Group items tagged

As the global economy emerges from the Great Recession, many organizations continue to experience its far-reaching effects, but it is not the only force at play as organizations continue to evolve. Technology, demographics, shifts in work relationships, regulatory environments, and globalization exert themselves to reshape work.  And many uncertainties remain about the future of the work that  will affect the structure and practices of the work experience.

Technology has changed working habits not all for the better. Here are some thoughts on how people get affected and what could be done. Leslie Perlow suggests predictable Time Off (PTO) without gadgets. She claims that people are more satisfied and effective if using PTO system. 

It wasn't that long ago-in the memory of most workers today-that people "went" to work. The work place was actually a "place" and people went there to earn a living. Some people still do. If you assemble circuit boards for Intel or automobiles for BMW, you will go to the place where the tools you need to do your job are kept. For the rest of us, a change has taken place that has fundamentally altered the way that work gets done. A typical project, for example, is planned in a series of meetings, launched in a rented conference room in an airport hotel, executed in who knows where, and managed using email and on-line tools. Sales meetings, to cite another example, take place on conference calls not in conference rooms.

Summary: "The scores of successful virtual teams the authors examined didn't have many of the psychological and practical obstacles that plagued their more traditional, face-to-face counterparts. Team members felt freer to contribute--especially outside their established areas of expertise. The fact that such groups could not assemble easily actually made their projects go faster, as people did not wait for meetings to make decisions, and individuals, in the comfort of their own offices, had full access to their files and the complementary knowledge of their local colleagues. Reaping those advantages, though, demanded shrewd management of a virtual team's work processes and social dynamics. Rather than depend on videoconferencing or e-mail, which could be unwieldy or exclusionary, successful virtual teams made extensive use of sophisticated online team rooms, where everyone could easily see the state of the work in progress, talk about the work in ongoing threaded discussions, and be reminded of decisions, rationales, and commitments. Differences were most effectively hashed out in teleconferences, which team leaders also used to foster group identity and solidarity."

Webreview of the future of work April 2012

Future of work slideshow by oDesk

Boostzone review on work

A review of the literature on self-managed or self-directed work groups lends itself to the fact that more and more organizations are changing as a more competitive global society emerges. As a result, individual, team, and organizational roles are much different now than they were even twenty years ago. In order to stay competitive, organizations must allow themselves to evolve. By tapping into an ever present resource, their employees, the organization gains a wealth of expertise, enabling them to transform externally and, as a result, transforms internally to a healthier work environment. In spite of the challenges, self-managed work groups are an obvious win-win solution in our ever changing environment.

In a lightweight study of virtual teams, Stanford management science researcher Pamela Hinds found that 6 months after virtual team members participated in an intense week-long team-building retreat there was zero correlation to their ability to work together. Hinds believes that in order to increase a group's relational coordination or ability to problem-solve through mutual respect and open communication, members need to "know-who" each other are in their work contexts. Bringing people who don't usually see each other to do team-building exercises in a neutral hotel doesn't help because Hinds points out, "the truth is we don't work in neutral territory." She emphasizes, "Learning to work together is learning how people work, not just what kind of beer do you like," even though she adds, "that's useful information."

What is better: more or less freedom to work where and when people want

Easy(?) way to deal with distributed work issues.

Professionals use on average six working weeks a year in scheduling meetings. 

Mainly written for developers but still helpful tips for everyone working remotely.

It is a 100 page PDF describing scenarios for the future of work: Scenario 1: Global product creation in a networked company Scenario 2: E-professionals in ad-hoc self-organising teams Scenario 3: Coordinating distributed work of individual worker Scenario 4: Community-based collaborative workspace Scenario 5: Mobile workplaces in a collaborative business network Scenario 6: Mobile competence workers in global supply chain