Archive for the ‘Results Orientation’ Category

Last week I was doing some consulting work here in Dallas and attended a strategy and planning meeting for an upcoming event. While the majority of people attending the meeting were Dallas locals, two individuals had flown in from out of state for a 3-hour meeting.

As the meeting concluded, one of the executives commented that it was nice having the out-of-towners fly in to attend the meeting in person. Then they exchanged comments about hating conference calls and meeting over the phone, complaining how it just wasn’t the same. This my friend, is Sludge.

Sure, virtual meetings aren’t quite the same as face-to-face contact, but I couldn’t help but wonder, when are we going to let go of our old, outdated beliefs about how work happens?! Consider the expense and the environmental impact of flying people into town, renting a car, staying overnight at a hotel for a 3-hour meeting. And did I mention the other consultants and I had to fight rush-hour traffic, sitting on the highway for about an hour each way to commute into Dallas?

This may sound harsh, but meetings aren’t about enjoying the company of your coworkers in person and they aren’t about using your preferred communication method. Meetings are—or at least should be—about accomplishing a specific result. There should be a clear outcome for each meeting you attend and the meeting should be accomplished in the medium (in-person, conference call, webinar, etc) that makes the most sense. And p.s. a status update doesn’t warrant a meeting.

In our meeting last week we had specific outcomes and results we needed to answer by the end of the meeting. And we did. But we could have reached the same conclusions by meeting virtually, saving everyone time, money, and lessening our impact on the environment.

What do you think? Are in-person meetings essential? If so, when? What difference would it make in your life and your organization if you attended fewer in-person meetings?

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Chris Ferdinandi, the brilliant mind behind the RenegadeHR blog, about the results-only work environment (ROWE) movement. Chris recorded our conversation and has made the podcast available on his website (you can listen here).

Chris asked some good questions about ROWEs and we covered a lot of ground. Here’s a preview of the topics we talked about:

• Overview of ROWE and its importance
• Interdependent team work in a ROWE
• Increasing productivity
• Maintaining organizational culture in a ROWE
• Managerial results
• Unethical behavior in a ROWE

Have a listen and let me know if I can answer any other questions you may have about ROWEs.

I’ve been thinking lately about how you onboard a virtual team member or a team member in a results-only work environment (ROWE). Onboarding, for those of you not familiar with the term, is the process of bringing on new employees with the purpose of quickly and successfully integrating them into the organization. Most traditional organizations don’t onboard new hires very well, so when we add a virtual workforce into the equation, things are bound to get a bit dicey.

When done well, onboarding can be a strategic process that improves your bottom line—the more quickly you get a new hire up to speed, the more quickly they start producing. Onboarding also improves productivity, performance, retention, engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty. Research and experience show us it’s a good thing.

As a new employee, you have a lot to learn: job requirements and expectations, how your role fits into the team and the company, industry information, company information, who you’ll be working with, the ins and outs of the company culture, etc. So how do you do this effectively if you’re telecommuting, working on a virtual team, or joining a team that’s working a variety of hours from different locations?

This past spring over at the GirlScoutsGoneROWE.com blog, Daniel Malyszka, Director of Human Resources for the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council, talked about their challenge with ROWE and new employees. He worried that new employees may see ROWE as an opportunity to slack off and shared his thoughts on a potential solution: stricter rules during the initial training period.

I’m not sure I agree with “stricter rules,” but I do believe you absolutely must have a detailed, thought-through onboarding plan in place for new employees. And the “result” they are responsible for achieving the first few weeks working in a ROWE or on a virtual team, is to accomplish all of the onboarding activities listed in their training plan.

Additionally, each new hire’s manager and team need to have a shared responsibility for helping the new employee accomplish all of those tasks. In the past when I’ve worked with clients to create custom onboarding solutions, at least 5 people have been held accountable to produce specific results during the onboarding process: the new hire, the manager, HR, IT, and a peer mentor. It’s built into each person’s job—additional responsibilities for which they are held accountable to complete and are evaluated on when performance reviews come around.

The same stuff you cover when the employee is physically present in traditional onboarding needs to be covered when doing virtual onboarding. However, in a virtual team or a ROWE, some of those activities move online. For example,

• Utilize a private blog or wiki to share information with new hires.
• Schedule Skype video calls with the new employee, his or her team members, and other important people in the organization.
• Provide the new employee with everyone’s IM and Twitter name and provide training on those platforms if needed.
• Use screen capturing software to explain how to walk through a routine task and show the new hire where to find the information on the corporate website.

I read recently that we currently have about 34 million Americans that are working at least occasionally from home. By 2016 it’s estimated that 63 million people are going to be working from home; that’s 29 million more telecommuters entering the remote work force in the coming years and that number doesn’t even include all the people who work in some type of flexible work arrangement. I don’t have all the answers, but I do believe it’s important for us to start thinking and talking about how to onboard virtual team members quickly and effectively.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let me know what challenges you’ve faced onboarding a new team member in a virtual work environment or in a ROWE. What have you done or seen that’s been successful?

Last week I came across an article, Leading a Cultural Revolution, about what’s currently going on with Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, the two women who initiated the results-only work environment (ROWE) movement. The article itself is okay, but what struck me (and thoroughly disappointed me) were the comments that followed.

The general beliefs and attitudes of those that commented eerily echoed feedback I received following a talk I gave several months ago to a professional group about ROWE. All they had were complaints, reasons it would never work, and were quick to dismiss the idea of ROWE. The readers of this article appear to have the same attitude.

Are there problems with ROWEs? Of course. Are there going to be challenges and setbacks? You bet. Is it going to work for everyone? Probably not. But does that mean we don’t even give it a try? I don’t think so.

Recently I was reading through Experience Life, the member magazine put out by Life Time Fitness, and came across an excellent quote that bears repeating. The magazine interviewed Rory Freedman, veganism advocate, and although she was talking about changing your perspective on healthy living, I think what she shared is important for our perspective on and approach to ROWEs and workplace flexibility. Freedman said,

“I think the best thing for people to do is to just stop for a second, step back from what it is you’ve already decided, or what you think you know, of how you’re sure you feel about the issue, and visit the possibility that the way you’re doing things can be improved upon.”

I’ve felt it and I know deep down you’ve felt it too; the way we approach work isn’t working and it’s time for a big change. As you ponder what that change looks like for you and your organization, I encourage you to hit the pause button on your preconceived notions of flexibility. Press pause on what you think you know about telecommuting or working from home. Take a minute to reconsider how you feel about face time and the importance of a traditional 40-hour, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. workweek. And just remain open to the possibility that how we work can be improved upon.

Take a few minutes to look at the article and browse through the comments yourself. But before you immediately write off ROWE, open your mind to the possibility that it could actually work for you. Imagine how your job and life would change if you had complete control over your schedule and the location of your work. You can change the way you work—as long as you remain open to the possibility that work can change for the better.

Want to radically shake up how you work? It all starts with beliefs and behaviors. Here are 5 shifts in attitude and behavior that promise to revolutionize the way you work forever.

1. Shift from judging based on politics and time to judging based on performance and results. 

The way most leaders evaluate performance is a subjective mix of outcomes, face time, and office politics. Isn’t it time we evaluated performance based solely on results and contributions? Set up clear expectations and performance outcomes and then shift to judging someone’s work by the results they produce and the goals they achieve. Nothing more, nothing less. 

2. Shift from paying for a chunk of time to paying for a chunk of work.

Are you paying your employees to show up 40-hours a week and sit at a desk or are you paying them to complete a specific job and produce certain results? Hopefully it’s about the work, not the time, or you’re wasting your money. Stop thinking in terms of trading dollars for time and start thinking about trading dollars for a concrete outcome and/or the completion of a project.

3. Shift from time off as a reward to control over time as a reward.

Managers that reward their employees for a job well done by “letting” them leave early on a Friday afternoon are kidding themselves. It’s not a real reward. Managers shouldn’t act like parents “letting” their kids stay up late. Treat your employees like adults. A true reward would be giving your employees the ability to control their time, set their own schedule, and determine how and when their work gets done. You’ll most likely create a team that works harder and produces higher quality outcomes because they’ll do whatever it takes to keep that kind of reward. 

4. Shift from a command and control model of leadership to a model of trust and collaboration.

It’s time to put the old military model of leadership to bed. Command and control leadership is a thing of the past. The only person you can actually control is yourself, so you might as well give up trying to control everyone around you. It’s not going to happen. Instead, adopt a leadership model of trust and collaboration. You’ll increase your ability to influence your team and you’ll help them be more successful.

5. Shift from treating employees like children to trusting them to act like adults. 

In high school, students were treated a certain way because they were teenagers. High school was a fairly controlled environment with a routine schedule and very little choice. And if you recall, most high school students can’t wait to graduate. Why? Because once they go on to college, things immediately change. In college, professors trust students to act like adults, show up for class, study, turn in papers, and take exams. No one is telling them what to do or controlling how they do it, but college students still get the job done (and enjoy the process a whole lot more). Then, they graduate college, get a job, and it’s like high school all over again. Work should be more like college and less like high school. You can trust your employees to act like adults and they will get the job done. 

Those are just five small shifts that can radically change your perspective on work. Which shift would make the biggest and fastest impact on your work life? Pick one shift to start with and begin thinking and acting based on this new model of work. Be sure to let me know how it goes.

Do you ever feel like Wally? Or maybe you know a Wally? Someone getting paid to do nothing at work? An employee that slips through the cracks without really being noticed?

Maybe you’re not a true Wally, but statistics show many people are wasting significant time during the workday. A July 2005 survey conducted by Salary.com and AOL found the following:

• The average American wastes more than 2 hours of each workday.
• The most popular time-wasting activities are:
  • Surfing the Internet
  • Socializing with coworkers
  • Conducting personal business
  • Spacing out
• The top 3 excuses for wasting time:
  • Not enough work to do
  • Feel underpaid for the work they do
  • Distracted by coworkers
• $759,000,000,000 is lost each year as a result of low worker productivity and wasted work time.

One of the best ways to combat wasted time at work is by making work about results, rather than time. In most organizations, work culture and management practices are focused on the clock and filling the void between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. As long as employees are in the office and at their desks during normal business hours, everyone’s happy. However, when that’s the structure and the focus is on time, it’s easy to hide. Just like Wally, you can “look busy” and no one will be the wiser.

If you make work more about results and outcomes, and less about the clock, things quickly change. When employees have control over their work, and are free to leave when their work is done, they stop “wasting” time at work. When your time is yours, rather than the company’s, you’ll spend it wisely, right?

By giving employees control over how and when they do their work, as they do in a results-only work environment, they will produce better and faster results. And when managers begin evaluating performance by looking at results and outcomes, rather than a combination of results, physical presence, and office politics, workers will stop wasting time in the office. You can’t hide in a model like this—if you don’t produce results, you job is in jeopardy.

Eliminate wasted time at the source. If there’s no payoff, employees will be less likely to do it. The more efficient and productive you are, the more time you have to live your life. By focusing on results, maybe we can restore our Work-Avoiding Ninjas’ hopes and dreams.

Related Post: What’s the Biggest Productivity Challenge Leaders Must Solve?

Today over at the CubeRules.com blog, Scot Herrick shared his take on the 3 worst pundit methods to make your job layoff-resistant. 

His three nominations for worst job advice you could follow during this time of economic uncertainty and layoffs are right on. AND they are incredibly ROWE friendly. Be sure to read the full article, but here are the key takeaways if you want to keep (and excel) in your job:

1. Face time and long hours don’t (and shouldn’t) count for much. 
2. “Looking busy” is a waste of your time, the customer’s time, and your company’s time—plus it won’t help you find your next job (Interviewer: “So what did you do at your last job?” You: “Umm… I looked busy, really busy.”).
3. Work-life balance is irrelevant; control over your life, and thus your work, is what really counts.

What’s the only thing that really matters? Results. Focus on accomplishing those—and work to hire and retain people that do the same—and you’ll be in good shape.

During our fourth and final call in the Flexible Work Summit, Blake Leath of The Blake Leath Group, Ryan Healy, co-founder of Brazen Careerist, and Kyra Cavanaugh, owner of Life Meets Work, shared “Strategies for Stretching Leaders and Teams.”

