Reducing Virtual Distance – A Conversation with Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski
“‘Virtual distance’ is a felt sense of disconnect on a social emotional level when we use computer mediated devices to get in between our conversations. The more connected we become, the more isolated we begin to feel.”
Today on Getting Unstuck
COVID-19 has accelerated the move of many organizations from face-to-face interaction to more of a virtual work environment. For schools – and we’ll focus on them in this episode – it’s akin to being thrown into the deep end of the pool. One of the key ingredients to a successful shift here is an understanding and appreciation of the concept of “virtual distance.” What is “virtual distance,” and why must leaders understand it as they help their teams re-invent how to work together?
To help answer that question, we’re joined today by Karen Sobel Lojeski. Karen is the founder and CEO of Virtual Distance International, a software company that specializes in Workplace Transformation. Her firm has helped dozens of Fortune 500 companies improve performance, innovation and other critical success factors including productivity, innovation, trust, employee engagement and more. She is the author of three books, Uniting the Virtual Workforce, Leading the Virtual Workforce, and The Power of Virtual Distance.
“It's not realistic to think we're ever really going to go back to the way we were exactly (prior to COVID-19). There'll be there'll be echoes of our form of life, of course. But this will forever change the way we think about the world again, whether we're conscious of it or not. Maybe this is a renaissance opportunity for education – by forcing everyone to learn online and go this way, we have a chance to discover more meaningful ways to learn, taking that human being more into consideration and making them front and center as opposed to following some very rigid curriculum. — Karen Lojeski
The Essential Point
People think “virtual distance” is a function of geographic dispersion, but it's not. It's actually a psychological and emotional distance that is created when we put a piece of technology between us when we're talking. When when virtual distance is high, this disconnect starts to affect how we feel, which affects how we think, which affects the decisions we make, which affects performance, which impacts achieving desired results.
Listen for:
The three components of virtual distance.
Why virtual distance impacts trust and, thus, our human-to-human interactions.
How leaders can work to close virtual distance.
The three elements of trust.
How showing vulnerability for adults differs from extending it to children and teens.
“When we reduce vertical distance, we get a huge jump in trust. And trust is the foundation that opens us up cognitively, emotionally and psychologically to actually learn and communicate with each other.”
Could a book on how to effectively lead change in schools be more timely?
We’re pleased to announce …
…that our book Shifting: How School Leaders Can Create a Culture of Change is now available from Corwin Press or Amazon. If you purchase from Amazon, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Thank you!
From our publisher:
In Shifting, educators and leadership experts Kirsten Richert, Jeff Ikler and Margaret Zacchei empower educational change leaders to proactively and coherently navigate complex change in schools to achieve the desired outcomes.
Using a three-part framework—Assess, Ready, Change—this book leads educators to examine a school’s imperatives and readiness for change, identity the tools and abilities required to manifest change, and take action by defining the roles and processes necessary to effectively implement both sweeping change and smaller day-to-day adjustments.