| While physical proximity has certain advantages, doing business in a global economy with remote team members is an inescapable reality. As an independent consultant, with decades of managing distributed teams, I can tell you without hesitation interacting remotely is no more or less challenging than managing co-located people.
Does it require refining different skills? Yes. But competent PMs do that all the time. In fact, with today’s technologies, managing remotely may offer certain advantages over co-location. Two items immediately come to mind: contemporaneous documentation and privacy. Recording group sessions and generating written transcripts is much easier with each member occupying a discrete channel during a remote session. Likewise, private conversations are immune to the type of “gossip” or speculation that can occur when visual collaboration between team members is observed. Embrace remote working – learn some new skills; it is the new normal. |
