Dynamic Work : knowledge worker

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.

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.

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.”

Preserving the World's Assets

brucelynn — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:01:00 GMT

A number of megatrends are all converging to drive this move out of concentrated workplaces towards more distributed work. All of these drivers are centred on preserving key and increasingly precious assets to the global economy.

Energy Assets: Peak Oil – Concern is growing to new levels about world oil supply. While eternal optimism abounds in the world’s ability to out innovate and out discover the depletion of existing sources, recent evidence is that the new finds are smaller and fewer, the existing supplies are less accessible and less productive (eg. more energy input is required extract and refine). The commodity of oil is not just a unique energy source in its combination of power and safe transportability, but it is also a critical substance in plastics, construction materials and range of everyday substances and its increasing scarcity represents a major pinch point to global economic health.

Ecology Assets: Climate Change – If the economic costs of oil-supply and demand don’t hit us in the wallet, then the environmental costs of greenhouse gas emissions will hit us there and elsewhere. Not much comment needed on the profile and intensity of this issue. But in terms of what we can do about it one of the most prominent sources of emissions is automobile commuting. 54% of US petroleum used is consumed by automobiles and in commuting to work, the average number of passengers-per-vehicle is 1.1.

Social Assets: Dual Income Social Pressures – One of the most significant contributors to post-war growth in the Western world has been new entrants to the labour force, especially women. While this infusion of economic muscle has been a boon to the second half of the twentieth century, the social consequences of this mass rise of two income families combined with longer and longer commuting to places of work (fewer people live and work in the same city or town), means less parental time to manage the household and intensifying demands to juggle work and home life responsibilities.

Intellectual Assets: Rise of Knowledge Work – Assuming we have enough power to continue running the machines we have invented and propagated to handle brute force and routine tasks, the value-add work that human beings do gravitates increasingly to creative pursuits employing intellectual capital. Increasingly people are recognizing the intellectual waste from sitting in a car and the upsides of each person finding places and environments most suited to their own individual inspiration (a library, a quiet den, a retreat, a café, etc.). MSNBC recently reported (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20829879) people lose on average 1 week per year ‘sitting in traffic…and it is getting worse’ costing the USA $78 billion.