My initial, more obvious thought, is that it is largely due to the increase in easy-to-use, affordable technology that companies of any size can implement without the need of a large IT staff - such as web based collaboration tools, remote access to computers, and web meeting services. These subscription services allow companies access to all the tools they need to work from anywhere without the IT headaches for implementation. Even solo professionals can take advantage of these tools.

What occurred to me is that while telework has been approached formally by large companies for years, many midmarket companies have been working this way - but in a more ad hoc approach. By adhoc I mean without a planned strategy for this shift in workstyle. Many of these companies realized that as the world of work had changed so had the nature of their teams and their office. Their employees were not just working from their desks and cubicles, but often from home, hotels, or client sites. Their teams were now made up of not only internal people, but also consultants, vendors, and outsourced specialists.

The difference is that these midmarket companies often take a reactive approach to this change in the workplace. Upon realizing their teams are distributed they supply them with technology (like laptops and cellphones) to help them, but far too frequently it stops there. No real strategy or thought has been given to setting up shared guidelines or making sure that their managers are trained in how to properly manage a distributed or virtual team. This lack of planning far too often results in a disjunct team that suffers from communication problems, lost productivity, and an erosion of trust among team members. I believe this is where much of the negative viewpoints surrounding virtual teamwork stem from. Too many virtual team initiatives and distributed work programs have failed because of a lack of research, planning, and training.

What I find encouraging is this seems to be changing. Organizations are waking up to the fact that there is a need for this type of planning and training. We are increasingly being approached by the midmarket companies this reporter was asking me about with interest in scheduling a workshop for their remote managers or providing our multimedia training CDs for their virtual team members.

They have realized that to be successful in this changing world of work - they need to do more than just throw technology at the problem. It starts with a shift in perspective. Both the perspective of how you define “work” for information workers and the role of a manager when managing a distributed team. They are encouraged when we explain that they don’t need to throw away all their old management strategies and style, but instead need to make some adjustments, particularly when it comes to the area of communication. These are some of the “small changes that lead to big results” we are always talking about.

While I certainly believe that widespread broadband, the growth of wi-fi, and access to technology is a big piece of this puzzle - it seems that the midmarket company’s acceptance of the need for guidelines, training, and a planned approach have contributed to the growth of successful virtual teamwork and telework among these organizations. I applaud this new found wisdom!

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**get more tips like these in our free Mobile Work Tipbook.**

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We’ve been seeing headlines like this all winter, and we see them EVERY winter; even cavemen knew it was going to snow in winter. But the difficulties imposed on business travel have gone beyond the inevitability of weather delays (which aren’t even always weather events according to CNN 5 Things Airlines Won’t Tell You About Weather Delays), they are compounded by a floundering U.S. Airline industry. Consider this report from the AP wire released earlier this month:

2007 Airline Delays 2nd Worst EverFeb 6, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A quarter of domestic flights failed to arrive on time in 2007 — the industry’s second poorest performance on record — and analysts say it is likely to get worse. More than 26 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived late or were canceled last year as rising passenger demand and an industry preference for smaller planes intensified congestion in the skies and on runways. The air-travel logjam, reported Tuesday by the Department of Transportation, comes as a growing number of air traffic controllers near retirement age — a trend the controllers’ union says will magnify the problem.

Pile on top of all this lost time and frustration the rising cost of travel and it seems pretty clear that something, somewhere has to give. Putting into place some simple virtual office and virtual team strategies can not only serve as a business continuity plan when you or one of your people is stuck on the tarmac in the snow, they can also increase your organization’s communication and collaboration abilities while decreasing the amount of required travel every day.

Let’s face it, at least the cavemen adapted the way they worked to deal with the changes in their environment - it’s called evolution people. Isn’t it time we came in out of the cold?

To explore some of the premiere tools and services related to virtual teamwork download a FREE copy of The Anywhere Office Toolbox. We have been playing in this sandbox a long time and the Toolbox details the service providers we believe are the best in their respective businesses. Most of them offer free trials and special discounts.

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They give a good overview of the pros and cons. While I agree with almost all of it, the first issue they raise as a negative is “Brainstorming is difficult”. While I agree initially it can be more challenging while you adapt to collaborating with others virtually, like anything it becomes much easier with practice. A large part of successfully brainstorming and collaboration with others across distance is choosing and “thoughtfully applying” the right technology. This is something we often talk about and stress in our workshops and books.

