Managing People You Can't See

The Future of Work: How Do You Manage People You Can’t See?

Citrix Online February 2, 2010

Charlie Grantham, PhD. James Ware, PhD. Executive Producers Work Design Collaborative

© Copyright 2010 by The Work Design Collaborative. All rights reserved

Today’s Agenda

Why is remote/mobile work growing so

rapidly?

What challenges does the “anywhere office”

present?

How can you keep remote employees

engaged?

What does all this mean for the future of

work?

A conversation about managing remote

teams and a distributed workforce

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Someone has Hit the “Reset” Button (Jeffrey Immelt, CEO, General Electric)

We believe: That we are in the early stages of a fundamental transformation in the way work is organized, managed, and performed.

We know: That “work anywhere” approaches can reduce workforce support costs by as much as 40%.

- 2 -


The “New Rules”

- 3 -

“Bigger, faster, more”

are watch-words of a bygone era

Economies of scale don’t necessarily

work anymore

Relationships trump

ownership of resources

Move fixed costs to variable


Work Evolves

- 4 -

What “work” is

How “work” gets

done

Where “work” gets

done

What workers do


The “Anywhere Office” is a Reality Today

- 5 -


The Mobile Workforce is Growing Rapidly

* Source: WDC Demographic Projections, 2009

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

50000

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

Mobile Worker Projections 26.7%

16.1%

(000)

Old habits

Resistance

Scarcity of experts

Up-front investment

Technology

Commute costs

ROI Environmental impacts

- 6 -


Unique Aspects of “Different Places” Work

Less face-to-face time

Fewer accidental meetings

More task time, less

social interaction

- 7 -


Distributed Workers “Meet” and Interact in Four Ways* Match the Technology to the Situation

* Adapted from a model first developed by Bob Johansen, Institute for the Future

- 8 -

Different

Same

Same Different

Place

Time


Employee Engagement The Critical Ingredient for Effective Teams Clarity of

expectations

Rewards for engagement

Inspirational leadership

Quality of peer/

subordinate relationships

Regular feedback

- 9 -


Engaging Distributed Team Members

Be a role

model

Lead Team-

building exercises

Celebrate life

events

Build a Playbook of tactics

Teach empathy

- 10 -


Face-to-Face Gatherings Drive Team Engagement

Forming Celebrating and Moving On

Shifting from Planning to Implementing

- 11 -


Leadership Principles

Be highly participative

Publish formal policies

Establish tangible

performance measures

Develop agreements

about interactions

- 12 -


You Still Need a Place

That was then . .

. . . this is now

- 13 -


A New Kind of Workplace is Emerging We call it a “Business Community Center™”

- 14 -


What Does All This Mean for You?

- 15 -

Embrace Distributed

Work

Invest in Appropriate Technologies

Lead by Doing


For Further Information

Dr. Charles Grantham Prescott, Arizona +1 928 771 9138 office +1 928 771 9138 fax +1 928 533 9149 mobile [email protected]

Dr. James Ware Berkeley, California +1 510 558 1434 voice +1 510 558 1431 fax +1 510 206 8147 mobile [email protected]

Website: http://www.thefutureofwork.net

Blog: http://www.thefutureofwork.net/blog

Books: Corporate Agility http://www.corporateagilitybook.com (American Mgt. Assoc.)

Cut It Out! http://bit.ly/7krFly (IFMA Foundation)

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thefutureofwork

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