Archive for the ‘Schedule Control’ Category

Wondering if a flexible work arrangement is right for you? Whether you’re interested in flexible hours, telecommuting, working from a satellite office, coworking, or participating in a ROWE, flexible work isn’t a good fit for everyone.

Here are 10 characteristics you must have—or develop—to thrive in a flexible work environment:

1. Strong Work Ethic

Flexible work is all about the results. Do you have a strong enough work ethic to consistently produce results without the structure and stability of a job in a traditional work environment?

2. Knows It’s NOT About Sleeping In & Wearing Your PJs All Day

You may want to telecommute or work from home so you can sleep in and wear your pajamas all day. Truthfully, there are days I do this, but it’s not the norm. If your primary reason for wanting flexible work is to work in your pajamas, see items number one and three.

3. Disciplined

Working flexible hours isn’t necessarily about working less—it’s about working differently. You still have a job to do, clients to please, team members to support and everything must be done in a timely manner. The self-discipline to get up, get to work, and get your job done is essential.

4. Self-Motivated

If you need your coworkers or your boss to constantly motivate you, flexible work may not be right for you. Self-motivated individuals thrive in a hands-off work environment and are motivated by freedom of choice. Complete control to decide how, when, and where you work should be motivation enough.

5. Proactive

Successful flex workers are proactive. They don’t procrastinate and put off doing their work. They accomplish their work quickly and efficiently so they can benefit from control over their time. When a problem comes up, telecommuters or virtual team members do whatever they can to resolve it immediately. They know problems will quickly get worse in an unstructured environment.

6. Flexible

Yes, flexible work requires being flexible. Brilliant, I know. But if you receive flexibility from your employer, you should be willing to be flexible with them as well. It goes two ways—you do what you need to do to make the arrangement a success for both parties.

7. Willing to Learn

Changing your work environment from a traditional office to a virtual or remote office may require some learning on your part. Learn new technologies, techniques, and skills quickly and be willing to teach your team and colleagues what works.

8. Willing to Change

More and more people are telecommuting and moving into flexible work arrangements and virtual teams. The workplace is changing and flexible workers are willing and able to quickly adapt and change. They welcome new ideas, technologies, and innovative ways to collaborate. They are quick to leave the old, limiting beliefs of the traditional workplace behind and replace those beliefs with a new flexible alternative.

9. Focused

Speaking from experience, it’s easy to get distracted at home—especially when you don’t have set office hours. I may take a break for lunch, realize we don’t have enough milk for my afternoon coffee, head to the grocery store, and by the time I get back I’ve lost the whole afternoon. Flexible workers that do well are focused every day on the results they must produce as well as project timelines and deadlines. They actively work to make things happen by putting on blinders and avoiding outside distractions.

10. Organized

You must be organized when you work flexibly. Do you have access to all the files, information, and contacts you need to do your job? Can you collaborate with team members and clients effortlessly? Do you have a dedicated office space that isn’t part of the kid’s playroom? Take the time you need to set up an organized space for you work and make sure you have easy access to all the tools and information you need to do your job.

This list is just a few of the characteristics you need to excel in a flexible work environment. What other traits or characteristics do you possess that have made you a successful flexible worker?

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.

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.

Today was the first call in the Flexible Work Summit featuring Leanne Chase from CareerLifeConnection.com, Mike Owcarz from Main Sequence Technologies, Karen Corday from the Sloan Work & Family Research Network, and Phyllis Mufson, Coach & Career Consultant.

The focus of today’s call was about work-life balance and how the desire for flexibility in the workplace isn’t just about mommies—it’s actually a cross-generational, gender-neutral desire. Here are a few of my personal notes from the call:

• Tools for making flexibility easier: VoIP, online access to email, web-based collaboration software, a disciplined schedule (especially if working from home).
• A huge driver of Generation Y engagement is access to flexibility.
• ROI: 73% of employees with high flexibility plan to stay with their employers for the next year (less turnover, decreased cost of training new employees).
• Research shows flexibility has a positive effect on reaching business goals.
• Just having flexible work policies isn’t enough – organizations must create a culture that’s supportive of flexibility, encourages it, and doesn’t punish those opting to work flexibly.
• Companies like Home Depot and Borders are offering great alternatives for Boomer’s not quite ready for full retirement: work part of the year in your home town, then work the winter in Florida—it’s the Snowbird program.
• During negotiation, remember that flexibility isn’t all about you. It’s a two way street and you need to highlight the benefits of flexible work for the organization as well.
• If your boss is skeptical or uncertain, propose a trial period with a definite end date to evaluate results.
• Business size can make a big difference. Negotiating flexibility may not be as difficult in a small business, but as the number of employees grows, consider finding like-minded individuals that all want flexible work and take your request to HR together.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the first 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 WHERE You Work, and will be discussing telecommuting, virtual teams, and how to use technology to revolutionize your business. 

