Hear the word negotiation, for instance, and most of us will usually think of a few folks with their sleeves rolled up hashing out a contentious issue around a table. But psychologists say that negotiation conducted at a distance can actually reduce conflict and improve outcomes.

To test a theory that negotiating at a distance boosts participants’ abstract thinking and helps them better conceive of others’ motives, Marlone Henderson, a psychology professor at the University of Texas, asked two groups of study participants to negotiate the price of a motorcycle or the division of a prize. One group was told their negotiating partner was one floor downstairs and the other that their partner was located across town. The British Psychological Society Research Digest reports the results:

The negotiating pairs who thought their partners were located further away… tended to reach more mutually agreeable terms. To test if this benefit was to do with thinking about one’s priorities more abstractly… Henderson conducted a further study in which some of the negotiating pairs were explicitly instructed to reflect on the motives underlying their negotiation goals. Receiving these instructions led participants who thought their partner was nearby to negotiate just as successfully as participants who thought their partner was on the other side of town, consistent with the idea that the perception of physical distance exerts its usual benefit by encouraging more reflective and abstract thought about negotiation goals.

Is it just negotiations that tend to get more productive with distance? According to Frans Johannson, author of The Medici Effect (via a quote on the blog of Marc Andreessen), research also reveals that virtual brainstorming beats the old-fashioned variety where participants are gathered in one place. Studies find that, “virtual groups, where people brainstormed individually, generated nearly twice as many ideas as the real groups.”

Results out of a Harvard Business School study concur that when asked to share ideas, virtual “team members felt freer to contribute–especially outside their established areas of expertise.”

Is it time to stop worrying about the downsides of virtual communication, and start focusing on the advantages instead?

Photo courtesy stock.xchng user emsago

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

I’m currently working on a project that is pushing me to my limits, physically — that’s not something that usually happens when I work! There are three components: a lot of interesting and useful Internet research, some less interesting but easy recording of data in a spreadsheet and, the hard part, running all over the city of Paris. It initially sounded like fun, but in reality what I’m doing is quite grueling because, like most Parisians, I get around on foot and using public transport. (Doesn’t sound so bad? I climbed 300 steps yesterday alone!)

In the last 13 days (yes, I’m counting the days), I’ve been reminded of some strategies that have worked for me in situations like this in the past, and decided to share them because they can be useful in any situation where you’re in over your head.

1. The moment you realize you’re in trouble, negotiate the deadline. Even if you can only get a couple of days out of your client, it will help. You can get a lot done in 20 or 30 hours. Plus, even a short extension will reduce that sense of panic a little, maybe long enough for you to take some practical steps to address the problem, like the next one.

2. The moment you realize you’re in trouble, get help. Call on your network, tweet a plea for help and beg for a retweet, do whatever you have to do. The point is to try to delegate enough bits and pieces so that the load you’re left with is manageable. But be careful not to delegate to people who can’t operate without direction or whom you know to be flaky, no matter how desperate you are. They’ll just cause you more stress and fail to lighten your load.

If you can’t get any help, the next three points are even more important.

3. Pace yourself. If you work 18 hours one day, you’ll be much less productive the next day. Then you’ll just be more stressed, which will make you even more fatigued, etc. Sure, if you’re 25, you can probably do crazy long days for longer periods, but it will catch up with you eventually.

4. Schedule in at least one day a week to regroup. Try to accurately assess the amount of time you need to complete the work, and make a schedule that distributes the work more or less evenly over the time remaining till the deadline minus one day a week. And by “regroup,” I mean rest, not spend the day trying to catch up on the 10 projects you’re neglecting because of this one. That won’t help. Reassess the workload and adjust the schedule every day or two.

5. Don’t lose sight of what you’re getting out of the project. This will help you get through your darkest hour and keep you motivated. I’m not talking about the money, although that may be an important factor for you. I’m referring to the intangible things, like what you’re discovering, how you’re growing, how this work and experience will benefit you personally and professionally. You can usually find a bright side!

If you have survival strategies for desperate situations, please share! (I still have 10 days left and can use all the help I can get.)

Photo credit: stock.xchng user straymuse

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Teleworking has been gaining traction for years and now more than 2.44 million people spend at least part of their work week at home.

But recently some major employers have been pulling telecommuters back into the office. The goal of any would-be teleworker is to show your boss how working from home will benefit him and the company.

If you’re having trouble getting your point across, here are some possible reasons he wants you in the office.

He Doesn’t Know What It Means

Don’t make the mistake of proposing telecommuting to a manager who has no real idea what teleworking is or how it works. Just because they can navigate around in Microsoft Outlook and can operate a blackberry doesn’t make managers tech savvy. Even at the risk of insulting their intelligence, it helps to provide a clear definition of what you’re asking for.

Of course that means figuring out what you want before you broach the subject. Do you want to work from home once a week, a few times a week, or full-time? Good negotiators know their end-points (what they want) and their breaking points (their bottom line).

