Next week (commencing February 27^th) it’s officially “Anywhere Working” week in the UK., Unveiled late last year in a flurry of excitement by Norman Baker MP  the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the aim of the program appears to be to promote and show the benefits of remote working to businesses and individuals.

After Baker’s announcement it appeared to be building up momentum nicely with the launch of a portal with a blog, success stories and the like. But since then it’s been rather underwhelming. First of all there’s very little information on the portal about what is actually happening next week. 

The support from the UK government appears to be, at best, peripheral.  Baker did write a guest post on the Anywhere Working blog, where he refers to another government initiative, Operation StepChange, which aims to reduce transport during the Olympics by 50% to prevent potential traffic congestion. But so far this appears to be the extent of government involvement that is at least clearly visible. The Department of Transport is merely a ‘supporter’, although Transport for London is one of the official partners.

There are also clearly some commercial interests at play here. The initiative is promoted with a number of participating organizations including Microsoft, Regus, Vodafone and Nokia. Looking through the official portal for the scheme, there are a number of references to the benefits of Microsoft products. On the official Facebook page there are also some comments from individuals about the benefits of working digitally which both specifically mention how they are using Lync and SharePoint. Both of these people work for Microsoft.

With the Digital Workplace so important the lack of visible “oomph” with Anywhere Working week is disappointing.   One of the strong messages that we convey in “The Digital Workplace: How Technology is Liberating Work” is that the effects of this new way of working are going to be profound.  Being able to work digitally from anywhere is not only going to change how organizations operate; it has wider implications for society, for example how cities and towns are designed, how transport is used (which can affect the environment) and how our communications infrastructure needs to be built. 

For all the positive benefits which flow from the Digital Workplace we believe the UK government should be championing remote working far more actively.   It reduces pressure on transport, is good for the environment and produces a healthier, happier and more productive workforce. 

Other countries seem to be more active. In his book, Paul Miller lists government support for the Digital Workplace as one of his key trends going forward, stating “Governments will lead the drive at policy level for a fundamental shift to digital working and mobility, with organizations struggling to match the pace of change.”

In the Netherlands for example, the official  “New Way of Working” week  is run by a coalition of different organizations with government support, and last year was officially launched with a tweet from a government minister.  There was high visibility and energy with people in pink bathrobes out on the streets.

In fact Dutch initiatives around “Het Nieuwe Werken” tend to be higher profile than most other countries. There are already high levels of business interest and subsequently it’s on the agenda for many companies.  The reasons for this are numerous but include the Netherland’s high level of connectivity, particular traffic problems and the relatively high number of women in senior management positions compared to other countries.

Meanwhile in the US President Obama has been active in legislating to promote telework, at least within government.  As part of the US Governments’ Telework Improvements Act of 2010, all federal agencies must include telework as part of their Continuity of Operations Plans (COOPs). 

The advantages of being able to work remotely were sharply put in focus with the freak snow storms which hit the US East Coat in early 2010. With commuting impossible for many federal employees, it was initially estimated that the overall potential loss in revenue for the taxpayer due to lost productivity was around $100m per day.  However with nearly a third of federal employees working from home during the crisis, the overall estimate was reduced to $70m with $30m saved from teleworking.  The US government was able to present this positively and it got some media attention.

Overall governments could be doing more to encourage the Digital Workplace.  It is possible that things may be may be things unveiled as next week’s UK initiative unfolds and also that the focus of activity is within participating companies. Of course “Anywhere Working” week is a step in the right direction, but it also feels like a missed opportunity. There are tremendous benefits, opportunities and changes arising from the Digital Workplace, and the UK government needs to draw attention to it accordingly.

 

In my second challenge back to the recent Economist Intelligence Unit video of the so-called "Future of Work" I take exception to the myth that working together physically somehow always builds trust among people. The assumption that being with a colleague in person has some mysterious quality that inevitably creates trust is one of the cliches of modern work, trotted out by "experts" and managers. 

