Monday, January 11, 2010

working anywhere – dispelling the myths and misconceptions

It seems that we are currently in the era of tug-o-war between those that can understand the concept or thrive in the world of working remote and those that cannot do it or understand it. For every article or story that I come across that raves of the benefits of working from home (or some other remote location) there is another article or story that calls out all of the downsides to working outside of the office. I have yet to come across the article that really weighs the pros and cons to both sides – not just one. Don’t worry, I am not going to sit here and outline the pros and cons – I will reserve that for some all-knowing journalist to put together for us all… Someday. The trends do suggest, however, that this phenomenon of working from anywhere is here to stay for those that will have it – and believe us when we say that more and more people are deciding to “have it” each day. If we didn’t believe that then virtualwirks would not exist. The truth is working from home is not for everybody. The good thing is that the world is never going to shift to completely one side or the other, so those that are living their lives in fear that someday that office will completely disappear can breathe a sigh of relief, and those that can really thrive in the “anywhere world” can get geared up for the opportunity change the way the world works.

There are three components that make a work from home environment successful: work at home work, work at home people, and work at home technology. Perhaps the reason that there are so many people out there so quick to dispose of the work at home concept is because they do not understand all of the components. Or perhaps they didn’t take the right amount of time to figure out how process,communication, and trust can transform any business experience. The stars don’t all need to align to make it work, but there are some core ingredients that increase the chances for success. Then again, the same can be said for the any office environment, as well. Everyone always asks us what the single most critical component is to making a remote work model successful. If there were one single component then it would be pretty easy to poke a few holes in our business model, but in all seriousness – in my humble opinion – the success of the model really comes down to the people. You need to have the right people to work from home, the right people to manage people working from home, the right people leading and supporting the business decision to allow people to work from home, and a universal understanding of the complete value that comes from working remote. The good news for us is that there is a lot of work that lies beneath these concepts that we can help organization understand and execute more effectively to get optimum results. The real trick, of course, is getting the right people, the right technology, and the right work to all come together effectively The good news for others is that virtualwirks has the right people to get that job done right.