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

Jessica Lawrence, CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council, recently posted the ROWE Report on her blog.  The report offers a peek inside her organization’s successful first six-months of working in a results-only work environment (ROWE). 

You can download the full report here, but I want to highlight a few of the findings I found especially compelling (note: these statistics compare the percent change pre-ROWE to 6-months post-ROWE):

• “Good” or “great” productivity when working: 69% increase
• “Good” or “great” efficiency when working: 81% increase
• “Good” or “great” control of time: 245% increase
• “Good” or “great” work/life balance: 417% increase

Additionally, they found:

• Job satisfaction increased 80%.
• Voluntary turnover decreased 40%.

The employees felt strongly that teamwork and communication had greatly improved and that employee engagement had increased. Overall, 93% of employees feel more in control of their lives, and feel ROWE is good for them as employees and good for the organization as a whole.

The report also includes open-ended comments. Here is a snapshot of how employees feel about ROWE:

• “I LOVE ROWE!!! PLEASE DON’T EVER GO BACK TO THE OLD WAY!”
• “It’s been the best work experience ever.”
• “It is the best of both worlds–providing me with the freedom and flexibility of an independent contractor combined with the collegiality and team spirit of a traditional corporate structure — I LOVE IT!”
• “I hope we never stop ROWE.”

Finally, Jessica makes an excellent point in the ROWE Report:

“ROWE is not an employee “perk” – it is a way of aligning the company’s culture around key values that have a positive impact on both the employees and the company.”

And she’s absolutely right. ROWE isn’t just a perk, it’s a new way of operating. It’s a new way of working that has the potential to change everything. Take a look at the report and decide for yourself: Does ROWE really work?

I believe wholeheartedly in the ROWE business model and will be talking about it next week during Wednesday’s session of the Flexible Work Summit: Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work. During that time I want to answer your biggest questions about ROWE. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you want to know about going ROWE. And be sure to grab your free pass for the Flexible Work Summit – we have an amazing line-up of 10 speakers talking about all aspects of workplace flexibility and I know you don’t want to miss out!

When Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson first created results-only work environments (ROWEs), they knew changing the way people talked about work would be a critical factor for success. In their book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, they offer 13 guideposts for working in a ROWE and several of those guideposts address mental shifts we need to make about work and how it gets done. 

Today, I want to discuss one of their guideposts aimed at changing fundamental beliefs about work that also requires a shift in the language we use around the office. This tenant relates to WHEN work gets done in a ROWE:

Arriving at the workplace at 2:00 p.m. is not considered coming in late.

Leaving the workplace at 2:00 p.m. is not considered leaving early.

When you work in a ROWE, the clock is no longer used to determine if someone is working. Time ≠ productivity. According to this guidepost, you stop checking your watch when a coworker arrives later than you, and you don’t glance at the clock when someone quietly slips out of the office mid-afternoon. In a ROWE, each employee, regardless of position or rank, is free to set their own hours, their own schedule, and determine their own work location. 

Please don’t misunderstand—working in a ROWE isn’t a complete free-for-all. You still must pull your weight and diligently do your job. You still have to put in time and effort, but you have complete freedom to determine when and where your work is done. The tough part for many is that you have zero control over where and when everyone else is working.

In a ROWE, when you’re following this guidepost, asking someone about time becomes a personal question. Asking a coworker where they’re going and why they’re leaving the office at 3:15 p.m. on a Wednesday is personal—and irrelevant. They may be going to a client meeting, going home to work, headed out to pick up their child, to a doctor’s appointment, or to meet a friend. Unless you need something from them for a project you’re trying to finish, where they are headed is none of your business. The same is true for you. If you decide not to go into the office until 11:30 a.m. one day, you don’t have to explain yourself. You just show up and get to work.