In this video the idea is thrown out that to build trust we must meet in person - and there is no viable alternative. This is a shallow way of thinking about trust itself. Trust is built by honest, sustained connection, communication and action. This can be achieved through physically working together but can as easily be developed digitally. Just because in a digital world of work we either seldom or never meet in person, the patterns of trust are still in play. Do I commununicate honestly, can I be relied upon, when we speak by phone (part of the Digital Workplace) is our exchange genuine and credible? 

Often what working together actually creates, especially when it is the standard format day in day out, is quite the oppsite of trust - factions, frictions, politics, sub-texts, power silos, fractures. But we hear time and again that if you really want to build trust you need to meet in person. It is certainly helpful to meet once and then occassionally after that with those we work with - just as I wrote about yesterday in my own company - but it is amazing how far one very helpful in person meeting can go. I met one editor in our company seven years ago and since then have sat down with him 4 - 5 times over the years and trust between him and his colleagues and myself is 100%. 

Plonk a group of people together each day - no matter how funky and "Google-esque" their Shoreditch offices are - and trust is the last think that is created. Yes you may have pool tables and wear T-shirts and trainers but if that company insists on physical presence each day, it will become a hip version of Ricky Gervais "The Office" bit by bit. Trust is built by saying to staff and freelancers - work as you want and where you want but deliver great work on time at high quality and maintain strong relationships with colleagues. 

 

One day each month - and for February that means today - about 15 of the people in my company,  based generally across the UK, spend a day together working in person. For us being in the same physical working space is a rare experience and not the norm. Who comes varies each month and today there are some faces I haven't seen for a few months and longer. We chat, work, have lunch and generally chit chat. It is not a million miles away from working at home, cafe, co-working spaces, clubs, hotels etc essentially but it feels utterly different, unique and special. 

I woke this morning excited to see everyone and it has a feeling more connected to family, friends, community than to co-workers. That is not because we are friends outside of work but because feeling strong and more emotional connections to those we work with come from interactions that are by design ununusal and in ways sacred. If we were all in the same office everday, how would we feel about each other; about being together day in day out? As we each know, you find those you like, those you are indifferent to and some you grow to dislike - special and prized it certainly is not. 

The power of physical prescence in work can be hightened when our times together are unusual, rare. Ironically, we have richer, closer and more productive connections; rather like seeing friends we have not seen for a while. For me there is no accurate language to describe this new experience of working with colleagues - but it is time to start developing words for these new changing working relationships. 

My exciting news is that my book "The Digital Workplace" - How Technology is Liberating Work went to PRINT and the hardback edition is out in March! Cover and jacket here.

I sat down to watch a new Economist Intelligence Unit video the other day on the "Future of Work". It is just the latest of such videos that are designed to present an insight into how work is changing and how it will change in coming years. 

It is not that this video is uniquely bad but just that it is the latest film to push out the same tired cliches and poorly considered mantras that are emerging around the "future work agenda". Some of the content is actually fine, in the sense of accurate but it is the same old ideas we have been hearing for several years - offices are no longer what they were, people are changing where they work and technology will change things more in the future. Wow! 

We have known this for about 20 years now, so it's just nothing new. But aside from its rather jaded messages there are two "insights" that are supposed to challenge our thinking and both are wholly incorrect. The first such insight around work/life I will cover here - and I will cover the second insight in my next next blog. 

On the work/life side, one chap talks about a new (awful) term "Bleisure" which he says is the new term for the blurring of work and life. Firstly this is term I have never heard, nor has anyone I have asked in the future work field and everyone (on hearing it for the first time) hates the term. But that aside, the idea that confusing work with the rest of your life is a good thing which is what we are told in the video, is not only without any evidence but as deeply unhealthy and dangerous for us as human beings - and for our society. 

Throughout our time on earth humans have always distinguished between work and play. each feeds the other and each is vitally important. The idea that in the new world of portable work this separation would vanish and that we should all be thrilled, is a powerful and disturbing notion that must be challenged. It is childish to think that because we can work anywhere, anytime that therefore we should so. Why should the new liberation of work through technology means we work evenings, weekends and on hollday? Why is that considered a benefit and not a curse? 

