Unlocking the promise of ‘teleworking’
One of the great things about technology (especially of the instantaneous ‘social’ kind) is the ability to attend a conference without leaving your office. Which is a salient point because yesterday I followed a number of the presentations looking at the idea of tele-working or remote workers, and did so by following the tweets of people in the room at the time. I have an interest in this concept and those of you who were at the RSCA conference in Canberra in 2007 would have seen me speak about the challenges that work-forces face, and why we were yet to capture the gains possible through teleworking. Six years on, and we’re still yet to do so – why?
As I tweeted in reply to the observations being made, the reality is that we do not yet trust the idea of ‘digital’. Not those who use it, those who manage those who use it. Back in 2007 I suggested that managers still rely on staring at the back of people’s heads as a form of judgment criteria of workplace value and output. It’s a fundamentally flawed approach built on the earliest factory model established by the Wedgewood’s pottery factory in the 1760s and is till relevant today.
A couple of posts down from this one I’ve provided an overview of the V21 conference I spoke at in October. The link to my presentation ‘From Clever to Wise’ is also on paragraph two of that overview and it shows that we have NOT evolved much from the people management model of the 1760’s. In fact, the office layout and functional design looks pretty much the same. Simply put, despite the evolution of technology, we have not evolved the maturity of management thinking to match it. We are trapped by ‘Hairy Eyeballs Management’ which insists people be ‘present’ so that they can be ‘judged’ or ‘over-seen’.
This barrier is the fundamental anchor that delays organisations from tapping into the benfits that teleworking proffers. The remote workforce really can work. And there’s no ‘either / or’ in this issue. Some workers will be well suited to office only, some to remote only and the vast majority will prefer a combination of both. But until Management can mature and give TRUST to the workforce, we’ll continue to drag people into offices via commutes of multiple hours each day for No productivity benefit either side of departure or arrival.
Research shows that the benefits of teleworking can be enourmous to both workforce and organisation. But lack of trust and a model beholden to the rats in a maze overseer approach holds us back.
Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…
Read More >The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…
Read More >On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…
Read More >There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…
Read More >Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…
Read More >When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…
Read More >The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…
Read More >Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…
Read More >ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here. Some key points –…
Read More >South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…
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