This guidepost means we no longer judge others based on when they come and go from the office (or send a work-related email, even if it’s at 2:37 a.m.). And it means we don’t judge ourselves if we’re not sitting at our desk working by 8:00 a.m. And let me tell you, sometimes not judging yourself is the hardest part! 

Our beliefs about time and work are deeply ingrained, rooted in childhood as we watched our parents work a traditional 40-hour work week. We saw them stress about getting to work on time, come home exhausted after staying late, and heard them complain about working overtime. Because work is so tightly bound to time in our culture, it will take time for us to forget about time.

As you think about removing “coming in late” and “leaving early” from your vocabulary, consider your beliefs about time and work. What time in your office is considered “coming in late?” What time is considered “leaving early?” What difference would it make in your life if you never had to worry about either ever again? How would it feel if you were no longer judged—and no longer judged others—by the clock? Leave a comment and let me know how applying this guidepost to your work environment would make a difference.

Recently Jessica Lawrence, CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council, posted the following on her blog about what it’s like to work in a ROWE:

“I overslept this morning. I was supposed to get up at 6 and I woke up at 7:15. If I wanted to get to work in time for a 9 a.m. conference call, I only had 15 minutes to get ready. I was just about to enter into panic mode when I stopped myself.

Why did I need to be at the office for a conference call? I had my computer. I had my phone. Nobody needed me at the office.

I was about to practically kill myself getting ready and waste 30 minutes sitting in traffic for no reason whatsoever. .. A good reminder that truly being ROWE requires that you constantly ask yourself “why.”

Jessica has been working in a ROWE for a while now and still feels those moments of panic that are tied to the old, traditional way of working. You may feel the same way. Beginning to work differently than the mass majority can bring up feelings of guilt, panic, worry that people think you’re cheating or beating the system, jealousy, and fear of being left out because you’re not in the office all the time to catch the latest gossip.

The fact of the matter is that we all hold deeply entrenched beliefs and ideas about how work looks, and doing something different can be scary. But I say if it feels a little scary, a little uncomfortable, you’re probably moving in the right direction. Sometimes we have to start acting differently to instigate change. Change your behaviors and your beliefs will follow.

Here are a few activities you can challenge yourself to try out over the next few weeks. Now I’m not suggesting you to do anything that will get you fired, but if you do have some flexibility with your job and you’re not taking full advantage of it, try shaking things up a bit. I know many business owners and entrepreneurs that have full control over their schedule, but are still stuck in the rut of the traditional work week—this would be a perfect exercise for you!

• Get up and leave the office right now with no explanation (if needed, finish your work at home or from a Starbucks around the corner).
• Schedule a personal appointment (e.g., doctor, dentist, hair cut, massage) in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon.
• Take your kids to school and go into the office “late” and then “leave early” to pick them up from school.
• Take next Tuesday completely off work.
• Turn down a meeting request where your presence isn’t truly warranted.
• The next time you have a beautiful spring day, take a break from work by walking around the block (and don’t set a time limit on your return).
• Enjoy a leisurely 2-hour lunch with a friend on a weekday.

What other ideas do you have for baby steps to begin pushing the boundaries of how, when, and where you work? Which challenge are you going to take on next week? Leave a comment below and let me know if fear is a factor in how flexible you are with your work schedule.

Ever wonder what life looks like inside a results-only work environment (ROWE)? Now you can catch a glimpse through the Girl Scouts Gone ROWE blog that chronicles the journey and transition of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council from a traditional work environment to a ROWE. 

Jessica Lawrence, their CEO, initiated a ROWE less than a year ago and both she and Daniel Malyszka, Director of Human Resources, are sharing their story through this unique blog.

Here are a few posts to get you started:

• “To accrue or not to accrue? That is the question” talks about how they handled vacation/sick/personal days when they transitioned to a ROWE. 
• “From a GSSGC employee’s perspective” shares the benefits of ROWE through an employee’s eyes. 
• In “Should a CEO ROWE?” Jessica shares openly about being a recovering “face time junky.”  

If you are thinking about transitioning to a ROWE or have already made the leap, let me know! I’d love to hear about your experiences, challenges, successes and share them here on the blog.