Managing a Virtual and Mobile Work Force Will Be the Norm
However disorienting and maddening the pace and rules of our contemporary work life may be, let's understand a few things: there's no turning back, it doesn't have to be a bad thing, and there are things you can do to set yourself up for success even in the face of all the challenges. A mobile workforce will be the norm not the exception.
This lens will offer managers and workers alike the TOP TEN STRATEGIES for succeeding in this new world of work.
This lens will offer managers and workers alike the TOP TEN STRATEGIES for succeeding in this new world of work.
What About You?
For our purposes a mobile worker is anyone who telecommutes, works on a virtual team, and engages in projects with non co-located colleagues.
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"According to IDC 73% of the total workforce will be mobile by 2011."
A Day In the Life of Mobile Manager
MEET CECILIA
Cecilia rubbed her eyes. Getting up at three in the morning for a conference call halfway around the world was never in her job description. It had been days since she had actually seen or talked in person with any of the fifty people on her staff. As she typed in the web address of the virtual meeting she saw an instant message pop up.Tony who had just joined her team six months ago was texting her his official two-weeks notice. Since he was based in Australia and Cecilia worked in Palo Alto, he had notified Human Resources on Monday (Sunday for Cecilia) that he would be leaving. Cecilia thought it was considerate of Tony to text her before the meeting so she would not be blind-sided. She was excited Tony would get a chance to try his hand at a new career. At least she had thirty seconds to collect her thoughts before announcing the information to her team. Days like this made Cecilia wish she could just crawl back into bed. Then she remembered that today she was telecommuting, so at least she could surround herself with the comforts of her home as she prepared to tackle whatever onslaught of fires was sure to come her way.
Summary of Top Ten Strategies
Each of the Top Ten Strategies will be explored in detail below. Here is a summary...RELATIONSHIPS
1. Focus on building relationships
2. Give complete trust
3. Use adaptive management styles
COMMUNICATION
4. Streamline communications
5. Incorporate less didactic forms of communication
6. Spend more time listening
PRACTICES
7. Let mobile workers define communication and reporting
8. Manage deliverables
9. Engage in more frequent informal performance activities
10. TECHNOLOGY
Let's wlak through each of these...
Relationship Strategies
1. FOCUS ON BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
You are now in the business of managing relationships. Once a quarter audit your time. How much time are you spending engaged in activities meant to foster stronger relationships with your mobile employees? Rate each relationship on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is weak and 10 is very strong. Craft a strategy for continuing to develop your strong ones and triage the weak ones. Ask yourself why they are weak and what you can learn from them. Avoid finger pointing and hold up the mirror to reflect on your own opportunities for improvement. Extreme cases of under-performance do not warrant time or effort. These however are few and far between. Relationship Strategies
2. GIVE COMPLETE TRUST
According to a recent survey conduct by HR.com and ic4p, listening and trust are the two most important factors to virtual and remote teams. Without trust, relationships are bankrupt. Abuses of trust can always be found but these occur in spite of whatever systems we put in place. Mobile workers thrive when managers give them complete trust. In some respects managers of mobile workers have no other choice. Use trust to create strong relationships. When some concrete behavior and not just someone else's word of mouth shows that trust has been violated, then take it away, but not until then. Relationship Strategies
3. USE ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT STYLES
Every employee is different. Mobile workers make it easier for managers to take a more personalized approach in how they work and interact with members of their team. It takes more work and effort on a manager's part but the results can be phenomenal. Understanding what enables each employee to perform at his or her best is the most important responsibility of a manager. Communication Strategies
4. STREAMLINE COMMUNICATIONS
Consolidate and prioritize communications. Use email and IM (instant message), texting, blogging, threaded discussions, etc. for relationship-driven communications (i.e., staying in touch and being personal). Communications of an important nature should be cohesive and never delivered in fragmentary pieces that have to be cobbled together by the receiver. Mutually assess the communication preferences of yourself and your team members to develop a communication plan. Avoid assumptions and revisit your plan on a regularly basis especially when the nature of the work is about to change. Communication Strategies
5. INCORPORATE LESS DIDACTIC FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
Determining the right amount of detail and when to provide detail is an ongoing responsibility of a manager with a mobile worker. As a general rule, less is more. This leaves bandwidth for the times when lengthy, explicit instructions and information are essential for the work at hand. Try working with more story-based forms of communications. Sharing tidbits from the field and office in the form of stories, anecdotes, case studies (use cases), jokes, innocent productive gossip, and even metaphors will relay context, encode key pieces of information, and give mobile workers a sense of inclusion. Communication Strategies
6. SPEND MORE TIME LISTENING
Obvious, but counter intuitive. When you are out of easy reach and you are tasked with managing the performance of others it's easy to get sucked into the trap of needing to transmit lots of information. In most cases the opposite is what is most productive. Make listening a priority. This is the hardest and most tiring aspect of managing others. It is also the single most important thing you can do accelerate the development of strong relationships. Listening is not enough. Keep an open mind. Be present and try to enter the perspective of the speaker. This will help you ask effective questions and identify what direction to go with your own needs and agenda. You'll be surprised at what emerges. Practice Strategies
7. LET MOBILE WORKERS DEFINE COMMUNICATION AND REPORTING