In fact, avoid using the word “telecommute.” Even though I do it full-time, I almost always use the word telework, because it focuses on work, not my commute or lack thereof. It might be better to not use the words telecommute or telework at all, and instead just say in plain and simple terms exactly what you want.

For example:

“I get so bogged down here at the office that I end up working nights and weekends away from the office. I believe my productivity would increase if I could work from home for two days a week. I’ll still be readily accessible by phone, IM, and email during those times. Do you have any concerns with allowing me to work from home two days a week for the next three months?”

He Thinks You’re Getting Preferential Treatment

Some managers buy into the idea that everyone should be treated equally. It’s egalitarianism management and it stinks. Managers who buy into this concept care more about what their employees think about them than productivity or effectiveness.

I could give you a pep talk about changing corporate culture and management styles, but I won’t bother. Instead of wasting time trying to change management styles, it’s better to work within their framework. That means getting the approval of your coworkers and team members first, the people who will be most affected by your departure, before going to your manager. If teleworking will put additional burdens on your coworkers, they’ll let you know.

Approaching your coworkers first will also require you to take a realistic look at whether your job is a good fit for the teleworking. A production manager at an assembly plant has very little chance of telecommuting if 90 percent of his job duties require him to be on-site.

Approaching egalitarian managers with your coworkers full support tells them there’s no need to fear unpopularity or repercussions from the masses and that it’s okay to give you the green light.

He’s Old School

Many managers prefer “seeing” how hard you’re working. That includes a lot of managing by walking around, which is pretty ineffective management. Good managers know that managing by results is better for the company, employees, and ultimately themselves.

If your manager doesn’t focus on results, it’s up to you to help him start. Start reporting simple management numbers that focus on your productivity. Productivity numbers don’t just show how much you’ve completed, but shows how quickly or efficiently you tackled them. That generally means including a time component to your statistics such as tasks competed per hour, income generated per day, or product per week.

When it comes time to propose teleworking, you’ll already have management measures in place for him to ensure that you’re working hard.

He Just Loves Your Pretty Face

Some managers could forget all about you if you’re not in the office. If your manager fits this description you’ll need to retrain him or her to show that even if you’re not in the office, you’re still accessible. These managers are also less likely to allow you to work from home even on a trial basis.

For those employees, I suggest finding a reason to work from home, even if that means using a vacation day, to show just how accessible you can be. Send emails, make phone calls, or ping your coworkers and manager with instant messages. Do whatever it takes to show your boss that he’s not missing much by you not being right there with him. Most importantly, be more productive outside of the office than inside!

He Doesn’t Trust You

Stop now. You’re in trouble. If your boss doesn’t trust you then forget it. Whether the mistrust is warranted or not is unimportant because you can’t make someone trust you. Without trust you’re left with two options: build or rebuild the trust that is missing or go work somewhere else. The latter is usually easier.

Justin Draeger has been teleworking full-time since March 2008.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

This is why Google launched Google Apps Team Edition. Google Apps for Your Domain has been around for quite some time, but this set of tools requires someone from your IS department to administer it. Groups inside companies can easily subvert IS involvement by just entering your corporate email address and clicking on a link inside the resulting sign-up email.

That’s right, with no permission or approval forms*, you can do the following with your co-workers:

• generate and share documents, presentations, and spreadsheets with Google Docs
• easily schedule appointments with Google Calendar
• IM and conduct VoIP calls with Google Talk
• share a combined start page with a common iGoogle start page

Additionally, Google Apps Team Edition shows you others in your organization who have also signed up for Google Apps, enabling you to conduct the above mentioned activities with ease.

This is indeed an underhanded way to get Google Apps inside the enterprise. We at Web Worker Daily think Google Apps is a great way to collaboration on documents. The old school way of interfacing on documents centered around sending documents, spreadsheets, and presentations through email. The enterprise standard Microsoft Office Word has a “Track Changes” option which generally works well. However, what happens if not everyone on your team has Microsoft Office or worse yet: different versions of Microsoft Office? Being able to use Google Docs to generate the document and “Share” it with your colleagues is an attractive option.

On the other hand, having documents behind the firewall on centralized file servers has its advantages as well. Enterprises expend resources to ensure sensitive information stays in front of the proper audience. Having documents that may contain intellectual property is not a welcome thought to many companies. Additionally, having IM conversations that are unencrypted or archived may present legal, intellectual property, and human resource issues.

Google Apps Team Edition presents a fantastic option for lightweight collaboration among those who share documents. Also, being able to chat instantly and share calendars can present an attractive option for teammates. However, if intellectual property is a concern in any way, your organization should look at SharePoint, Jive’s ClearSpace or other offerings they have access to.

Which collaboration tools are your team working with? What tips would you have with working with the IS department?

* Disclaimer:  This article is not meant to encourage you to go around any policies or guidelines your company has on electronic communication and collaboration.  Before using Google Apps (or any other hosted collaboration tool), I suggest you consult your organization’s policies on such sites and services.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview