Work Nouveau

From the coining of the term in 1972 by Jack Nilles, until the mid 90s, Telework was always an idea whose time had not yet come. Management styles were too inflexible, technology and telecommunications costs generally too high, and the unions too suspicious.  Of course there were exceptions, but the advocacy that went on during that period paved the way for acceptance when the prevailing conditions were right. The advent of readily available broadband connections provided those conditions.

Within a few years the market for home PCs had outstripped the corporate market, and internet access is now on the agenda for universal access, putting it on a par with utilities such as water, electricity & telephone, as a citizen’s right.

It is hardly surprising that for most knowledge workers, telework has become a non-issue. PDAs, Portable PCs, GSMs (cell phones), mean working on the move is a natural part of daily life, and yes, either working at home for at least a couple of days a week or working really flexible hours has become common-place. In the event of poor weather, transport disruption, security alerts, hangovers, and other inexplicable ailments etc., telework has become the norm.

You must have noticed that the traditional rush hour, has now expanded to almost 4 hours in the morning (6:30 – 10:30) and another 4 hours in the evening (15:00 – 19:00) sometimes longer.That’s because a lot people engage in flexible work practices, either doing tasks at home prior to going in to the office, or leaving early and finishing off tasks at home.

Whilst a lot of companies now support flexible working, a lot of teleworking is still carried out ad-hoc without any formal recognition or much support, either logistically or financially.

Essentially telework involves removing distance as a barrier to work, and it has some great benefits that are well documented. The danger is that by successfully  implementing telework within an organisation and getting good results, management will consider the job done without looking at the even greater potential for restructuring work patterns.

You can certainly see the trend in younger and those more dynamic environments, where formal structures are disintegrating in favour of ad-hoc structures based around the needs of the task in hand. The company does not need to be that small. In ’98 I had the good fortune to be invited by Cisco to a small gathering of 30-40 consultants in Nice. The information day was topped off by John Chambers flying in to share his vision.  Much of his vision and the processes under way in Cisco then, are now being reflected in Enterprise 2.0. I was impressed at the time and continue to be impressed by the approach of Cisco.

These days any organisation can follow a similar path.

With a minimum amount of guidance and control, teams can self select and self organise. The emerging Enterprise 2.0 tools and platforms support individuals and teams in a variety of ways that are inherently flexible and adaptable to new circumstances.

Although collaborative platforms have been around for some time it is only recently that they began to make a serious impact being able not only facilitate task sharing effectively, but also enabling the sharing and retention of knowledge. These integrated platforms that go way beyond sharing are still young and have a long way to go, but they are proving more user friendly and flexible than their predecessors thus gaining greater acceptance from the user.

It is not unusual to find a project team working together from several different continents, so that processes flow in such a way as to permit continuous advancement rather than just a single 8 hour slice, like a factory working on a full 3 shift system but with each shift in a different time zone. Such teams may be working on engineering developments, proposal developments, software development and testing, etc. The platform not only enables the current project, but also benefits other projects with the knowledge accumulated.

If your organisation has not yet come to grips with telework, perhaps you should think about leapfrogging that stage and looking at new work structures and methods from which the benefits of telework will naturally flow. You may never have a better opportunity to restructure working methods.