During today’s call we talked about ways to successfully implement change within your organization, how Generation Y is changing work and leadership, and tips for managing flexible performance. Here are a few of my personal notes from the call:

• Resilience is paramount in a changing work environment and can show up 4 different ways: in individuals, in behaviors (e.g., it can be practiced and learned; meaning & engagement are important), in experiences (e.g., emotional echoes), and in leadership (be engaged, accessible, and get some wins).
• The One Degree Assessment: Look for the right one degree of difference—one thing you could change and do really well, that would make a world of difference within your organization.
• Gen Y employees, despite the common perception that they are disloyal job hoppers, are actually extremely loyal to their team.
• When leading Millennial employees, take extra time to provide clear direction, fully explain expectations, and provide plenty of feedback. It’s also important to provide opportunities for leaders to emerge from groups and teams.
• Want to start a flex work policy in your organization? Take first steps by co-creating a flexible work agreement with your employees. Lay out all the expectations and set a time to revisit and revise after a trial period.
• Which side of the management style continuum are you on? Controlling or Trusting? 
• Work-life balance doesn’t have to be perceived as a “soft” benefit. You can, and should, tie flexibility to profits and productivity—especially in this economy.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the fourth session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series (the recording is available until Friday afternoon). 

If you missed any part of the Flexible Work Summit and want to grab the recordings, transcripts, and action guides for the entire series, you can do so here. There is a Home Study version with binder and CDs, as well as a Digital Version with MP3s and PDFs. These packages are available at a discounted price for the next few days.

Finally, I’m offering $100 off of the upcoming Flexible Work Bootcamp until Friday, May 22nd. As a member of the Bootcamp you’ll receive 12-week s of in-depth and personalized training and coaching, along with a lot of extra resources to help you implement flexibility within your organization. We’re keeping the size of the group small so you and your team can get the personal attention you need to implement a customized flexible work solution within your organization. You can find the full details about the program and reserve your spot at the discounted rate at www.FlexibleWorkBootcamp.com.

During our third call in the Flexible Work Summit, Scot Herrick, founder of CubeRules.com, Andrea Emerson, founder of EspressoShots.com, and I shared “Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work.”

During today’s call we talked about results-only work environments (ROWEs), SMART goals, and ways to increase performance and drive results. Here are a few of my personal notes from the call:

• Results-Only Work Environments require 2 components: A relentless focus on results and complete schedule control. You can’t have one without the other.
• There are 4 different types of jobs: automated, boring, convoluted, and dynamic. By increasing control, a ROWE creates dynamic jobs where employees can freely meet the demands of their job how, when, and where they see fit. 
• Setting SMART goals in highly flexible work environments helps get rid of many excuses against increasing flexibility. When results are clear, face time, physical presence, and clock watching become less important. 
• Don’t neglect setting individual goals for high-performers. Individual goals (in addition to department and team goals) allow high-performers the ability to distinguish themselves.
• Servant leadership: put people over profits and you’ll increase your influence as well as increase your profit. This gets easier to do when the focus is more on results, and less on being the hall monitor.
• Don’t wait to confront non-performance. Avoiding conflict, performance issues, interpersonal problems, etc., gets worse quickly in a flexible work environment. You must be proactive to manage non-performance.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the third session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series. During tomorrow’s session we’ll be talking about “Strategies for Stretching Leaders and Teams” by focusing on how to make organizational change successful, the ways in which Generation Y is changing the workplace, and we’ll share some final tips for managing performance in a flexible workplace. 

If you have any questions you’d like addressed during the final day of the Summit, leave me a comment below.

During our second call in the Flexible Work Summit, Chip Kohrman, founder of Telesaur.com, Brad Garland, CEO of The Garland Group, and Phil Montero, creator of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com shared some amazing “Strategies for Stretching WHERE You Work.”

The focus of today’s call was telecommuting, virtual teams, and how to use technology to revolutionize your business. Here are a few of my personal notes and biggest takeaways from the call:

• During the recession, consider alternatives to layoffs. Telecommuting has been proven to increase productivity, boost morale, and decrease costs.
• By getting clear on results and communicating expectations effectively, you can “get rid of the drama” as Brad Garland says in many work environments.
• Purposefully look at the type of communication that needs to happen internally and externally and create a plan to accomplish your goals. Tip: Look at needs for instant communication, transfer of knowledge, and collaborative efficiency.
• Informal communication is still important for virtual work. Even though there’s no physical water cooler, create opportunities for team members to connect. As Phil shared, virtual work is still a human process—we need to know, like, and trust our coworkers and clients—even if we’re never physically in the same place.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the second session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series. During tomorrow’s session we’ll be talking about Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work, and will be discussing results-only work environments (ROWEs), SMART goals, and sharing tips for increasing performance and driving results.

If you have any questions you’d like addressed during the Summit, leave me a comment below.