You'll notice that we dance around words a lot in this journal, trying to find different ways of referring to the same basic concept.  Some of the popular words we've seen in recent months and years for these new ways of working include:

    It's interesting, because each and every one of them is about changing the paradigm of "everybody in one office."  Each of these terms is an attempt to put a positive spin on "not one office."  And, as consultants and authors try to differentiate themselves from one another, they tend to find a phrase that resonates with them, and they promote that particular phrase so that it becomes associated with their own offerings of goods and services.

    We're no different.  We explained, in our Charter Issue (June, 2002) why we chose the word (with the emphasis on "work").  It's our brand, and we're stickin' with it! We created this particular label because we wanted an overarching concept that would include as much of the implications of other established phrases and labels as we could manage, and give us room for growth as the field matures and morphs into places we haven't yet imagined.

    Each established phrase and word carries connotations we'd like to explore, because they may help you understand the varieties of experience we try to address in these pages.

    Telework is the invention of Jack Nilles, long-time consultant in this area.  It's based on the Greek "tele-," which means distance (like "television," seeing from a distance).  It conveys a sense of people working away from their peers and managers for indefinite periods of time.  The distance may be as far at the next building...or a distant continent.

    Telecommuting is another Nilles neologism suggesting we have a "commute" (to some central office) that we can displace with alternatives.

    Managing At A Distance puts the focus on the manager who has far-flung people who are getting work done; it's Telework turned on its head.  It puts the focus on the manager, not on the people doing the work.

    These three terms seem to convey (to us, at least) some sense of a relationship between employee and employer.  That, in turn, suggests some organizational hierarchy to which all the actors belong.  That's where other terms depart.

    Groupware was popular for a while, but it has faded, largely because it was focused on the wrong place:  The technology that people might use to accomplish their tasks together.  But, people get work done, not computers; computers are no less tools than hammers, and we don't claim hammers build houses.

    Virtual Teams are made up of people who don't all belong to the same hierarchy.  They might be employees of the same corporation...or not.  But, the team is made up of people without a common upward reporting structure; they don't all have the same boss.  They might include people from outside the corporation:  Customers, consultants, contractors, vendors.

    A Virtual Team doesn't have to involve any telework (all the members might be in the same high-rise), but most do.  Virtual Teams tend to be focused on some broad objective, and need to engage the resources of lots of different perspectives, lots of different experiences, lots of different talents.  So, leaders of Virtual Teams often recruit the best talent they can find, no matter where they may be located.

    It's also true that most Virtual Teams seem to have a limited lifetime.  Every Virtual Team we've participated in (except those recently formed) is now gone, it's work accomplished.

    Geographically-dispersed Teams is a long phrase that attempts to capture the essence of all of what we're talking about here:  They're teams of people (whether virtual or real; i.e., working for a variety of managers, or one) who participate from a variety of locations, with a variety of different kinds of interactions, all focused on achieving some mutually-shared objective.  They could be microprocessor designers and manufacturers, figuring out the next generation of products, a field sales force trying to produce the revenue to fuel the company, or a loose-knit band of international environmentalists, trying to deal with policies that will lead to cleaner air.

    The one word that's integral to all these explanations is Team.  That one word seems to be taken for granted in business.  It's a metaphor, lifted from animals harnessed together, putting all their energy into pulling in the same direction (ever wonder why today's truck drivers belong to the "Teamsters" union?).  As the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, a team is "A number of people associated in some joint action."  That definition is so imprecise it could define a mob bent on destruction of a landmark.  We think teamwork is more than that, more like people pulling together in the same direction, drawn by some compelling vision of a desirable future.

    At , we take the idea of Team as the core of all we do in business.  Even the sole proprietor of a retail store has a team, made up of the people who supply and deliver the goods for sale, the other local merchants like plumbers and painters who keep the store in good shape, even the local vendor who supplies the cash register.  We're all members of multiple teams, some of them business related, some of them centered on neighborhoods, or professions, or charitable organizations.

    Teams are how work gets done that is larger than any hermit's ability.  We're social animals, after all, and we collaborate with others to achieve great things.  Except, now, modern technology is allowing us to do it without having to be at the same place at the same time.