We are becoming (as covered in my new book being previewed in hardback in New York on 13 March) addicted to work because it is so easy to work now. But from my 30 year experience in being able to work in this fleixible way, not being clear about where work ends and the rest of your life begins is like sleepwalking into a working week that never fully stops. This video evangelises this myth and it is a shame to see Microsoft as the sponsor because I know many senior managers there would find that part of the message in this video as distasteful as I do. 

 

 

 

 

The New York Times this week raised and challenged a "taboo" subject. The current mindset is that working together in person is the best way to be creative. We need to meet in person to build trust, collaborate and just work well. Make the offices funky, open, flexible but whatever you do, make sure people can work together face to face.

The biggest objection I hear when I talk about the Digital Workplace as a new world of work mediated by technology is that this "portable" way of working tends to make people feel isolated. I explain when work becomes portable, you can choose to work where you want - including in the traditional office - so it is not all about home working. But there is a deep, almost primal fear I notice in people feeling alone, isolated and cut off from others. 

All the talk is that collaboration and being with colleagues is how you get innovative and productive. Where do I work if there are no offices? How will I work if I can work anywhere? What do I do without a clear structure for my day that travel to and from an office brings? 

But latest evidence is striking. While solitude may be out of fashion research shows people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. Most offices are places of noise and distraction where getting not just a decent day's work done is tough but getting to quality work is virtually impossible. 

In my company of about 50 people in Europe and North America we used to have an office till 12 months ago. Wow that was a shock when it disappeared but most people who never visited the office were unaffected and others (including msyelf adjusted). We do meet once a month in London for a day when anyone can drop in and work together and we meet each other at customer gatherings, coffees, on trips to Paris and New York and San Francisco - but our default it to work alone. 

I asked a colleague at one of our monthly team gatherings whether he had seen any change and he said: "Not much: only thing is that the business seems be more creative and innovative". Wow! What an unexpected result. I have blogged that at times I miss my colleagues but have remedied that personally but adding a couple more face to face meeting a month but what I have been stunned by is that the quality of my thinking, innovation and focus has risen a great deal. I work far more thoughtfully and powerfully and as the CEO that is (hopefully) helping the company more.

We live in a world where offices as meeting places are considered the ideal place to work with working when mobile as a decent substutute but not an improvement. What is striking from the article in NYT is that evidence shows that collaboration in person has undeserved mythical status. Goodness have I ever attended one of these dreadful "brainstorming" sessions which are not just chaos but tend to produce tragic or just demeaning results. 

As the article by Susan Cain, author of the forthcoming book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” says: "Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. 'Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,' Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community". 

This is not about never collobarating or meeting but about chooing when and where we work. The mobility that has been given to us through the emerging Digital Workplace now gives us options in how we work that were impossible until quite recently. So we should evaluate work from a frseh perspective and what we find will continue to suprise us I am sure. 

 

Here are my ten predictions of what will happen in the Digital Workplace in 2012. Some are covered in my new book "The Digital Workplace" , being previewed in hardback in New York on 13 March. Others I have arrived at in my role as CEO and Founder of the Digital Workplace Forum (http://www.ibforum.com/services/digital-workplace/).

What do you think? 

Agile working, new ways of working, work-shifting – pick a name – this is the new emerging field in work and technology. My own focus is on the DIGITAL in Digital Workplace - investigating, connecting, mapping and measuring in the new world of work and technology. 

So what can we expect in the Digital Workplace 2012? 

Trend 1 – The Digital Workplace will cause a wave of physical office re-design projects with real estate leading the shift

Perhaps inevitably the driving force in the Digital Workplace is real estate reductions and re-shaping of office environments. The lead times in the physical world are far longer than in the digital so organizations are trying to assess now what they need on a physical work level five years from now. Will anyone come to an office? If so who, when and why? The change in the physical workplace is being enabled by the rapid improvements in the Digital Workplace but lots of money is being wasted still on offices that will be virtually empty in 2016. 

Trend 2 – The cultural impact – based on fears of isolation and fragmentation – in the Digital Workplace will surface as a key human resource challenge and opportunity 

From my own experience (and what I hear from staff at IBM, who have now got a decade of experience of working away from the office) the only downside of the portable nature of the Digital Workplace is a feeling of isolation from colleagues and the organization they work for. The Digital Workplace enables, at its best, a consistent experience of work wherever you are which is great for freedom and flexibility but the HR challenge is to overcome the loss of the vital human connections necessary for productive work. Seeing colleagues from time to time each month in different locations makes a huge impact when set against having no physical contact at all for months at a time. 

