Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps laud the success rate of virtual teams in the business world, saying that they tend work "under-budget," "ahead of schedule," and produce "breakthrough results." Using virtual teams eliminates commuter costs, and allows collaboration over broad distances, decreasing the time it takes to coordinate a project and facilitating focused communication.

When looking at the positives of virtual teams, the idea does seem enticing and innovative in the scope of the current technological setting. Everything is available with the click of a button: long reports can be sent in scannable, searchable PDFs or a company representative can update its client from across the country. Every day technology grows at a pace that makes everything easier, faster, better. In this climate, virtual teams seem to be the next logical step in keeping employees and executives up-to-date with the times. The caveat to virtual teams however is to make sure that the value of face-to-face, in-person communication isn't lost.

Working in the same space, or within a short walk's distance is something that can never be replaced. Working together in the same physical space allows team members to see how other members act and interact with others. This refers to situations outside of the realm of strictly work-related business. Over the internet, you can easily send work assignments back and forth quickly. Despite this advantage, you don't really "know" the person fully. Their likes and dislikes, hobbies and general demeanor allow you to know how to approach a person and see what angle that person is taking in approaching their work. This kind of understanding is absolutely invaluable.

Linking In to the Business World

As a college student, when I think of social networking the first thing that comes to mind is Facebook. With Facebook we meet people. People with similar interests. People who we go to school with. People who are friends of some of our closest friends. It is the go-to center of communication for your average student to have fun and make friends, but in the real world some of the most important connections one can make are career-oriented. Enter LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is an amazing tool for professional networking. It allows you to search for professionals in your field of study who can either provide advice on getting a job or hire you for a position. LinkedIn represents the way in which social media have drastically changed the way people interact with one another. The core of good networking - face to face interaction, persistence in communicating with potential employers- will never, and should never, diminish in the way we approach networking. While Facebook users can get sucked into social awkwardness by avoiding proper social interactions and hiding behind a computer screen, LinkedIn users can effectively use the website to enhance the experiences they have with their actual human interactions in the business world. It's no answer to social networking, but it's a valuable tool for finding that right answer.

LinkedIn has served as a valuable resource for finding industry professionals for me to speak with in assignments for some of my journalism classes. Recently, I wrote an article for a class about an online journalism project called the Chauncey Bailey Project, which investigated and solved the murder a Bay Area investigative journalist. I had to interview key players in the production of the project, and luckily enough for me all staff members were listed on the site. While some of them had links to e-mails, many had links to their LinkedIn profiles. I created a free one for myself after seeing this and was able to gather information about the people I would speak with. For some of them I couldn't even find email information and LinkedIn was the only way I could get in touch with them electronically. While the cost of maintaining a profile kept me from making a full one, it opened my eyes to the role and benefits that professional networking sites provide in business communication.