Virtual teams made up of people in different physical locations are on the rise. As companies expand geographically and simple technology enables productivity from any location, shared work spaces and home offices are popping up everywhere!  Armed with laptops, smart phones, and cloud based technology- most professionals can do their jobs from anywhere.

And we are no exception.  Next month our LimeLight office will operate completely virtual. And we couldn’t be more excited! We work with organizations right across the country, most of whom we have never met. So for our clients, there will be very little impact. But for our team, we want to maintain our culture and our close connectivity.  Not for accountability, but for the purely positive effect that happens when like-minded people come together. There’s a real synergy!

I have been doing a lot of reading on virtual teams since our decision to give up our office space.  I want to make sure our team feels connected and that they understand the new way of working.  We have worked hard to build a culture of caring that starts with an informal check in over coffee every morning and then morphs midday into a family style lunch hour where we all bring our lunches of leftovers!  This is where we talk about personal things, but often it becomes the place to brainstorm a new marketing idea, or come up with a solution to a challenging client problem. Replicating this ‘virtual water cooler’ will be key. We have the wonderful advantage of having spent years together an office. It’s amazing that many virtual teams have never met one another. Here’s a great read on how to team build even when you aren’t in the same room!