Timeshifting while workshifting is a key challenge for the global professional.Timeshifting means adjusting your schedule to accommodate someone else's work hours in order to synchronize and "converge" in your thinking from many time zones away.

Timeshifters stay up till 10:00 PM to meet with a colleague in Beijing. Timeshifters decree that every Wednesday is Tel Aviv Day, and the U.S.-based worker starts at 5:00 AM to overlap schedules with the distant tech team.

In fact, timeshifting is so critical that we devoted an entire chapter to this subject in our new book about coordination across time zones. (This post is abridged from chapter 1.) We also coined a term for the hero of our book: the zoner. Zoners are the globalized workers who are comfortable timeshifting and traveling across time zones.

Zoners have a deeply ingrained sense of temporal distance. We think that this temporal awareness is analogous to spatial ability: there are those who can read maps and take directions well and those who cannot (who are frequently lost). We think zoners are born with some of their abilities, but these, of course, are refined with experience.

Zoners are less likely to be confused by time zone computations, while others never seem to remember how many time zones away California happens to be, habitually missing meetings because of the misunderstanding. Zoners are able to keep in mind the perennial problem of time-zone differences.

The tools and tricks zoners use

Zoners use timeanddate.com, everytimezone.com and worldtimebuddy.com when adjusting the time zone on their Outlook calendars and smartphones. They pack their bags with melatonin, and when they wake up in a strange place, they always know what time it is. Zoners are also good sleepers, since their life involves a lot of timeshifting.

They also know the special tricks of multi-time-zone work. For example, one important trick is to tackle time-zone-induced delays by breaking the email chain. The email chain begins when, in asynchronous communication, the sender initiates a message, and the receiver on the other side of the globe asks for clarification. The original sender attempts to explain, but the receiver, still confused, sends another request for clarification. Meanwhile, an entire week has passed. Zoners stop this chain early by picking up the phone to clarify the message and move the task along.

Are you a zoner? Share your stories and strategies below.

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Today we have a post from Jon Froda. Jon is co-founder of Podio, which was recently acquired by Citrix. For several years Froda researched the field of social software, specializing in strategies and products that help organizations develop knowledge and stay ahead of the market.

The old adage "you are what you eat" is not probably something most software developers, IT managers and business executives think about when choosing work tools for employees, but there's a lot we can learn if we truly consider the impact of software and technology on how people get everyday work done.

Just like eating nothing but pizza, soda and donuts might eventually (and deliciously) weigh you down, working with outdated, rigid and anti-social work tools can have a the same effect on a team of workers.

A long held misconception across industry is that work tools are value neutral or that software in particular is value neutral; that no matter what kinds of tools people are armed with, productivity, efficiency and more importantly, employee morale, should remain constant. As work evolves and new, more progressive technologies emerge, this belief is ripe for disruption.

The question is, how do we design tools for the future of work? We know that teams today are global, dispersed, social and mobile and that work happens successfully within distributed groups made up of employees as well as contractors and partners outside a formal organization. We all know social media and consumer devices are giving birth to new ways connecting workers, such as Bring Your Own (Device, App and/or Service) options and deployments of so-called "enterprise social networks." We know that businesses are rethinking the way work is carried out. But what elements of technology really support this evolution?

I've thought long and hard about these questions, even touring the world to meet with global leaders, researchers, academics and technologists, who care about the future of work, tools and work practices. I believe there are 5 core design principles to consider when designing a system, product or platform to support the evolution of modern work and the new modern worker:

1. Empowerment of people
2. Motivation through peer recognition
3. Mobility and flexibility
4. Connectivity
5. Transparency

To capture the philosophy behind these design principles, I helped produced a short video offering additional context and some real-world examples of how to use get these powerful ideas into development and give everyday workers some guidance on what to look for in "future of work" tools.

I'd love to hear how you're moving towards technologies that reflect these principles of design.

Simply stated, Americans are connected. We are information obese - with broadband and unlimited data plans feeding phones "more computer power than all of NASA [had] when it sent two astronauts to the moon."

You would think this constant stream of information would breed expert sifters able to navigate the deluge of data efficiently, but the truth is the human brain cannot handle so much information so quickly.

Josh Foer, author and memory champ, sums up the current information wave pretty well in Moonwalking with Einstein: "Much as our taste for sugar and fat may have served us well in a world of scarce nutrition but is now maladaptive in a world of ubiquitous fast-food joints, our memories aren't perfectly adapted for our contemporary information age."

