Here's the Virtual Team scenario:

Two companies have formed a joint venture to develop a new telecommunications product. Engineers in both companies were hard at work, but the project itself was stalled.

The reason? A consultant we know diagnosed the problem this way: "Engineers on each side never saw each other," he told us, let alone coordinated their work on the project. "The two sides just e-mailed their irritations to each other. They were having a flame war."

Danield Goleman (of "Emotional Intelligence" fame) and Clay Shirky co-wrote a great article on how to handle this situation.  Click HERE to read the article.