Wednesday, August 12, 2009

“what’s the value of this stuff anyway?”

Time alone is an excellent forum for contemplation, reflection and creativity. Given my outgoing personality and love of social interaction, I typically don’t spend enough time alone to take advantage of the ability to do those 3 things and I always appreciate the chance when it comes. This week’s post results from such an opportunity as it came together over the course of a 450 mile drive alone. My mind kept landing on the concept of “value” during the drive. The value of the fuel for my car and the efficiency that got me there in a single fill-up, the value of the trip I’m making and its purpose and the personal values that I hold dear which caused me to commit to taking this service trip to begin with. And I got to think through my company’s values too. Values are one of the most essential business elements and yet one of the least discussed. Tadd and I took a different view when we built virtualwirks by thinking through values early – even before we had a name. It became vital as we are both familiar with examples of where business values ring out in both word and deed and examples where stated values ring hollow through a lack of culture that lives up to the published credo. Too many times, values fill that blank space on a company wall where a poster looks good and the firm can say they show their values. Since we have no company walls, we know that when we commit to Customer Focus, Integrity, Passion, Partnership and Excellence that the only way to show it, is to live it.

One of our values speaks to me loudly: passion. Like that extra pinch or splash of something a good cook will drop into their recipe which makes it memorable, passion is a great ingredient for everything we do. Studies have shown that virtual workers bring traits to their job that most are surprised by. Rather than being the introverts, and less social among us – which is wrongly assumed to be the virtual worker archetype; those who thrive in a home based or telework environment are found to be the exact opposite. The outgoing, gregarious, passionate ones. About 3 years ago, a UK research firm studied the 1200 virtual workers in various situations and cited their overwhelming positive contribution in comparison to objectives. When they drilled down, they found that virtual working had unleashed a spirit of energy, enthusiasm and commitment that was contagious and impacted their non-virtual teams as well, accounting for why the virtual teams had such strong results when more objective factors like training, procedure etc were equal. They needed to find out what made the difference. What did they say? Turns out it’s passion. Amazing things happen when you drop that into the stew. 

What are you passionate about? How is it being reflected in your recipe?

– Jim