My friend and cohort, Mad Coyote Joe, forwarded me a link to this video. I think that not only is the animated presentation style brilliant, but the point being made goes right along with some of the fundamentals of workshifting. Things are not always what they seem.

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Despite the long list of benefits to virtual work or telecommuting many managers are simply uncomfortable with the thought of managing remote employees.  That’s why a recent article by Fast Company really caught my eye. It describes 3 recent scenarios where managers didn’t want to provide workplace flexibility and the unfortunate results:

Managers, sticking your fingers in your ears, closing your eyes and saying “La, la, la, la” when a valuable, competent current or prospective employee presents a plan for flexibility doesn’t make it go away.

via Dont Let “Flexibility Just Doesnt Work for Me”=”I Dont Care If You Leave”…Because It Will | Fast Company.

The article shares some excellent suggestion for what managers can do when approached by employees proposing a flexible work agreement and also what employees can do if a managers shrugs off the request with the “that doesn’t work for me” rebuttal.

Managing virtual teams and offsite employees is not really a choice – it’s a reality in most business (or soon will be).  So the question isn’t will you do it – but will you do it well . . . or will you do it poorly?

I strongly urge managers struggling with this is to get some training on strategies and best practices for managing virtual teams. We’ve seen a sharp increase in the desire for this type of training which is why our workshop The Art of Virtual Leadership is now available on-demand. So no more excuses . . . learn how to lead your remote employees so you can hire and retain the best talent for your organization despite their location!

What are your thoughts?  Share your story or experience in the comments below!

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The discussion centered around some of the findings from One Drum’s recent flexible work study.

We discussed a number of topics including:

• How can flexible/remote working can make you more productive?
• What are some of barriers to productive remote working?
• What should businesses consider when choosing tools to facilitate remote working?

View this post on the One Drum blog for a summary of some of the key points and a full transcription is available in PDF form here (Thanks Chip!).

It was fun, exciting, and informative and we are planning to make this a fairly regular event.  It looks like we will be doing one again next Wednesday so I hope you will join us!

What is a tweet chat?
For those of you unfamiliar with this online discussion format, a tweetchat is simply an organized group chat that takes place using the Twitter platform. Participants use an assigned hashtag (in our case #flexworkchat) for their tweets during the discussion. For more information on Tweet chats check out this short article.

You can follow along, or participate, by visiting http://tweetchat.com/room/flexworkchat or simply following the #flexworkchat hashtag on twitter.

If you want to know about upcoming chats (and other events) please subscribe to our email newsletter (on the right hand side of any page of this blog) or follow me on Twitter!

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Further research continues to indicate that focusing on more than one task at a time actually decreases productivity and may jeopardize the fundamental quality of our work and communication. But this data seems to contradict what many people hold as the vision of a fully engaged and adapted 21st century worker.

The people who engage in media “multitasking” are those least able to do so well, according to researchers. This recent BBC article examines the results of a study done at Stanford University.

And this NPR radio segment also highlights some enlightening research into multi-tasking.

But in today’s workplace, and even just in our day to day lives in the information age, a certain amount of multi-tasking is unavoidable. So it seems the skill to develop is knowing when, where, and what to multi-task. Ali Hale weighs in with what I feel is a reasonable and well thought out opinion in her article ‘Multi-Tasking vs. Mono-Tasking’:

So how do you know when you should “multi-task” and when you should “mono-task”? And how do you manage to do the latter? Some things lend themselves brilliantly to multi-tasking. These tend to be activities which are purely physical, or which by their nature take a set amount of time to complete – however well you focus.

All of this has given me food for thought – as I am a person who is prone to multi-tasking and have convinced myself that I am pretty good at the juggling routine. In fact, I half-jokingly said to my brother just the other day, ‘I’ve got to focus, no more multi-tasking, from now on I’m only going to do two or three things at a time.’

So, here’s a little eye-opening challenge if you feel the same way: try this online game called MULTITASK and see if it might start to change your opinion.

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As our contribution to National Preparedness Month we have made our on-demand teleseminar, Riding the Storm Out, available FREE for the rest of the year.  Visit this page to listen to 4 South Florida experts discuss strategies, tips, and best practices for building a simple but effective business continuity and disaster recovery plan. The whole seminar is only about an hour and is packed full of real-deal advice, and each speaker also provided supporting documents that you can download.

