Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski is Chief Executive Officer of Virtual Distance
International (VDI). Karen co-founded Virtual Distance International in 2004 to
help organizations create meaningful, satisfying, productive workplaces where
people and institutions can thrive in the Digital Age.
At a time when many people are working virtually and communicating with their
colleagues primarily through e-mail and other computer-mediated means, Karen
and her VDI colleagues have created a much-needed methodology for measuring
Virtual Distance - a psychological gap that grows out of a heavy reliance on
electronic communications - and improving productivity and innovation over
distance by reducing its effects. For example, when Virtual Distance is high it
can negatively impact financial performance, productivity, and innovation. And
Virtual Distance can be just as high among collocated workers as it is among
those who work thousands of miles apart making the need for Virtual Distance
management an urgent imperative. For these reasons and more, Karen and VDI have
built a solution set to achieve improved results among the virtual workforce.
Her clients include major worldwide Fortune 500 organizations as well as large
governmental and non-profit associations. Karen is also a highly sought-after
keynote speaker on the topic of improving performance, innovation, and
leadership over distance in the new world of work. Prior to launching VDI,
Karen spent 18 years in corporate America. She held leadership positions at
Stratus Computer, Inc., Chase Manhattan Bank N.A., and Mercer Consulting Group.
She was Chief Operating Officer for Prolifics, a JYACC company, and Vice
President of North America for Xansa. Karen holds undergraduate degrees in
Computer Science and Applied Mathematics and recently completed her Ph.D. at
Stevens Institute of Technology where her dissertation, "Virtual Distance: A
New Model for the Study of Virtual Work", won the award for Best Dissertation
of 2006. Karen is a Visitor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton
University, a 'collaborator' at Stanford University's MediaX Lab, and a
Presidential Fellow at Polytechnic University. Karen is the moderator of the
Virtual Work Forum at CIOZone.com, a new social networking site for CIOs as
well as a columnist and contributing editor for CIOInsight magazine where she
writes on the subject of management and leadership in the changing world of
work in the Digital Age.
Virtual Distance and her groundbreaking work on making improvements to
innovation and productivity have been featured in a number of major business
publications and TV appearances including Business Week, The New York Times,
Entrepreneur magazine, The Los Angeles Times, ABC News, and elsewhere. Karen is
the author of "Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and
Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise," John Wiley & Sons, April
2008. The book is also one of only a select group in the new Microsoft
Executive Leadership Book Series which is showcased worldwide to thousands of
Microsoft employees, subsidiaries, and major global organizations. Book sales
of Uniting the Virtual Workforce surpassed expectations early on. Sobel-Lojeski
and Reilly are slotted to pen at least two follow-on books for publication in
2009.
Leaders from around the globe are hailing Uniting the Virtual Workforce. Said
Jerry MacArthur Hultin, Former Undersecretary of the United States Navy and
President, Polytechnic University, "Uniting the Virtual Workforce charts the
course for competing in the 21st Century by tapping into the powers of virtual
work. Any manager who ignores the virtual workforce is underperforming and any
company or organization that does not appreciate virtual work is already at a
competitive disadvantage."
Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Improve Productivity, Innovation and Leadership
by Managing Virtual Distance
Virtual teams are pervasive in the Digital Age. Individuals working together
connected mainly through electronic communications are the mainstay of today's
corporate workforce. Whether separated by oceans or simply a dry-wall, most
professionals rely heavily on email and other collaboration tools for a
majority of their interactions.
But managing the myriad of challenges this brings is not trivial. Until now,
many of the issues around communication problems, cultural differences, and the
lack of a shared physical space and work context have been addressed using
tactics based on prior experiences or expectations. But do they work? Can the
effects of virtual workforce challenges be seen, measured and therefore acted
upon in a more precise and methodical way? Up until now, this seemed unlikely
But Sobel-Lojeski and Reilly have changed all of that. Their book, "Uniting the
Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally
Integrated Enterprise" takes the guesswork out of understanding virtual team
and collaboration obstacles. They have discovered Virtual Distance - a
breakthrough model which describes a psychological gap that grows between
people who work mainly through electronic communications. Virtual Distance can
be measured, quantified, and revealed so that targeted solutions can be
implemented.
Sobel-Lojeski has found Virtual Distance to be prevalent among distributed as
well as collocated workers. And while physical distance can certainly
contribute to Virtual Distance, it is not the main cause. Virtual Distance is
fueled by operational distance - the things that create day to day struggles
like multitasking and competing priorities and most importantly by affinity
distance - the stumbling blocks that get in the way of developing close
relationships.
Using Virtual Distance metrics organizations can finally hone in on specific
obstacles to virtual team success. Using her proven methods of Virtual Distance
Indexing, Virtual Distance Mapping, Critical Relationship Pathing, and Virtual
Distance Management Planning Sobel-Lojeski brings specific, measurable and
tangible solutions to problems which up until now have been anything but clear.
When companies act using these tested tools and techniques - good things happen:
Innovative Behavior gets better by 93%
Trust among co-workers improves by 80%
Project success rates improve by 50% or more
Leader Effectiveness rises by over 60%
Her engaging speaking style, myriad war stories and case studies, and her
energy and optimism leave audiences ready to go out and tackle these issues
with a renewed sense of energy and optimism.
