Now that I can work from home more often I can get more done. The days when I am in the office I often find myself drawn in to a mix of technical and frivolous discussions. These help in getting to know your coworkers and sometimes I learn new things or come to useful conclusions about what to do next. But, I am also often interrupted by the conversations of others and people asking my opinions and advice about technical matters. And, I will also interrupt others in their tasks as well. Ultimately, the days I work from home I am far more productive than the days I spend in the office because I have far fewer interruptions. Also, when someone does interrupt me they make more of an effort to be concise and get to the point because we are no longer communicating face to face.

Ideally I think a decent balance can be maintained, but it requires good leadership and coordination to get the right people together at the right time in order to make the time spent together useful.

When I finished school the one goal I had was to make software that mattered. To meet a lofty goal like that you’ve got to be able to think (and act) big. Far too many of the flashy Web2.0 efforts we see out there are the result of a small team (~5) of people with a big idea – and of the small number of projects that succeed, there is a vast number that fail. Sure, building the next Yahoo, Google, Facebook or Twitter will be software that matters and its something you can accomplish with a small team – but your chance of success is pretty low (feeling lucky?). Being able to effectively leverage (and influence) a large team to deliver a big project is hard – but a lot less risk of failure if you persist.

So what am I saying? Well, there is no argument that face to face is key to a strong relationship. However, you need to avoid categorizing any job that puts you into the situation where you are working remotely as a “bad environment”. If you do this – I’m certain it will put a ceiling on the impact of what you are able to accomplish.

I think the other message I’d like to share is that a single individual can make a huge change in any environment. People are lazy by nature, so they’ll observe the status quo and happily follow along. It is clear from what you’ve said that you don’t feel comfortable being part of the flock – but have you got your brain into the space that says: “Ok, so this sucks – how do I fix it?”

I’d be surprised if others you work don’t share your feelings about the remoteness – but none of them have the spark that makes them want to fix it. Have you got what it takes?

I tested this out as Co-Chair in 2008 and it seemed to work. The people who I didn’t meet face to face were a little more difficult to get results out of. Those that I had meet face to face delivered exceptional work.

Even at work now with clients, those that I’ve met personally are a lot more responsive than those I’ve met through conference calls only.

I signed up since february for a project where i would have a lot of teammates in China. There were some hiccups, but i got my butt over to beijing and shanghai for a month, and have successfully met 95% of my teammates in both the US and China.

It’s been amazing actually eating and talking with people I only saw as icons, or screennames before.

Rands also wrote a great post on the subject: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2009/04/15/the_pond.html