Dynamic Work : flexible work

Great Places to Work

brucelynn — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:47:47 GMT

Microsoft has just won the #1 spot in the 2009 Europe’s Great Places to Work survey. President Jean Philippe Courtois called out a number of New World of Work initiatives that really showcased Microsoft’s exploitation of technology to enable dramatically new approaches to business...

“Our new office in the Netherlands is a flagship example of how we are creating a New World of Work with employees. The Amsterdam office is no longer a 9am-5pm destination – rather it is a ‘meeting place’ for when people need to come together. Underpinning the roll out of new working practices is Microsoft’s own Unified Communications technology. Equipped with a mobile phone, laptop and UC software, employees have the freedom to work anywhere and anytime that suits them. In addition, with UC Microsoft is saving more than $212 million annually in reduced travel and better productivity.”

The commendation cited a Belgian staffer’s commented on the impact of Microsoft’s ‘New World of Work’ vision...

“The New World of Work gives us complete flexibility to determine in a creative way how to do our projects and when we want to work. This gives me energy every day. It allows me to treat my family the way I want. It gives me the opportunity to do a number of things regarding my health and sporting activities. The way things are delegated allows me to work in a flexible way and to combine my job at Microsoft with my tasks as a mother.”

Gensler’s Modes of Work

brucelynn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:24:41 GMT

One of the observations Edelman’s Robert Phillips notes is the segmentation into different workstyles. He speaks of the ‘podists’ and the ‘benchists’ describing sub-groups that have formed based on personal preferences for where and how they work.

The design firm Gensler who engineered the Edelman London offices, has also published its own segmentation of work modes (see attachment below)...

· Focus – 59%, thinking, reflecting, analysing, writing, problem-solving, quantitative analysis, creating, imagining, reviewing, assessing.

· Socialise – 6%, talking, laughing, networking, trust-building, recognition, celebrating, interacting, mentoring, enhancing relationships

· Collaborate – 22%, sharing knowledge and information, discussing, listening, co-creating, showing, brainstorming.

· Learn – 4%, training, concept exploration and development, problem-solving, memorising, discovery, teaching, reflecting, integrating, applying knowledge.

This appreciation of the diversity of both the workforce and the workplace is central to the notion of Dynamic Work. Too often when I speak to people about Dynamic Work they try to pigeon hole it from one specific mode (office work) to another (home working, mobile working). Actually, Dynamic Work encompasses all of the modes of working aligning the mode with the person with the task to be done.

Dynamic Working Mums

brucelynn — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:02:00 GMT

Dynamic Work is all about preserving key assets: economic resources, environmental resources and social resources. Concerning the lattermost, Steve Doughty, Social Affairs Correspondent at The Daily Mail, has been running a number of pieces on attitudes and trends in two income families.

The entry of women in the workplace in the post-war era has been one of the major drivers of productivity gains of the twentieth century. Women have brought contributions to the economy, new opportunities for achievement and satisfaction for themselves, as well as higher living standards to their families. Doughty’s article “Number of stay-at-home mums drops 25pc in 15 years as they become 'a luxury'” highlights how much the trend has continued unabated in recent years half a century and two generations since Rosie the Riveter.

But these gains have not been with out their costs. Doughty’s piece “'Superwoman is a myth' say modern women because 'family life suffers with working mums'” highlights the stresses and trade-offs inherent in juggling work and home life. He quotes Professor Jacqueline Scott of Cambridge University: 'Some people are now starting to have second thoughts. In most cases, this appears to revolve around concerns that the welfare of children and the family are being compromised the more women spend their time at work.'

Innovative approaches to Dynamic Work is going to be one of the keys to bridging the gap between the demands for even further growth of two income families and the counter balancing demands for maintaining a healthy family life and household.

Tomorrow's Leaders of Dynamic Workers

brucelynn — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:17:59 GMT

The Institute of Leadership and Management (an organisation after my other blog’s own heart) on the demands and opportunities for a new generation leadership in an era of Dynamic Work. The report is titled ‘Tomorrow’s Leaders: Managing Teams Remotely’ with the sub-title of “20th Century Bosses Hold Back 21st Century Working Practices”. It features both survey statistics on UK organisations as well as a number of case studies (BDO Stoy Hayward, South West Water, Circle Anglia) and tips for aspiring trailblazers. The abstract summarises:

“The ‘Tomorrow’s Leaders’ study, undertaken by Henley Management College, shows that managers are struggling to reinvent their working patterns to get the best from a growing army of remote workers, with visibility and presenteeism still used to judge performance.

According to today’s findings, remote working is on the rise. Three quarters (73%) of managers say flexible working is common in their organisation, and, more strikingly, 37% of all managers now look after teams who are either entirely or predominantly based away from the office.