Trend 3 – The tragic state of the usability of the Digital Workplace will start to be noticed as an obstacle to efficiency

What is often ignored is that the digital world of work persists just as much when are in company owned locations – offices, warehouses or plants – as it does when we are everywhere else. We will probably need to design Digital Workplaces that flex based on where we are: what we need when in office is different from when on a train or at a café or at our home office. Either way, the Digital Workplace needs to offer a consistent and appropriate experience of work and currently the state of the user experience of the fragmented, multiple identity requiring, and chaotic digital worlds of most organizations is a major challenge. Yes we love to have our work wherever we are and we are mightily impressed by the speed and portability today versus three years ago but it is still poor on a usability level. What we tolerate today will seem as antiquated as “dial up” does now, looking back a few years. 

Trend 4 – The “digital examples” to follow will be the way Facebook, Google and Twitter are organized as companies – with very few people producing huge amounts of financial value – with major traditional corporates trying to re-shape how work happens

The current financial crisis is two-fold in my mind: one is economic due to debt, banking and liquidity – eventually that will be resolved. Perhaps the larger crisis will never be fully resolved with a new economic model where technology allows a new relationship between people and productivity. If we look at the new technology giants such as Facebook and Google, they employ very small numbers of staff and produce massive financial value. Such companies are models of a new economy where technology replaces people at frightening levels. Already if you visit a modern factory today you will see a small number human beings in a very large space! More traditional organizations will increasingly try to emulate the Google model as digital work drives down the cost of production. What will this mean for jobs? Who knows but certainly entirely new industries will emerge out of the radical restructuring and freelance working models will start to become more common. 

Trend 5 – Governments will lead the drive at policy levels for a fundamental shift to digital working and mobility with organizations struggling to match the pace of change 

London in 2012 hosts the Olympics and at a Government level there is a drive to promote flexible working for three weeks around the Games as part of their Anywhere Working scheme. Organizations are being encouraged by Government to change their policies because the Digital Workplace can take the strain and these organizations will never look back after the Olympics as habits will have been changed. In Holland, Finland, US and the UK,  government policy loves the Digital Workplace – less traffic, less sickness, reduced carbon, fewer accidents on the roads, business as usual when bad weather strikes, happier home lives – and this top down push will accelerate corporate wide shifts in how and where work happens. 

Trend 6 – The Digital Workplace will grow and develop as a more general world of work and technology and not as a “bigger, better intranet” 

Telephones, mobile devices, video and audio conferencing, micro-blogging, HR systems, email, customer social media and the wider range of work and technology makes up the Digital Workplace. Intranets will remain essential core services but the Digital Workplace is not a bigger, better intranet and never will be. For example, we will always have trains, better, faster but the train will never be all transportation – both trains and transport matter – but we must not confuse the two. We will drive forward intranets in 2012 and also enrich the Digital Workplaces but let’s make sure we know which is which. 

Trend 7 – Working across geography and time-zones will increase and power the expansion of the Digital Workplace with new innovation and collaboration opportunities 

When you cast off the shackles of the physical world, you can fly. Activities, collaborations and projects are possible in a digital working world that are impossible in the physical space. Organizations will exploit the Digital Workplace to assemble new teams, projects and processes that span time zones and regions. This will show the Digital Workplace not just a way to work from home (the least imaginative use of the Digital Workplace really!) but as a means to innovate and collaborate in fresh, surprising ways leading to new services, products and efficiencies. 

Trend 8 – “Bring Your Own Device” trends will drive the Digital Workplace towards mobile services accessed via single log-in details secured at the point of entry

A senior manager I know tells the story of his grandfather who was given clothes when he began work in Italy a century ago, then this manager’s father was given a driving licence when he started work and the manager himself was given a PC. What will new hires get when they join? Probably nothing but a secure identity and log on to a set of cloud based services. People will just use their existing tablets, phones, laptops and be happy to just “hook into the corporate system” from them. “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) will become the new normal and this gradual trend will just tick along in 2012. Question is when they log on, what is the quality of what they access? 