2009 Business Fact Sheet Follows:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Fact Sheet

September 1, 2009

READY BUSINESS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Advertising Council launched the Ready Business Campaign in September 2004. This extension of Homeland Security’s successful Ready Campaign, designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies, focuses specifically on business preparedness. Ready Business helps owners and managers of small- and medium-sized businesses prepare their employees, operations and assets in the event of an emergency.

• Ready Business was developed by Homeland Security and launched in partnership with U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration, Society of Human Resource Management, The Business Roundtable, The 9/11 Public Discourse Project, ASIS International, Business Executives for National Security, International Safety Equipment Association, International Security Management Association, National Association of Manufacturers, National Federation of Independent Businesses, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
• The goal of Ready Business is to raise the business community’s awareness of the need for emergency planning and motivate businesses to take action. The campaign encourages business owners and managers to: plan to stay in business; talk to their employees; and protect their investment.
• Emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks, can paralyze business operations. Small- and medium-sized businesses in particular are most vulnerable to these events. Having an emergency plan can help protect a company and maximize its potential to survive and recover after an incident.
• According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses represent more than 99 percent of all employers; provide approximately 75 percent of the net new jobs added to the economy; and represent 97 percent of all U.S. exporters. If these businesses are prepared to survive and recover, the nation and the economy are more secure.
• The campaign’s messages are delivered through: television, radio, print, outdoor and Internet public service advertisements (PSAs) developed and produced by the Advertising Council; brochures; www.ready.gov and www.listo.gov Web sites; toll-free phone lines 1-800-BE-READY and 1-888-SE-LISTO; and partnerships with a wide variety of public and private sector organizations.
• The campaign’s resources provide businesses with practical steps and easy-to-use templates that include information on creating an evacuation plan; fire safety; including employees throughout the process; considering people with special needs; and protecting business investments by securing facilities and equipment and reviewing insurance coverage.
• As of September 1, 2009, the Ready Business effort has received more than $101.1 million in donated media support; its Web site has received more than 41.3 million hits and more than 4 million unique visitors; and more than 3.9 million Ready Business materials have been requested or downloaded from the Web site.
• A national survey of businesses with 2-999 employees conducted by The Ad Council in December 2007 found:

91 percent of respondents said that it is “very” or “somewhat” important for businesses to take steps to prepare for a catastrophic disaster, such as an earthquake, hurricane or terrorist attack.

38 percent said their company has an emergency plan in place in the event of a disaster .

59 percent assessed their own business as “very” or “somewhat” prepared in the event of a disaster.

55 percent of businesses surveyed said that they had take either significant or small steps to improve emergency preparedness in the past year.

The surveyed businesses said that the most important threats for them to address are fires followed by cyber attacks and then hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.

• The Department highlights public emergency preparedness through National Preparedness Month, a nationwide effort held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. In 2008, the Ready Campaign was joined by more than 3,200 NPM Coalition Members to educate individuals, families and communities on the importance of emergency preparedness. The 2008 coalition of national, regional, state, and local organizations was the largest in the five year history of NPM, and represented a 4,000 percent increase in participation to date.

###

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In my experience when it comes to smartphones and work/life balance I think a lot of the pros/cons are about how a person uses a tool such as this. Like any technology you have to know when to turn it off and setup personal guidelines for how to use it.

These communication guidelines should be clearly explained to others you work with as well. Sometimes people think because you have a smartphone that gives you almost instant access to email you should be replying to every message within minutes regardless of what time of day it is.

I am a proponent of “work/life integration” as I believe balance can be difficult to achieve at times – but tools such as smartphones and other new communication tools make it easier to integrate work into your life. So if that means you have to do a bit of work on your vacation – but instead you get to take vacations you couldn’t take before – in my opinion that is a win.

That being said I still think it’s important to block out dedicated time away from work where you can focus on family, friends, relaxation, and personal development without the distractions.

I often joke about our company website being YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com NOT “You Should Work From Everywhere”. That’s how I weigh in on this issue. Please share your comments below as I am eager to see your thoughts on this topic.

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Dr. Ashley Acker, of Workstyledesign.com, will be the host and emcee for this exciting event. On 4 consecutive days she will be interviewing a group of experts sharing techniques for increasing the flexibility of how, when, and where you work. You can participate in these FOUR 75-MINUTE TELESEMINARS for FREE.