However, although the majority of managers are working with teams that include remote workers, nearly half (44%) of respondents say managers are unprepared for the supervision of remote teams, and only 25% had received any training on how to manage such a team.”

Community Productivity

brucelynn — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:04:00 GMT

Microsoft has been talking about the ‘New World of Work’ for several years now and as time and conditions have progressed so has the vision. An updated presentation came from Katherine Randolph, Josh Henretig and Nicole Brown in a partner blogcast called ‘Enabling Telework Through Unified Communications. Good for Business. Better for the Earth’.

I particularly liked Katherine’s opening line, “The office is no longer a physical place, but more an environment where they can collaborate whether they are face to face or whether they are remote.”

For me the NWOW represents a natural progression in Microsoft’s ‘productivity’ vision. At the outset, Microsoft was all about ‘personal productivity’ and the cornerstone product was Office. But the ‘XP’ generation introduced capabilities that were less about the tool itself and how an individual user used it and more about how the software was used in a context of a team or organisation. At this point, the vision of ‘productivity’ really expanded to one of ‘organisational’ productivity and paralleled the rise of Microsoft tools as an Enterprise standard not just on the desktop, but also on the server with products like Exchange, Sharepoint and SQL Server.

Now I think Microsoft’s vision is expanding even beyond the walls of the organistion. The benefits to the new approaches to work accrue not just to the bottom line of the P&L, but also to the broader social welfare, environment and economy. Sort of a ‘Community Productivity’ if you will.

Above and below are a few of my favourite slides from the presentation (click on the slide graphic to see expanded, easier to read version)...

Credit Crunching

brucelynn — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:33:08 GMT

Some compelling numbers on the economic imperative for dynamic work in the imposing economic conditions from insurance company RSA highlighted by Katie Ledger in her Portfolio Working blog.

“When asked about the prospects for their businesses during this economic downturn, one third (34%) of respondents thought they would definitely be able to grow or maintain their level of business...A possible reason for self-employed home workers not feeling the effects of the current financial climate might be the advantages they have over larger corporations. Respondents felt the top two advantages are being able to provide a more flexible service to accommodate client needs and clients knowing that the owner-manager is the single point of contact.”

The respondents cited both flexibility on how they work as well as the economic, social and ecological benefits of less commuting as two of the top benefits to working outside the traditional office.

Dynamic Meetings

brucelynn — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:27:57 GMT

Bill Gates also used to comment that the power of the Internet was not in doing the same stuff in a different way (ie. taking orders over the web versus taking them by phone), but rather the interesting stuff was doing those things that you wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do without the capability. Reaching customers you wouldn’t have otherwise have reached, offering them something that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to offer, processing the order in a way that you wouldn’t have otherwise have been able to do.

Yesterday, my team embarked on a bold new way of having team meetings through unified communication technology. We used Microsoft’s Live Meeting combined with its Roundtable device to hold a remote virtual meeting. The approach certainly presented some challenges to how to conduct such a meeting. How manage the conversations, how to cope with network latency, how to get the best out of the technology.

But the bottom line was that the tools did allow us to do something we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do. We were able to incorporate team members who would not have been able to be in the office itself that day (one had a doctor’s appointment for their ill child and another one was in Australia). Most importantly, on the day, many of us could have come into the office, but the only real reason was for the team meeting. This way we were able to have the meeting with out the expense, time and carbon footprint of the trip into the office.

The whole thing was a bit like a conference call on steroids. We could chat to each other, share presentations, all compose on a shared space and most importantly could all see each other on video. Yes, most of the time, it was just a ‘talking head’ looking not quite directly at the camera. But there is something about having someone’s face present that changes the whole feel of the interaction. It made it personal and ‘real’ and even a bit more enjoyable.

The meeting had its ups and downs, kind of like a person just learning how to drive a car and lurching forward in fits and starts. But at the end, 88% of the team categorised the meeting as ‘Some key learnings to make the next one better.’ And I think that that is the key here. What I used to say about the Internet to companies when it was just starting out was that it was critical for them to engage actively even though it then was quite immature. But, just as important as the maturity of the technology was the maturity of understanding it and its dynamics and how to make best use of it. That learning was best started early so that when it did become mainsteam (and it did become mainstream), then the company was ready and equipped to take advantage. I think the same dynamic applies to ‘live meetings’ and unified communications. Some day we will laugh at how rickety and unfamiliar things were today, but it will evolve into a business tool as central as a email, the mobile phone or wireless networking. And we will learn new skills to exploit it as we have with searching the web or hammering out texts. And with unprecedented pressures for costs savings, environmental conservation and family pressures, the demands for these new ways of working will accelerate very quickly.

