It’s pop quiz time. Which picture below shows a person that’s working?

What’s your answer? A, B, C, or D? The answer…  wait for it… is that I have no idea and neither do you! Who knows which person is working?! Usually, you can’t tell if someone is working just by looking at them (okay, a heart surgeon in the OR performing surgery may be an exception).

However, generally speaking, just being able to see a person doesn’t tell you much about whether or not they’re working. A man sitting in a boardroom may be daydreaming about his next vacation, while a woman on the golf course might be closing the biggest deal in her company’s history. As an outside observer, you can’t accurately judge what’s happening.

And just because someone doesn’t fit into your idea of what “work” is and where it happens, doesn’t mean they aren’t working. A person sitting in their cubicle may or may not be working. A telecommuter may or may not be working. A person that takes their laptop to Starbucks may or may not be working.

Times are changing and our concept of “work” needs to evolve. What is work? Work is knowledge. Work is ideas. Work is creativity. It’s conversations and data. It’s happy customers and consumer research. Work is meetings and phone calls. For some, work is even Twittering.

It’s time to stop judging people based on your concept of work. Work means different things to different people and our ideas about work are rapidly evolving. What will the future of work look like? I’m not sure, but I know there won’t be a one-size-fits all definition.

Finally, as a personal example that you can’t always clarify what work looks like, know that I created this blog post sitting in my car, in my gym clothes, post-workout at 3:27 p.m., while my husband ran into the store to buy some milk. When you hear the word “work” is that the first picture that pops into your mind? No, of course not. But it was how I defined work in that moment and time.

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.

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!

As work increasingly becomes something you do, not somewhere you go, you won’t be able to count on all of your employees, colleagues, or clients working in the same place or at the same time. One big challenge we’ll face as the workplace becomes more virtual is tracking people, projects, and client work in a simple new way. 

One way technology is increasing workplace flexibility is by offering us a variety of online collaboration tools. An online collaboration tool, also known as group collaboration software, “provides tools for groups of people or organizations to share information and coordinate activities” (Wikipedia). The key word being “online,” so that any employee, anywhere in the world, can access the system at any time of day and be connected with the latest and most current business information.

There are many different types of online collaboration tools and today I want to focus on those that help with project management. What can you do with these online project management tools? 

• Project planning and coordination
• Task management
• Document and file sharing
• Contact management
• Communicate with your team
• Create reports
• Send notifications
• Sync calendars

Here are 5 group collaboration tools worth checking out. In addition to the many features listed above, I’ve included some unique capabilities, along with pricing, below:

1.  

• Additional features: Manage multiple projects at a time with to-do lists, file sharing, chatting, messages, calendars, and time tracking. This is an offering from 37Signals and integrates with their other great services. There are a ton of add-ons and extras that integrate with BaseCamp as well.  
• Cost: 30-day free trial; Monthly plans range from $24-$149/month.

2. 

• Additional features: Sales and project collaboration, internal discussion forums, and a file repository.
• Cost: 30-day free trial; Price based on users: 1-3 users free; 4+ users $150 and up/month. 

3.  

• Additional features: Internal and private team blog, Twitter-like status updates, i-cal integration, project templates, and more. 
• Cost: Manage up to 3 projects for free; Monthly plans range from $10-$99/month. 
• Behind the scenes video tour of DeskAway.com: I recently recorded a video sharing a behind the scenes look at my DeskAway account so you can see all of the features for yourself. You can check it out here: DeskAway Video 

4.

• Additional features: Consists of a set of intuitive tools designed for optimizing collaboration on projects involving internal and external resources; to-do list, project planning, document sharing, and a wiki.
• Cost: 30-day free trial and free plan for 5 users; Monthly plans range from $13-$80+/month. 

5.

• Additional features: Manage private and shared tasks, turn emails into tasks, attach files and Google Docs to tasks and projects, integrates with Google calendar.
• Cost: Free

This is just a small sampling of what’s available, but it should help you get started. If you’re using another online collaboration tool that works well for managing your virtual team, let us know. 

And if you want to learn more about how technology can improve the flexibility of your workplace, join us next week at the Flexible Work Summit, where we have 3 amazing speakers lined up on Tuesday, May 12th to address Strategies for Stretching WHERE You Work. They’ll be discussing telecommuting, virtual teams, and how to harness the power of technology to revolutionize your business. Register for your free pass today!