The hyper-connected among us argue that the fire hose of information is a competitive advantage when it comes to business: more information allows things to move more quickly. But with all due respect to the late Senator Ted Stevens, are we just clogging up our own series of tubes?

I have been conducting my own personal experiment in connectivity during a month-long stint in New Zealand. While the main goal of the trip is to vacation, I am workshifting half the time. Knowing I would need Internet, I booked hotels with wireless access.

What I did not realize is that bandwidth in New Zealand is scarce - in my first hotel, the daily limit was 50 MB (about 10 songs, a few minutes of video or 10-15 medium-sized slideshow or spreadsheet files). Just downloading my work inbox after a few days away took at least half my daily amount. I could try and adapt, or I could break out the credit card time and time again as I hit my daily limit repeatedly. Since I neither trade stocks nor put lives at risk if I reply slowly, I had some flexibility in addressing the low-bandwidth challenge.

Here is how I have adjusted:

1. Download judiciously.

Office workers are used to instantaneous email messages, with giant attachments just begging to be opened and viewed. In Outlook, you can set the server to only download "headers" - the subject and sender information, the first few lines of plain text, no graphics or attachments.

You can then make the download call on an email-by-email basis. I found that about 80 percent of the emails I ended up filing for later action or deletion did not need a full read.

2. Meet sparingly.

Before agreeing to meet online, make sure the cause is worthy. If the meeting invitation doesn't have a clear goal, or your input really isn't going to add value, decline it. It may seem like heresy to refuse to meet with someone, but you can often ask the organizer for the meeting objective and then achieve the goals without having to actually meet.

If you do need to meet, keep a laser focus on the meeting goal. (David Allen suggests picturing the ideal meeting conclusion and then working backward to figure out how to achieve it.)

In order to save bandwidth, I often find myself having "IM meetings" as a nice complement to GoToMeeting. You get the spontaneity and real-time response of a meeting without the usage concerns. In GoToMeeting sessions, disable webcams (both showing and viewing) and limit the time you share your own screen.

3. Unplug and execute.

At my organization, very few job descriptions have "read and respond to email" as a primary requirement. Yet it's not difficult to get buried in your inbox all day only to find you haven't accomplished much at all.

Much of the urgency we feel in email communications is an effect of recency. Whatever is happening RIGHT NOW is most important, right? Maybe, but probably not.

While correspondence with colleagues is a critical component of my job, I also need to spend time thinking, planning, reviewing and creating - most of which can be done offline. After handling the truly urgent requests (and, of course, noting meeting times and such), I will close Outlook and work through my offline tasks. I have been able to make significant progress on project planning, reviewing thought-leadership pieces I had set aside, responding to older, lower priority messages and completing many administrative tasks I was continuously putting off.

With no threat of interruption, I was able to get these things done much quicker than usual. On a typical day, I might be able to do 3-4 significant tasks, but when disconnected, I am doubling that.

4. Forget your status.

Image-heavy sites like Facebook, Pinterest and ESPN are bandwidth killers. They are also ways we distract ourselves from our job. When the natural wonders of New Zealand are outside my hotel room, the last place I want to spend time is online reading about my friends' lunch check-ins or checking NBA scores. I limited myself to 2 sessions each day of 5 minutes or fewer for social networking sites and have not missed it since.

The bottom line is that most job challenges are ones we create ourselves and not a function of how connected we are or how quickly we respond. While it would be a lie to say I am as good at my job in New Zealand as I am in the U.S., I have tried to turn my connection challenges into advantages. (I am writing this on a coach bus from Picton to Nelson, for instance).

Hopefully, I can apply these lessons to my job when I am stateside. I would love to hear how others have adjusted to similar challenges while workshifting in foreign lands, so please share them with me via the comments or @tbdenney.

Here at Workshifting, we've talked many times about the benefits of telework and shared numerous reports about its value to your company. Today, we're offering a visual approach because sometimes pictures and images are just quicker than words alone are.

Compliments of Splashtop and Column Five, this infographic tells us all about the new push to work from home on Fridays.  

Has your company joined the movement? Leave us a comment!

Today we have a guest post from Josiane Feigon. Josiane is the founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications. A twenty-year veteran of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching and training solutions. Her book Smart Selling on the Phone and Online has created a buzz in the global inside sales industry and quickly becoming the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales. As a thought leader, she is recognized among the top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals in the world.

