Virtual Teams: Reaching Across Space, Time, and Organization with Technology.

Virtual teams - groups of people who collaborate closely even though they are separated by space, time, and organizational barriers - are now proliferating around the world, thanks to modern communications technology.

These teams are erasing the old 50-foot rule - "If people are more than

In their latest book, Lipnack and Stamps tell many interesting stories about how companies are using virtual teams to gain a competitive edge in a fast-changing economy.

Corporate cultures pose a stiff, but not insurmountable, challenge to adopting virtual teams. Sun Microsystems, for example, had long prided itself on its "hero mentality," in which a lone genius in its free-wheeling culture was often credited for a key innovation. But Sun decided to tamper with its successful culture and try cross-boundary teams. The company-wide "Sun Teams" had great success in improving customer satisfaction.

The NCR Corporation created a virtual team of more than 1,000 people working at 17 locations to develop a next-generation computer system. Using a high-speed full-bandwidth audio/video/data link, the virtual team completed the project on budget and ahead of schedule.

Virtual teams can also link up separate organizations to achieve common goals. An interesting example is how arch rivals in the men's magazine market - Men's Health, Rolling Stone, and Esquire - got together and created a virtual team that won a big advertising contract. Advertising agency Goodby Silverstein challenged the three by saying it would either buy its new ad campaign from the three of them together or from a different group of magazines that included Sports Illustrated, far and away the leading men's magazine. The three magazines quickly created a virtual team and won the contract.

Virtual Teams has broad appeal and is very user-friendly. Readers can quickly skim the main ideas, which are highlighted throughout the text in pull-out quotes, or easily identify where to find supporting details, case studies, or how-to tools.