Gas prices encourage telecommuting

brucelynn — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:42:38 GMT

Good piece from MSNBC on telecommuting subtitled ‘Employers reconsider traditional in-the-office work week’ looking at the economic drivers to more flexible work.

“Some employers are reconsidering the traditional five-days-in-the-office pattern as the national average price for a gallon of gas hovers around $4. The idea is to whittle down commuting costs for workers by allowing them to work from home or switch to four days of 10 hours each… The [Telework Coalition] estimates that more than 26 million Americans now telecommute at least some days, which would be about 18 percent of people employed nationwide.”

BT Workstyle

brucelynn — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:30:42 GMT

Speaking of partners, whitepapers and workstyles, BT has published a sterling case study on its own Flexible Working web site called ‘Sustainability through Flexible working - BT Workstyle’.

“Happier BT people are enjoying a better work life balance. BT home workers are taking 63 per cent less sick leave than their office-based colleagues. The retention rate following maternity leave stands at 99 percent compared with a UK average of 47 percent, saving BT an additional €7.4 million a year. In terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) BT is avoiding the purchase of approximately 12 million litres of fuel per year, resulting in 54,000 tonnes less CO2 being generated in the UK. Teleconferencing has eliminated the annual need for over 300,000 face-to-face meetings, leading to savings of over €38.6 million a year. This has also removed the need for over 1.5 million return journeys – saving BT people the equivalent of 1,800 years commuting – with further environmental benefits.”

Anyone still wondering about the business benefits of flexible working? The rest of the BT Insights page is full of white papers, other cases, presentations, brochures for reference.

Accenture’s ‘Green IT – Beyond the Data Centre’

brucelynn — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:07:45 GMT

Accenture, one of Microsoft’s top partners, has long distinguished itself in Business Process Re-engineering as a foundation to IT innovation and with that expertise have been a leading proponent of Service Oriented Architectures. So it is not surprising to see Accenture leading the way with a ‘Green IT’ message that goes far beyond the basics of saving a bit of electricity. Their ‘holistic’ perspective is laid out very effectively in their crisp whitepaper ‘Green IT – Beyond the Data Centre’.

“Think how pervasive IT's influence across the organization has become. Today, IT can shape and ultimately determine where and how people work, how much they travel, and how they behave when they get there. All of which translates not only into how much energy they consume, but also how much other costly resources they use ranging from paper to petroleum fuels. IT's impact can extend still further. The workplace environment, the procurement methodology and the sourcing supply chain are all within its sphere of influence. As are the automation and efficiency of the organization's compliance with environmental regulations such as WEEE and emissions.”

A great roadmap to Getting Greener with IT.

Dynamic Dragon

brucelynn — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:17:15 GMT

The emerging realisation of business benefits to flexible work is being touted by one of the champions of emerging businesses, Dragons Den’s James Caan in last month’s Sunday Times piece titled “Technology is the key to cutting your overheads”. The sub-title goes on to assert, “The television dragon says you can find much more efficient ways of working”.

His article takes the words right out of my mouth – the power of technology, the cost benefits of flexible working, the recruitment and morale dividend, and the scrutiny over investing in physical offices…

“Some options won’t suit some businesses, but it is important nonetheless to embrace new technology to improve performance. Areas to consider might be the introduction of flexible working, outsourcing or simply better time management – all made possible by improved IT.”

If you employ 50 to 100 staff, consider the savings that could be made by introducing flexible working for 5%-10% of your employees. In return for providing them with a laptop and broadband connection you will reduce the cost of housing them in the building and the associated running costs. With advanced communication systems, an employee can be physically relocated but certainly not isolated in any way from the day-to-day operation of the business.

This level of flexibility might give you access to a different spectrum of employees, such as those who don’t wish to commute, or mothers returning to work. Flexible working might also increase productivity by allowing people to focus on specific projects, by improving time management and by generally raising staff morale through a better work-life balance…

As an investor in numerous businesses, I am able to use technology to increase the cost-effective opportunities. To help one recent acquisition secure customers all over the country, I established 10 virtual offices in leading cities across the land. Historically, I would have had to take on property, staff and significant running costs in 10 locations to present the market with the same company profile.

Today the use of virtual office facilities – a prestigious address with a mail-forwarding service and exclusive telephone number with call/message forwarding provided by a dedicated team – has created an immediate national presence without high overheads. Using this technology to present a national – or even global – operation to your customer base will cost as little as £100 a month for each virtual office. Compare this with the costs and time invested in running your “physical” offices, where the only extra value gained is the ability to interact with other employees – all other functions can now be serviced through technology.”

