Author Archives: Kathy

Yammer

While instant messaging between telecommuters can replace some of the teambuilding function of chatting around the coffee machine in the office, and can help a supervisor to see who’s (virtually) at work, it doesn’t quite meet the need for replacing the general in-office chatter that keeps a team together. I’d wondered about Twittering, but security requirements for many companies would make that impractical.

B-NET points out Yammer, a Twitter-ish micro-blog for use behind the company firewall. How about using this for team members to keep one another abreast of what they’re doing and to update supervisors on who’s accomplishing what?

I like the idea that workers could present a view of progress toward objectives rather than showing simple presence through an instant message client. It lets people update coworkers at their convenience, too, rather than requiring them to start a “look what I’m doing” live chat.

Would it work for you? If you’ve tried it, what do you think of it?

Plop!

Imagine sitting in a meeting and someone is explaining the concept for the project when the loudspeaker blares, “Mr. Jones, Mr. John Jones, please call the operator.” Or in a phone conference, as a team is trading ideas,”Your meeting will conclude in 15 minutes.” Everyone stops speaking until the announcement finishes and then the discussion picks up where it left off. Now suppose that you’re part of such a discussion. Someone finishes speaking and you add your contribution. Everyone is silent as you speak. The next speaker replies, not to you, but to the person who spoke before you, as though you had been no more than a bit of stray noise on the line.

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Virtual Assistant: Hire One, Be One

Entrepreneur.com is talking about them. Employment Digest is talking about them. Tim Ferris, the productivity wizard of The 4-hour Workweek, recommends them, saying that “every facet of your life can be outsourced.” An entrepreneur can avoid hiring an extra employee by farming out administrative tasks to a virtual assistant. A admin assistant with an entreprenuerial bent can start a business working from home, choose how much business to take in, and enjoy the variety of work from multiple clients. Monster describes the career. It’s an interesting twist on telecommuting.

Telecommuting in the Office

Think no one is telecommuting because everyone’s present in the office? Think again. Listen to the office chatter. Workers with cell phones, browsers, and iPods are balancing work and life from the workplace.

“Seven fifty? In mint condition? Oh. Then how about six hundred?” They’re selling on craigslist, buying on eBay, and sealing deals by cellphone. “She didn’t have her homework done because we were on a trip last week.” “He’s violating the custody agreement and I want it stopped.” “It’s making this pinging noise, has been for the last thousand miles or so.” “Yeah, Saturday, at the brewpub at six.” They’re talking to accountants, repairmen, lawyers, friends. They’re friending on facebook and sending personal webmail. They work long hours. When else can they fit in personal business?

In a turnabout from taking work home, parents at work manage child care by cellphone. “No…no…I said NO. You may not take your sister’s game. It’s HER turn now. No. Later. I’m working now. Buh-bye. Hello. Again? Now what did I just tell you?” They take work home at night when there are critical deadlines. Why shouldn’t they manage a kiddie crisis from work?

An organization that has postponed setting telecommuting policies for effective work/life balance and performance measurement can’t wait. In our wireless world, telecommuting is already happening, one way or the other. Getting a handle on it in the office makes telecommuting from home just a small step further.

Everybody's Talking

Lindsay Blakely at BNET interviews Tammy Erickson of Harvard Business blog here about doing away with outdated time-based management by enacting a Results Only Working Environment. While ROWE can be used effectively by in-office workers, such a results-based performance measurement system is ideal for telecommuters and remote workers.

The Management Issues blog lists five “don’ts” here that anyone planning a telecommute program should avoid. Successful telecommuting needs some well-considered structure.

Workforce.com discusses Accenture’s efforts to maintain a sense of community among remote workers and promote the retention of remote employees here.

It'll Never Work

“If you think you can do a thing or you think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

Is your company telecommute-ready? Listen to people talk:

“You have to be face-to-face to do business.”

“Strong teams have to be co-located.”

“A good business relationship begins with a handshake.”

“You can’t hide behind all that email stuff. You have to be there.”

Sure, telecommuting saves employees money. It saves employers business travel costs and some of the costs of providing office space. It reduces pollution. It saves commute time, which employees most commonly use to do more work. It improves work/life balance, employee satisfaction, and retention.

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When meeting face to face isn't better

Have you ever done affinity diagramming? That’s the brainstorming exercise in which each participant in a conference room is given a pad of sticky notes and asked to write as many ideas as possible about an issue or solutions to a problem on them, one idea per sheet. After a few minutes, the meeting facilitator invites participants to arrange their notes on a board or a wall, placing similar ideas together. After a few minutes of elbowing and toe stomping and dropped bits of paper, the stickies end up clumped together and some major answers emerge. It’s a very powerful technique for thinking as a team. Continue reading →