Introduction

This management fable is about a person whom I call Vic, Virtual Vic. His story might not be exactly like yours or one you have experienced or witnessed. It will very likely be similar to a part of someone else’s story, say a close friend, neighbor, family member, or maybe even yours. If not all, at least parts of his story related to technology involved in the virtual work environment (VWE), and how he deals with the challenges will ring a bell. We are experiencing a time in organizational structures when the trade-off between technology and the human interaction to leading others in the workforce is being stretched and stimulated beyond what management theories contemplated. Technology is challenging the human aspects of trust, isolation, and presence outside what humanistic management ever thought.

The purpose of this book is not only to introduce you to Vic but also to get you to start thinking about actions, in this story Vic’s actions, as they relate to his management and leadership style and approach. This management fable relates to his role in managing and leading his staff in the VWE. He is leading a blended workforce, some colocated and some virtual employees. The book is also intended to make you think of his dependency on technology and how he uses it in situations he encounters within the VWE. Vic takes us on a journey through the human perceptions of trust, isolation, and presence related to his new job in a new city and the struggles he experiences leading his staff in the VWE.

This management fable of Vic is not about how his attempts to use technology highlights that the VWE is a bad thing, but rather it is about finding a balance when working within the VWE. Simply relying on the technology while ignoring the human touch creates leadership gaps for Vic. This book is meant to make you think about better ways to manage, perform, and lead in the VWE. Ultimately, the purpose of this book is to illustrate lessons that can create a more productive VWE. We all must deal with this new work environment, as it is part of our organizational structure for the foreseeable future.

Vic learns his valuable management lessons about the VWE through the use of three characters. The three characters become his informal board of directors and mentors. These characters represent three human perceptions that are extremely important in working and managing within the VWE. The human perceptions of trust, isolation, and presence create the foundational human perceptions. Reliable Reggie focuses on trust; Solitary Samantha focuses on isolation; and Being Bob’s focus is about presence. Vic develops a way to measure these three human perceptions (he calls it the TIP scale) on a regular and ongoing basis. His TIP scale is a way to measure the human perceptions and get a sense of the stability the individual and the organization have while working in a VWE.

Vic meets Reliable Reggie, who is an ex-military officer. Reggie led troops in wartime and has dealt with life and death decisions. He was successful because he was able to establish trust within his troops and he led them with clear and direct communications, thus creating a deep trust among his troops. He was able to gain the trust of his troops by always being open and transparent with them. He worked extremely hard to make sure that he was committed to his troops at all times and in all situations. He never broke his promises and created a reliance not only on himself but amongst the troops as they related to each other. Reggie now works in community programs that support and help youth who struggle with trust issues. He is devoted to his beliefs and can often be found working out and staying in shape, so he not only can talk to the youth he works with but also participate in events that require a youthful body and mind. Reggie understands that trust is a very special human experience.¹ He understands that we cannot trust rules or technology; rely on them yes but trust no.² He is a stout 55-year-old man who appears much younger than his age. He continues to keep the military look and approach in his daily activities.

Solitary Samantha is a woman who unfortunately lives on the streets. She was once a very productive employee and was on her way up the corporate ladder until she was eventually laid off because of a corporate merger. The merger resulted in her working in a remote office as a virtual employee until she became disconnected to the new corporate structure. She was unable to find another job as she had lost her self-confidence after being laid off. She stayed in the town she once worked in and now lives on the streets. She became very isolated while working as a virtual employee and now remains isolated while living on the streets. Samantha misses the days when information about her job was communicated to her by management in face-to-face meetings. She understands the effectiveness of belonging and being part of a cohesive team. She learned being part of a larger, dispersed team challenged by distance erodes the concept of humanistic management, causing a loss of human meanings. Unfortunately, she lost her job while learning this lesson and now longs to reenter the workforce as a productive worker.

She spends her days walking around the city and spends her nights around local hotels looking for meals and shelter. She is a lonely person, feels extremely isolated, and is very cautious when trying to establish human relationships after being let go from her job. She would like to reenter the workforce but finds it very hard to even interview for jobs as she feels out of place since she lost touch with the corporate environment. She hopes each day that she will be able to reenter corporate America.

Being Bob is a small-business owner who has worked for a family-owned business all his life. He took over the family business when his father had an unexpected heart attack and passed away. He was thrown into a leadership role after his father passed away and had to find a way to keep his family business going. He has seen his family business change over the years; with increased population the influence of larger box stores entered his area created a new environment. Bob has had to make very tough decisions about his business over the years and has found a way to survive in a very competitive environment. His very small local grocery store has grown to be a mid-size store, but he has remained true to his family roots of running a customer-focused grocery store. He has successfully used technology to keep up with the best practices in operating a retail business, yet combines the older, more traditional aspects of customer service with the infusion of technology. Bob is African American and is recognized within the community for his outreach to other small and minority-owned businesses. Bob remembers and lives by a passage he read in a book written by Simon Sinek called Leaders Eat Last, where Sinek discussed how money was developed to help expedite and simplify transactions by eliminating bartering.³ Bob likens this to technology, which helps expedite and simplify communication and the relationships we build. However, just as money can’t buy love, technology can’t buy true, deep human relationships.

Bob has been able to provide his employees and customers with a store that provides a customer service model that nicely blends the old and new and offers both full- and self-service options. He has used technology not as a crutch to lower his cost but as a tool to provide the best service to all, while establishing human relationships that make his business unique. His staff connected with patrons and they in turn supported his business.

Given that backdrop, let’s see what the management fable of Virtual Vic is all about.

¹S. Sinek. 2013. Leaders Eat Last (London, UK: Penguin Books), p. 74.

²Sinek, Leaders, p. 74.

³Sinek, Leaders, p. 18.