I imagine some of you like myself are working in virtual teams at the moment.
I have worked in virtual teams across the global. I do find it helps to have met in person the people you work with.
April 6 years ago I was in Billerica. A unit of my company who’s work downstream from me was vital to me was transferring work from Billerica office to South Africa office. Therefore myself and South African managers flew over to Billerica.
As well as the meetings and work in the office; the socialisation outside the office helped to bond us as a team.
I arrived late at night. In addition to the first night, I was there for a further 2 nights. The first night we went out for Japanese teppanyaki restaurant where chef cooks food in front of you. Therefore that was great fun. The last night was a Friday night, myself and South African colleagues spent evening in the mall. I shopped independently then met to go back to the hotel. On the Saturday we started a duck boat tour of Boston together; we split partway round as their flight was earlier than mine.
Of course I first met my current team before we started working virtually, which is advantage. Another current benefit of my current virtual team is the fact in the same time zone which was not with previous virtual teams worked in.