At Citrix we talk about what business productivity means all the time. The overall theme throughout it all is that productivity is what you produce, not how you produce it. Every time I say this in a Webinar I get this response without fail, 100% of the time: "A results-based work environment makes sense to me but people on my management team think employees need to be in the office to stay productive. How do I change their minds?"

 

First, notice that it's never the person asking the question who has an issue with flexible working, it's their boss or someone on the management team. Anyways, addressing this question forces us to question two factors: Trust and the Illusion of Corporate Productivity.

Trust is #1. If you don't trust your employees you should reconsider your hiring criteria. Unless you're overseeing the assembly line at a manufacturing plant, you need to trust that your employees will do their job without you watching. You should hire trustworthy people and allow them to strengthen the trust over time. 

The only way to build the trust over time is to have clear results and deliverables that are agreed upon by both parties. If results are clear and agreed upon then trust is a product of the employee continually meeting their goals. If the goals are not clear, mutually agreed upon and measurable then you have a management problem, not a trust problem.

The Illusion of Corporate Productivity, as I like to a call it, is the idea that someone is productive because they're sitting in a particular seat for a given period of time Monday through Friday. 

The question I like to ask to dispel this illusion is "How do you know your employees are productive when they're sitting in the same corporate office as you?" Most managers will not answer that they sit behind the employee and monitor their computer screens. The Illusion that some managers have is that "in the office" means "control of productivity." This is akin to thinking that the tea kettle won't boil unless you watch it. So the best way to address this challenge is to ask management "What do you do now to monitor my productivity while I'm in the office that you won't be able do while I'm remote?" Some answers like "I can watch you" should be immediately followed by new job searching. Anything like "I clearly understand all the work you're doing" should be addressed with better, clearer goals. And communication challenges can usually be addressed with technology like Web conferencing, email, IM, Skype, etc.

The short answer to the question of how do we transition to a more flexible, mobile, remote work program starts with building a company culture based on trust and results...not how long employees sit on the corporate thrones.

If you're looking for more examples of results-only work environments, pick up Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson.  Cali and Jody share their story of how they created a result-only work environment at Best Buy and how you can do it too.  It's an excellent read and will give you tons of info to use in your organization.

Does your company function in a results-only work environment?

Photo by: ralphunden