Technorati Tags: flexible work, IT, virtual office, broadband, working families

Portfolio Work

brucelynn — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:47:19 GMT

Last week I had the chance to meet up with Katie Ledger to discuss her growing examination of Portfolio Work (tagline – ‘How to get money, meaning and magic into your life’). I know Katie from her work with Microsoft UK and her activity in the UK blogosphere and so I had been following her increasing focus on Portfolio Work with its natural connection to Dynamic Work.

One of my hypotheses to Dynamic Work is that ‘within a generation, the majority of white-collar/professional/knowledge-workers will work for more than one company at the same time.’ This notion is the symmetric corollary to the premise that businesses will adopt increasingly flexible resourcing including shared jobs (a company hiring more than one person for the same job and the same time).

Businesses have been increasingly flexible in their contracting with ‘employees’ using greater outsourcing, contracting, consulting and flexible job structures. And, employees are starting to and will demand reciprocal flexibility in their work lives and careers.

The premise extends from the observation cited in the stirring ‘Did You Know – Shift Happpens’ presentation which noted, “The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10 to 14 jobs…by the age of 38.” Clearly, the notion of lifelong employment is withering, replaced by a new dynamism in the workplace. Yes, full of transitions, risks and uncertainties, but also full of opportunities for a new generation.

One of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption of flexible employment are the risks and skills involved with finding the range of jobs in the portfolio. But the Internet is provides a uniquely powerful resource for people finding people. For matching buyers with sellers. And this efficient digital marketplace will provide a critical foundation to this increased flexibility.

While widespread working with this level of flexibility may be a generation away, Katie’s blog provides a superb guide to what people can and are doing today.

Home is Just the Job for Workers

brucelynn — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:49:00 GMT

A little while back The Sunday Times did great piece on remote and flexible working: “Home is just the job for workers” (subtitled ‘A growing number of companies are adopting more flexible employment practices for their staff”)

It highlighted the aggressive strides that companies like BT, My Travel, Lloyds TSB and HSBC were making to exploit this new approach to working.

As head of BT Workstyle, the division of the telecoms group that sells equipment and technology to other large corporations wanting to get their own employees geared up for home working, Dunbar is something of a zealot. Since 1988, he has worked from a purpose-built shed in his back garden, and likes to joke that his daily commute is about ten seconds – two when it’s raining. It might sound eccentric, but Dunbar’s working practices are becoming the norm for thousands of British workers attempting to achieve a far healthier balance between their careers and their home lives than they might have otherwise enjoyed…[A] number of big British companies are shifting more staff over to home working. At BT, for example, a little over 13,000 of the group’s staff have decided to take this option.”

And echoing my post ‘First Kill All the Office Buildings’…

“Michael Geoghegan, chief executive of HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, threw his weight firmly behind a drive to remove 4,000 of his London-based staff from the group’s Canary Wharf headquarters and get them working from home instead. Speaking at a conference in Lisbon, Geoghegan said: “I’ve challenged us within seven years to have 50% of that building empty, to sublet to someone else. I don’t think we’re a really progressive, perceptive company if 8,000 people have to get up every day at an unearthly hour and go back again. Technology should change our thought process.”

The Long Drive

brucelynn — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:35:00 GMT

My Microsoft colleague Terry Smith recounts a humorous tale about superfluous travel. He had a meeting in Bristol with a customer which he struggled to get to driving from his home in Warwick about 3 hours away. He finally arrived in a rush and quite stressed, but the reception told him that he could relax as the person he was meeting had not yet arrived to the office. A short while later, the customer came rushing through the doors, saw Terry and quick apologised, ‘I so sorry…I hit so much traffic coming down from Warwick.” It turns out both of them lived a few miles away from each other, but had arranged for the meeting at the customer’s ‘office’ by default and as a result both had driven for 3 hours (and lots of stress further aggravating already snarled traffic) when they could have had a pint at the local pub saving nearly two days worth of driving and a proportionate amount of petrol consumption and CO2 emission.

Virtual Parallel

brucelynn — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:41:36 GMT

Curiously, and perhaps not coincidentally, the same dynamics moving towards distributed working in the flesh-and-blood, bricks-and-mortar workplaces is also taking place in the bits-and-bytes of digital world.

One of the hottest concepts or trends in computing right now is ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ (SOA). At its heart, SOA is a collection of principles, guidelines and concepts (ie. the ‘architecture’ bit) that one needs to consider or adopt in order to exploit the flexibility that ‘service’ delivered software introduces. Traditional or conventional software implies a more centralised command-and-control structure where the computing is installed on the device where it is going to be consumed (sort of like a worker who is going to do work in the workplace where they are based) A ‘service’ orientation implies a results-delivery structure where the results of the computing are delivered to the user but the computing itself might be done on some computer where the use as not installed anything, the user just consumes the output of the computation.