I’ll be interviewed on Tuesday, May 12th to discuss How Small Changes Lead to Big Results in The Anywhere Office. I’ll be sharing best practices for successfully managing virtual teams.

Here’s an overview of the 4 sessions:

Strategies for Stretching WHEN You Work | Monday, May 11th, 2pm CST

• How to create a competitive edge in your business by harnessing work-life integration.
• Why work-life fit is more important than work-life balance.
• How workplace flexibility isn’t just about mommies (Secret: it’s actually a cross-generational and gender-neutral issue).

Strategies for Stretching WHERE You Work | Tuesday, May 12th, 2pm CST

• How to successfully implement telecommuting and remote working for your team.
• Tips and tricks for effectively managing a virtual team.
• How to harness technology to revolutionize your workplace.

Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work | Wednesday, May 13th, 2pm CST

• How to make work all about producing results (vs. putting in time, office politics, and face time).
• How to drive results for yourself and your employees by mastering the art of managing to SMART goals.
• Secrets for turning frustrated workers into high-impact performers.

Strategies for Stretching Leaders & Teams | Thursday, May 14th, 2pm CST

• How Generation Y is changing work and leadership—and why it’s a good thing!
• How leadership must evolve to support this new world of flexible work.
• Tips for implementing flexibility in a strategic way that improves team and leader performance.

This is a virtual event, which means you can easily join the summit via phone or webcast–there’s no traveling involved! They are even recording each session, which means you’ll have 24-hours to access online streaming audio if you can’t make the session live.

Head over to FlexibleWorkSummit.com for full details, the speaker line up, and a free pass to attend this exciting event. I hope to see you there!

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Please enjoy a musical gift from us . . . a special holiday doo-wop song from our good friends Sha-Boom (just click the play button at the bottom of this post – or download the mp3 to your computer).

You can also view our online Holiday Card to you which includes some fun holiday videos!

We really appreciate you being a subscriber to The Anywhere Office and downloading our free virtual office and virtual team resources! We’re fired up about some new webcasts, eBooks, and other surprises we have planned for 2008! Be sure to keep visiting this blog to stay updated and share your comments and thoughts.

We hope you enjoy this time with family and friends and look forward to an exciting and prosperous new year.

With warmest regards,
Phil & Jason Montero

Here is a photo of myself and Jason sitting on Santa’s lap as kids – poor Santa!

Our Holiday Gift to you . . . This Doo-Wop Christmas song from Sha-Boom:

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In reflecting on how I handled this bevy of activity at the end of the year and my plans for the new year it struck me that some thoughts about work-life balance were in order.

At this time of year I often find myself thinking that I didn’t spend as much time with my family and friends as I would have liked. It’s just so easy to get caught up in the day to day hustle of things that need to be done. You may be feeling the same way: you were so busy with meetings, email, voice mail, and reports that some of the more important things in life got put on the back burner – often with a promise that you would get to it tomorrow, or next week.

Well now is your chance, as you’re setting your goals for the upcoming year, to bring focus to developing greater balance in your life. Smart Phones, laptops, and PDAs are getting more affordable; Fast internet access is pervasive, along with great tools and online services that make it easier then ever to work productively from anywhere.

Avoiding a daily commute and gaining more control over your work schedule can not only make you more productive, it can help you achieve the balance you have been longing for in your life.

If you currently work remotely, and it has been working well for you and your organization, try to increase the amount of time you spend working from home or outside the office.

If you don’t work remotely, then consider approaching your organization about the possibility. In light of many things that happened this past year, including a sluggish economy and political tumult, many organizations are reconsidering some of their earlier fears about distributed work and realizing it makes sound business sense.

Distributed work provides a win-win situation for both an organization and its employees. Companies can save money on real estate, improve employee morale and efficiency, and be better prepared to handle disasters and interruptions; employees can work when they work best, without common office distractions, and gain both time and more control over their schedules.

In fact, depending on where you live, some new bills being passed may provide tax credits and incentives for you and your organization, making a telework plan even more attractive.

We all waste precious time sitting in traffic, commuting back and forth to the office and traveling around for meetings that often could just as easily have been held on the phone or online.

So as you spend time with family and friends, reflect on how valuable and enjoyable this time is and how it enhances everything you do.

Make a commitment to do the things necessary to achieve more work/life balance. Whether it is finding a way to work outside the office, learning new time management and technology skills, or exploring ways to improve your meetings, striving for balance can improve every aspect of your life.

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