Structure is critical. Adopt rules of engagement that place people at the center of their own decisions. Managers provide the boundaries and constraints but let employees define the working and communication styles, tools, and processes that will help them perform at the best. Set expectations on two fronts. First, treat these employees' defined practices as privileges that can and will be modified if key performance metrics are not hit. Second, let employees know there will be times when a projects or work require less flexible, employee-driven communication and reporting practices. Practice Strategies
8. MANAGE DELIVERABLES NOT ACTIVTIES
Lots of project-oriented work is well suited to mobile workers. Even roles that are more task driven can be effectively managed if they are broken into deliverables. For mobile workers this may mean collapsing some of the activities of a business process or work flow that had manual checkpoints and controls associated with them into deliverables. Automation where possible can be used or batching activities into larger groups can transform task oriented jobs into deliverables. Realize that there can be many facets of people's jobs that need to be adjusted to accommodate a mobile work style. Practice Strategies
9. ENGAGE IN MORE FREQUENT AND INFORMAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
When you manage mobile workers, relationships are at the heart of your job. Performance management does not need to be a loathsome, "administrivia" obligation. Designing some unstructured, informal ongoing dialogs with mobile employees about their performance goals and personal development plans is a great way to strengthen communications, and shows an active interest in employees and relationships. This might look and feel very different from one employee to the next. This is another tangible way managers can adapt their style to match the needs and preferences of employees. It works best when the performance management conversation flows in both directions. Technology Strategy
10. TECHNOLOGY IS THE BACK BONE
Technology drives and supports managing mobile workers. Using technology well is not as simple as it appears. Standard models of communication and transaction should not always be mapped in a simple one-to-one way. Communication and collaboration technologies offer new and exciting models. These need to be purposely exploited in order for organizations to realize the full extent of benefits these wonderful new capabilities and features offer. Some Resources for More Information
Here are some useful resources to continue your thinking on this topic...
- Telecommuting Website
- Telecommuting360 is an organization of telecommuters, providers and companies providing remote workforce opportunities to their employees. We are dedicated to bringing the right resources and people together to solve the ongoing issues surrounding telecommuting and working from home.
- Recording of Free Webianr on Managing Mobile Workers
- * Benefits of managing in a mobile work environment
* Challenges and potential risks of a mobile workforce
* Top ten strategies for managers of mobile workers
Speakers:
* Terrence Gargiulo, President, MAKINGSTORIES.net
* Eric Bensley, Product Marketing, Citrix Online
* Michael Krieger VP of Market Experts Ziff Davis Enterprises - White Paper - Top Ten Strategies for Managing Mobile Workers
- This paper offer a detailed analysis and treatment of the topic of this lens. It includes information on the benefits, challenges, opportunities and trends.
- Nermtes Research
- Nemertes Research is a research-advisory firm that specializes in analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies.They help clients optimize their IT investments by providing objective, real-world insight. We work closely with more that 2,500 IT professionals with whom our team has close, long-term relationships and who provide us with ongoing insight into the drivers behind their technology purchasing decisions. These individuals represent technology leaders in US and European organizations. They oversee budgets ranging from $100,000 to more than $1 billion and represent several industries, including financial services, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, insurance, entertainment, government, education, retail, and nonprofits.
- Information & Services Designing Communication Learning Strategies for Virtual Workers
- Anticipating tighter times? Do you want to bring unique new value to your organization?
Be seen as an innovator who is not hindered by constraints. Collaborate with our award winning team to design and deliver innovative communication and learning solutions. Discover how story-based design principles can transform short bursts of web communications and learning into measurable performance results. - Information on Essential Communication Skills for Mobile Workers
- 1. Tap into timeless, universal communication habits that will ignite your performance in work and life.
2. Learn simple, natural habits for mining your experiences and relationships for nuggets of insights that lead to performance.
Your Stories of Mobile and Virtual Work
I wanna hear your stories....
Okay so enough of the theory. I want to hear about your experiences as either a worker, team member or manager of a virtual/mobile workforce? Give us the good, the bad, the ugly, and the inspirational. Try to share it as a narrative - we can always learn more from your stories. Thanks for taking a moment to share!
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CONTACT US TODAY
I'd love to hear from you...
Terrence Gargiulo
President, MAKINGSTORIES.net
Terrence@makingstories.net
http://www.makingstories.net
cell - 415-948-8087
Some Books on Mobile Working
Here are some books to checkout...
Telecommuting Success: A Practical Guide for Staying in the Loop While Working Away from the Office
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 01/04/2010) 
Telework People: How To Make Money And Get Your Life Back By Working Online
Amazon Price: $22.00 (as of 01/04/2010)
Managing Teleworkers and Telecommuting Strategies
Amazon Price: $54.75 (as of 01/04/2010)
Teleworking: International Perspectives: From Telecommuting to the Virtual Organization (The Management of Technology and Innovation)
Amazon Price: $69.33 (as of 01/04/2010)
Telecommuting for Dummies
Amazon Price: $17.15 (as of 01/04/2010)
by TerrenceGargiulo
Terrence L. Gargiulo, MMHS is an eight times author, international speaker, organizational development consultant and group process facilitator specia... (more)
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