The Long-Distance Team: Designing Your Team for the Modern Workplace

Design and cultivate remote work teams that actually work.

From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement--all from a distance.

Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location.

The 3Cs are

• Communication--While communication is a fundamental part of being human, it is also a critical foundation of successful work. Without it, teams break down.

• Collaboration--Remote leaders face the misguided belief that physical presence is required to have a collaborative team. The truth is that proximity has nothing to do with successful collaboration.

• Cohesion--This dimension includes decidedly nonstructural aspects, such as relationships, trust, and accountability. While difficult to measure, a team’s cohesion is critical to its success.

Using this framework, leaders of all levels will learn to assess, design, and develop their communication channels, methods for remote collaboration, and ability to foster cohesion to build successful long-distance teams. While a hybrid culture will be different, it can, when done right, be better than what existed before.

Kevin Eikenberry founded the Kevin Eikenberry Group in 1993 and is the cofounder of the Remote Leadership Institute. He is the creator of the membership-based leadership learning product the Remarkable Leadership Learning System. Eikenberry has twice been named one of Inc.’s Top 100 Leadership and Management Experts in the World. He is the author or coauthor of three bestsellers: Remarkable Leadership, From Bud to Boss, and The Long-Distance Leader.

Wayne Turmel is the cofounder of the Remote Leadership Institute. Turmel is the author or coauthor of seven nonfiction books, including The Long-Distance Leader, The Long-Distance Teammate, and Meet Like You Mean It.