Welcome survivors!

Workshifters have made it through two years of the Great Recession, and another two years of one of the weakest "recoveries" in US economic history. In 2012, you will find that companies continue to sit on their cash reserves, and stressed-out consumers continue to postpone purchases -- just because they can.

These Customer 2.0 folks are more educated than ever before too. They want us to meet them on their terms. And 70% of them engage much later in the sales cycle than they used to.

But don't take your toys and go home -- stay humble and hungry and ready to roll. They are just about ready to open the floodgates of pent-up demand, and you want to be there when they do.

Keep repeating your "humble and hungry" mantra in 2012, and prepare for these top trends:

1. Inside Sales Changes the Game

Be proud! This fast-growing group will continue to force every sales organization to reshape their field versus inside ratio.

2. Millennials Avoid Phones

Do not be one of these! Many lead development new hires are Millennials whohide behind their power dialers and avoid or waste live conversations.

3. Prospect with LinkedIn

Use it or lose it. With 135 million users and two more added every second -- most in the 25-54 demographic -- LinkedIn is the single largest social corporate tool for prospecting.

4. Don't Be Afraid to Change Your Game Plan

Customer 3.0 can quickly throw your careful plan off-track because they call their own shots. They are engaging later and later in the sales cycle, and coming in much more informed than ever before. Stay alert!

5. Cell-it! Mobile-ize it!

Forrester projects that by 2015, smartphone adoption will grow 150% and 82 million consumers will own a tablet. Mobile will become a primary way to speak to customers and prospects. Expect to have at least 50% or more of all opportunity and lead management conducted from a smart phone or tablet.

6. DIY

Stop waiting on marketing and build your own content tool-kit. And make sure that it includes diverse and disruptive forms of content -- today's customers prefer an infographic to a white paper.

7. Use Five Ingredients

The phone and email can no longer do it alone--they need their peeps! Or maybe we should we say tweets. Use these five ingredients every time: phone + texting + video + emails + social.

8. It's Video, Baby

Video is quickly becoming the new high-impact sales medium. By 2020, 85% of buyer-seller interactions will happen online, through social media and video. Nielsen reports that over 60 hours of video per minute is downloaded and watched on YouTube every day (every minute of every day). And 40% of people watch video via their MOBILE device.

9. Let's Get Virtual

Geo regions are so yesterday. Salespeople work virtually now -- from home or from satellite offices. Social proximinty beats geographic proximity, hands down.

10. Build a Sustainable Sales Training Infrastructure

According to ES Research, companies are using more sales training in three modes: live classroom, on-demand, and live virtual training.Onboarding will become a critical success factor as companies put primary importance on training. Don't forget to build in training reinforcers on the back-end.

Listen to the recorded archive webinar on the Top 12 Transforming Sales Trends in 2012.

Photo Credit: lastquest

Do you ever have a day when you walk into your office and you simply wish you could reboot the company, association, or organization to wipe out all the old and start fresh? The cover of Fast Company Magazine this month is calling this "Generation Flux". With that as the energy we are bombarded with in every form of media, now is the time to choose to flex versus resist it. I was recently at an event where the speaker said vulnerability is the new sexy. After laughing a bit we realized it is true. Now is the time to embrace fully your opportunity as a leader to change. Now is time to reboot.

Why change? Well quite honestly because we can't not change. Or if you choose not to change you will inevitably go the way of the dinosaur.

How to live in generation flux? Give yourself permission to reboot. Take a risk and do things differently. Instead of working tied behind your desk all day take your old school legal pad, or ipad or notebook pc out to the park go work in your car or at the library for an hour. Change up your environment to look at things differently. Ask yourself: If time was not an issue and you could truly do anything, what would you do? Look at all the things that box you in and try to determine how you can do things differently.

To reboot your PC you hit a three stroke combination: CTRL + + ALT+ Delete. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do that with your organization? I'm here to tell you that you can.

First, look down at the CTRL key. Push it. Yes, decide that you are going to push down and release the things that you want to control. Perhaps it's the business plan, the budget, the people - all of it. The style of control and command will not work anymore so let it go.

Next, look at alternate solutions. Most of the organizations I work with are consistently talking and sharing best practices. What I know for sure is that if you give me two of your best practices of yesterday, I guarantee if you do them today you will not get the same results. The people, ideas and relationships are simply too different now. Take time to sit down with two of your best practices and create them into a new next practice.

