Is Distance Dead?

Is Distance Dead?

Whether it be smoke signals or clipper ships, pony express or telegraph, email or video chat pundits have long been predicting the death of distance. And although with each new technology there was a marked improvement in our ability to coordinate our activity, and create new levels of efficiency, it would seem that distance has maintained some level of relevance.

What is proximity?

Once one begins to study the effects of distance on business, one quickly realizes that simple geographic distance is only part of the equation. In fact we might even move our focus from distance to proximity. The difference between distance and proximity as it is defined in the academic literature is significant. Distance is often measured in time, feet, meters, or miles. Where proximity is measured in a sense of closeness or emotional connectedness. In the past I've written about the different types of proximity and how they affect innovation or culture. Below is far from a complete list but it might provide a sense of how they can vary:

• cultural proximity: how similar the cultures of network participants are on a national level (Hofstede, 2009; Knoben and Oerlemans, 2006; Sousa and Bradley, 2006)
• cognitive distance: the level of diversity in the skills, knowledge, and cognitive frame (Wuyts et al., 2005)
• organizational proximity: the distance felt by members of the same large or multi-site organization (Knoben and Oerlemans, 2006)
• technology proximity: the level of overlap between the firms’ technology or patent portfolio
• vision proximity: the similarity in vision (Cant?, 2010)
• virtual proximity: the level of emotional closeness developed through the use of information and communications technologies (Coughlan, 2010)

How is Proximity Built?

Proximity is built up over time through communications. The frequency, fidelity, and emotional content of these communications has a significant affect on how deeply we feel proximity to others. When thinking about communications the richness of the media is very important. For example, has anyone ever misread one of your text messages? Maybe they put the wrong emphasis on the wrong word or syllable, and what you intended as a benign statement became one of derision. Text messages are very low media richness (the ability of the media to carry the whole message with high fidelity). They often don't capture the tone of the message very well. If the same words are delivered over a phone call the fidelity to the original intent of the message is much higher; because you now have a sense of tone (e.g.: happy, sad, inquisitive, sarcastic, . . .). However, often key parts of a message are delivered in body langue, so unless we are using video chat or an in-person meeting that is lost. And as good as video chat has become, it still can not transmit as much tacit knowledge (knowledge that is share through the environment) as actually meeting someone in-person.

Why is proximity important?

Proximity creates efficiency. If through proximity I have developed a relationship with team members, and through this relationships we often I better understand them. This sense of connectedness and understanding leads to more efficient communications. For example, you might have experienced being able to communicate volumes to a spouse, family member, or close friend with a glance, or a phrase. That same communications might have taken paragraphs or more with a stranger. Not having a sense of proximity increases the time a team bases process take, and reduces the quality.

Culture is also strongly affected by proximity. Culture is passed through leadership, and observation - both of which are by the flow of information which in turn is affected by proximity. Culture is often tacit information. There are the codified rules, and how we apply and live by the rules. Culture is how we live the rules and values of the group.

How much closeness is necessary

When looking at any task, project, or team process we can assess - in a broad sense - the level closeness that would be necessary to the team to be efficient. If the tasks have low need for coordination and low equivocality then there will be limited efficiency gains close team relationship (there may be employee satisfaction gains or gains in employee retention, but that is another conversation). However, as we raise the level of coordination necessary, and increase the potential equivocality there will be significant gains through improving team relationships.

Cumulative Proximity

For several years I have worked on a theory I call Cumulative Proximity. The core of the theory is that relationships improve with communications, and there are a minimum level of relationship necessary for an efficient ream process. However, the theory has additional elements:

• We know that proximity creates efficiency (specifically psychic distance type of proximity as defined by Beckerman in 1956)
• Proximity is developed over time by contact - in-person or through media
• Media Richness the the ability of the media to convey a complete thought. Different type of media used for communications have different media richness levels - and we could score the richness levels for each media type (e.g.: text messages might have a richness score of 1, and in-person meetings might have a richness score of 100)
• Richness accumulates with each contact and results in a relationship level. However, there is entropy in the system and if you don't maintain regular contact relationships will slowly degrade
• The emotional intensity has an affect on the level of proximity produced by its shared experience
• There is a hygiene level of relationship that needs to be maintained for a business process to be efficient based on coordination and equivocality levels. Below this level significant efficiency and productivity is lost, above this level there are marginal gains
• Managers, and professionals, can develop a portfolio of connections to maintain their necessary proximity hygiene levels.

Take Aways

For a number of reasons hybrid and remote work have become a reality in American business - and they're not going away anytime soon. It is no longer a given that teams will share a geographic location on a regular basis. This reductions or elimination of in-person contact has an effect the the team relationships and organizational culture.

Teams have to understand their business process, and the culture they wish to maintain, and what level of Cumulative Proximity they will need to be both successful and competitive. With this understanding they can develop a cumulative proximity strategy. Implementing the strategy will likely require a portfolio of media types and communications technologies - and understanding how and when to use them - will be critical to organizational success.

#remote #hybrid #hybridwork #proximity #strategy