According to the KJR Manifesto, relationships precede process (Guideline #4) — before employees can work together effectively they first have to establish trust.

That’s hard enough when employees work in the same locale. Such factors as working on different floors or for rival managers can be enough to prevent it.

It’s harder when there’s no face-to-face interaction, as is the case when some employees work remotely, or when the entire enterprise is virtual. While telepresence technologies have improved, web conferencing software like WebEx and GoToMeeting, Instant Messaging (a necessity, by the way), e-mail, shared files … even teleconferencing … aren’t remotely close