Lastly, delete. I give all due credit to the countless generations that have brought our companies and associations to this place. We must erase the white board of both what our past was and what we thought our future would be in order to truly embrace and advance to a new future. There are many ways to do this. One way is to delete the word "no" from your organization. For the clients that I work with we take "no" out of the boardroom and open our minds to explore all new possibilities.

In this time of "Generation Flux" don't get overwhelmed. Simply release control, look at alternate solutions and delete what you thought it would be to allow for something even greater. I know you can do this, now is the time, reboot for success.

To join the free Ctrl-Alt-Del: How to Reboot Your Organization for Success webinar on Wednesday, March 14, register here: http://bit.ly/AqON6H

Photo credit: gordon2208

Our fourth post in the Telework Week 2012 series is a guest post from Mike Williams. Mike brings 22 years of diverse training, leadership, and organizational development, and his deep appreciation of the GTD® methodology to his new role as President and CEO of the David Allen Company. He has developed and motivated organizational talent in his work with both small public and private firms and large industry leaders.

Are you ready for the new world reality?

The world is shifting around us. Are the assumptions you made last year still valid? The morning news today talked about the price of gasoline rising to $5.00 per gallon. Where gas will be in another 3, 5, or 10 years? If you are an employee of a business, how will that impact the way you work? If you are a business leader, how will that impact your bottom line and your ability to attract and retain employees?

Add to this equation a world that is getting flatter with each passing day. Talented individuals, previously considered unavailable, are now all around us. This could be someone who lives in a remote part of the country, a stay-at-home parent or a person located anywhere in the world. has Anyone with an Internet connection has the potential to be your teammate, business partner or customer. Access to talented people worldwide has never been greater.

You know what that means? That "talented resource" that people want access to is you! You are the current and next-generation knowledge worker.

Are you ready to play a new game?

Let's shift gears now and get down to some essentials about work in today's environment:

1. The "make it" and "move it" jobs are decreasing.
2. The "make it up" and "make it happen" jobs are increasing.

If you agree with me here, then the key skill needed today is the ability to transform "stuff" (ideas, problems, opportunities) into "successful outcomes" (website built, product launched, person hired, business plan defined, telecommuting policy implemented, etc.). This is the work of knowledge workers - transforming "stuff" into reality.

As we think more about workshifting, we also need to think more about what we mean by the word "work." More fundamentally, how does work get done?

Step 1 - Outcome thinking

Do you have a crystal clear picture of your outcome? Is it vivid in your mind? If yes, you have completed a very important step that people often skip. Here are some common questions to experiment with that may bring clarity to your world:

• What is the successful outcome for this meeting?
• What is the successful outcome for this project?
• What is the successful outcome for this presentation?
• What is the successful outcome for this event?

A previous colleague who worked with me at General Electric (GE) picked up on this approach by the way I ran my meetings; he started using these questions in his own meetings and it really changed their whole dynamic. It became clearer what the group wanted to accomplish and the up-front agreement on the successful outcome helped avoid problems down the line.

Step 2 - What is your next action?

What is the next physical visible action you need to take to make an incremental step toward that outcome? (For example, call Fred, schedule a teleconference meeting to brainstorm ideas with the team, etc.). If you step back and think about it, you get to your outcome by a accomplishing certain number of actions. The number of actions will vary by the size and scope of the project but you cannot escape the principle. You cannot "do" an outcome you can only do actions.

Step 3 - Who owns the next action?

Have you ever left a "great meeting" with lots of "great discussion?" Me, too. What was missing? You got it - owners for the actions to move this great thinking forward. A key best practice is to leave time at the end of every meeting (perhaps 20 minutes of time for a 60-minute meeting) to collect next actions and owners. This simple tip will save you time and emails after the meeting.

Are you ready to experiment?

Knowledge is great. Applying knowledge is even better. Try experimenting with the following questions this week:

1. What is the successful outcome for this activity?
2. What is the next physical visible action I need to take to move this forward (call, schedule, email, create a spreadsheet, etc.)?
3. Carve out 20 minutes to clarify who owns the actions at the end of a meeting.

And for bonus points: end your meetings when you've reached the outcome for the meeting. There is really no need to fill up the meeting time just because it is allocated. I've ended one-hour meetings in 15 minutes.

I'd love to hear how these tips work for you.

Sending my best wishes to you as we collectively embrace and become conscious to the benefits that workshifting can bring to you, your employees, your customers and our world.

Photo credit: philsnyder