Trend 9 – The Digital Workplace field will create increased anxiety and risk management concerns at senior levels leading to more strategic controls 

Big change always comes with problems and aside from isolation mentioned earlier, the other huge obstacle is security and risk management. If people are increasingly “anywhere” how can the work they do remain secure and not expose the organization to unknown risks and legal dangers? The large technology firms are ploughing investments into security in the Digital Workplace but anxiety levels at the CEO and other C levels will rise as problems surface and gain attention in the media. Remember getting these things wrong can land a CEO in prison – that danger focuses minds. 

Trend 10 – The Digital Workplace will start to be regarded as a major business opportunity - rather than simply a replacement for physical offices 

The Digital Workplace is currently seen as cheaper, more flexible way to work than physical workplaces – something of a replacement. What will start to develop is a belief that the Digital Workplace is not only a huge area of business in its own right with new B2B services and sectors but also that it offers a better, more productive and innovative space to work in than do physical offices. It will take on a shape and stature of its own and this journey into work/technology that began really with the telephone will become an ever more rich, diverse and potent place to do business. 

 

 

 

Just been tweaking my top ten "mantras" of the Digital Workplace......ahead of a working session for the major organizations now part of our Digital Workplace Forum - happening at a funky space run by entrepreur Renata Wallace in London's Covent Garden: 

1.      The Digital Workplace enables people to have degrees of power and influence over how, where and when they work for the first time. 

2.      Work is shifting rapidly from the physical to the digital – and the progress is steady, fast and relentless.

3.      The office as we know is in terminal decline – but what is coming in its place? As yet unclear.

4.      The Digital Workplace has the ability to transform positively the nature, design and experience of work for most people in most organizations.

5.      My own organization/work experience contains great lessons for large enterprises embarking on moving deeper into the Digital Workplace.

6.      You do not need to meet physically to build trust; while it can help it is not essential.

7.      If you don’t design your "work future" in this area, it will design you.

8.      The Digital Workplace produces less ‘politics’ and distractions than being in an office all day, every day.

9.      Work itself is not getting easier or less demanding – it’s just that its ‘shape’ and location are changing.

10.  It is impossible to implement a successful Digital Workplace without high degrees of trust and autonomy.

 

 

This week the launch of the block-buster video game Call of Duty had a large celebrity gathering plus queues at stores to get the game. Yesterday the Social Media Club had it's fifth birthday at a party in Boston. Twice a month a bunch of staffers and freelancers in my company IBF gather for a day in London's Covent Garden. What all these examples tell me is that in an increasingly digital working world, the physical meetings become essential. They "ground" us in a tangible, personal connection with others and are proving vital in an online world. Each day 50 of us in my company work ever more in richer and more intense Digital Workplaces. This needs to be balanced and supported by physical meetings at customer events, team days, dinners. The MOW 3 example shows that this applies in the online entertainment world too. You can happily spend whole days of time gaming online so long as there are rare and high profile times when actual people actually meet. In fact most gamers willl never attend these gatherings but the gatherings have a halo effect and ground the digital experience anyhow for everyone. What is online must at times become offline. What is also interesting is that it takes a small dose of in person connection to enable a large amount of digital work. Most organisations have the balance upside down totally where the offline is everywhere - this is out-dated, habitual and no longer useful. As the Digital Workplace fills more and more of our working days and as offices and the likes start to shrink, wither or disappear, the need tor occasional "physical touch points" will increase. As I often quote the great and late Timothy Leary who said 30 years ago "in the future physical meetings will become rare, sacred" - this seemed ridiculous at the time but not feels spot on.

Twice a month the London centred IBF team met in person in Covent Garden to work together, chat and interact in a way we just can't when we are virtual. As each person arrived today they had a big smile on their faces and clearly we are enjoying actually having time in person together. I found myself looking down the list of people who were planning to be together today and feeling a warm glow and anticipation. The rarity makes us value the time we have like this.