The list of tools to choose from gets more impressive with each passing month. Skype video conferencing, discussion boards, whiteboard applications, web meetings services like GoToMeeting, and web-based collaboration tools like Central Dekstop, all can lead to very rich virtual brainstorming and collaboration with your virtual team or colleagues. The key is finding the right tool for the type of collaboration you need to do and then taking some time to learn how to use it.

Be sure to check-out the “Work From Home” Generation article as there were over 55 comments posted by readers when I just checked and this discussion is quite interesting and many people raise some excellent points. In fact the ongoing comments and discussions on their post are a shining example of a group of people all distributed contributing to a common mind share. Brainstorming can work the same way.

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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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This prompted me to start thinking about making the switch to using webmail. By moving away from Outlook to a web based email system I always have access to all my mail from any web browser. At a client site - no problem just jump on the web and I’m able to send, receive or access all of may mail. Visiting friends and family . . . I don’t even need my laptop with me as long as I can use their computer to get on the web.

But me leave the comforts of Outlook? Just the thought of it made me quiver . . . so I decided to conduct a 60 day experiment to see if I could leave my trusty Outlook behind and free myself to truly work the web!

I evaluated the big boys of webmail - Yahoo, Windows Live (formerly Hotmail), and Google’s Gmail. After a painstaking analysis of their various features and options and a few short tests I have decided to go with Yahoo Mail for my experiment. There are a lot of reasons why which I will explain in future posts - but one of the reasons is their new interface which makes the experience of working with it very similar to working with Outlook or any other desktop email program. Also it was important for me to be able to send mail from a number of different email addresses seamlessly so I could consolidate my mail into one program like I did with Outlook. While the other claim to do this they have some shortcomings in this area that Yahoo did not have (as long as I subscribe to their Yahoo! Mail Plus service for $20 a year).

I also like the fact that I can free myself from having to use a smartphone (like my current Treo 650) to access my email being that almost all phones have internet access and Yahoo provides a very usable wap (phone based) interface to access and work with your email. I’m planning on getting a new phone soon and wanted to move to something a bit simpler (my Treo tends to crash a lot and in the end I realized I want my phone to be mostly just that . . . a phone and not try to do everything). I spend enough time troubleshooting my computer - I don’t want to troubleshoot my phone too!

I decided now would be a good time for the test as I will be traveling a lot for the holidays so it would give me a good chance to really put it through it’s paces. So about 3 weeks ago I made the switch (gulp). I have a copy of all my email forwarding to my Yahoo Plus account (while leaving a copy on the mail server that I still have been downloading into Outlook once a week in case after the 60 days I decide to scrap my webmail experiment).

At first my mouse kept hovering over the Outlook icon on my taskbar every time I went to check or send an email but soon I overcame that and a strange feeling has overtaken me. Let’s call it a lightness of being . . . I feel less tied down not having to live in Outlook anymore. Instead of running into my home office to check my email I just use my phone’s web access to log into yahoo and view messages. And guess what? When I delete a message on my phone it’s gone the next time I access Yahoo’s webmail from my laptop. I also have to admit my laptop has been a lot snappier now that I don’t have a big resource hogging program like Outlook running all the time. Most of the time I am just working in my browser (which I always have open anyway).

I’m not fully convinced I am leaving Outlook yet - but so far I am really enjoying the experience! The next week or so when I am visiting family for the holidays will be much more telling. What about my calendar, tasks, and notes you ask? I’ll save that for another post in a few weeks. At that point I’ll share more details about my experience and what tools I am trying in replace of Outlook there - yes they are also web-based!

So what do you think? Are you an Outlook addict? Have any of you made the switch? Post a comment and let me know your thoughts and experiences.

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This year each week of National Preparedness Month has a different focus. The second week of National Preparedness Month (September 9 - 15) focuses on business preparedness.

During this week ourselves and several other National Preparedness Month Coalition Members are hosting events and activities to help businesses get prepared. We invite you to take this opportunity to listen to a FREE hour long Audio Seminar we are offering called Riding the Storm Out: don’t wait until it’s too late to form a business continuity plan. We hosted this teleseminar and recorded it live during National Preparedness Month 2006 and features a panel of 4 small business experts discussing tools, strategies, and best practices relating to Business Continuity and Disaster Preparedness.

Beginning with National Preparedness Month and continuing until the end of this year, this hour-long seminar can be listened to on-line, on demand – or downloaded; there are also downloadable handouts and resources provided by each panelist.

For more information about National Preparedness Month visit http://www.ready.gov/america/npm07/

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