Wifi is great. Except when it isn't there. And it's usually when you need wifi the most that it's either not available or goes down.

But if you have a smartphone and a good data plan, you can can get around any wifi problems that you might encounter. How? By tethering your phone to your laptop.

Tethering?
Think of tethering as turning your smartphone into a high-speed modem for your laptop or netbook. It's easy to do, and can not only but a life saver but a sanity saver too. Tethering has enabled me to get information and deliverables to clients when the wireless I've been using has gone down.

Tethering involves connecting your smartphone to your laptop. That can be a physical connection using a cable (I know, how old school!) or making the connection using Bluetooth. Once attached, your phone's data connection acts like wifi.

Your connection speed will, as you've probably guessed, depend on your phone's signal strength. When you're getting four or five bars your Internet connection will be barely distinguishable from a good wifi link. On the other hand, if you're phone is only getting a couple of bars ... like molasses is a good way to describe the experience.

What you'll need
Obviously, you need a smartphone and a laptop. Keep in mind that not all smartphones support tethering. Ones that do include the iPhone, several models of BlackBerry, and most Android-powered phones.

Besides a phone, you'll need a 3G data plan. Anything else and you might not be able to tether. If you can, then you'll get speeds that rival dial up. If you're going to tether, make sure you have a data plan that gives you a lot of bandwidth; at least 5 GB a month.

You'll also need a USB cable to connect your smartphone to your laptop; the phone usually comes with one. This is a moot point if you're tethering over a Bluetooth connection.

You might also need to install drivers -- specialized software that allows your computer to interact with your phone -- on your computer. This isn't always necessary, but whether or not you'll need to install drivers will depend on your phone.

Explaining how to tether specific smartphones is outside the scope of this post. You can find some good tutorials here. And here's an overview to tethering an Android-powered phone running the latest version of the operating system.

Drawbacks
Yes, there are a few. The biggest one is that you can really burn through your data plan's bandwidth by tethering. Getting hit by additional charges, like a colleague of mine recently did, can really hurt your wallet.

While your phone is tethered, you can't make or receive calls. Any calls will be shunted to your voicemail.

Finally, if you use Bluetooth to tether your phone to your laptop that will really speed up the drain on the battery for both your phone and your laptop. Using a USB cable isn't too bad -- taking this route will charge your phone.

Overall, though, the benefits of tethering a smartphone to a laptop outweigh the disadvantages. As long as you do it sparingly, tethering can be a great addition to any workshifter's toolkit.

What are your experiences with tethering?


Photo credit: .shock from Photoxpress

Much like the shirtless dancing guy in the amusing but compelling video above, workshifting is a physical movement--but instead of flailing your arms, you seamlessly move the location of where you do work. One day, you're meeting your manager online from a coffee shop.  And the next, you're prepping a client presentation while sitting at an airport gate.  This is all possible thanks to the World Wide Web and its wondrous ways of allowing us to use remote technologies.

• www.workshifting.com ;)
• "Work Unchained: Workshifting and the Competitive Edge of the Anywhere Office" [podcast, eBook]
• "Leading Virtual Effectiveness: Four Strategies for Effective Communication in a Distributed Workforce" [eBook]
• "The Top Ten Strategies for Managers of Mobile Workers" [white paper]
• "Presenting the Business Case for Web Commuting" [white paper, podcast]

Where do workshifters come from?  Obviously, they're dropped off by a stork. But, are they born workshifters or do they have to become workshifters?

Most workshifters were at one time or another sedentary office workers, before they took the leap to working independently.  Recently, I was preparing to make the shift from occasional workshifter to permanent workshifter.  It occurred to me when making the transition, that despite the fact that I had been working outside the office for several days at a time, the move to permanent workshifting required a lot of preparation.

And so, to help others who are just about to take the plunge, here are some tips for how to effectively prepare yourself.

Tip 1: Start preparing early.  If you stop reading here, that's fine, as long as you take this piece of advice.  It will shock you just how much prep work you have to do to transition to workshifting, especially if you hadn't been conscious of the fact that you might eventually need to.  Because you'll likely be doing this prep work at the same time as your day job, you'll need time to get it done, so start early.

Physical Documents

Tip 2: Develop digital habits. Physical documents are just a given when you work in an office, but as a workshifter, they're a pain in the neck.  No one wants to carry around manilla folders, take the risk of spilling coffee over them, having them get crumpled in your bag, or risk bringing the wrong folder to a meeting.  Instead, workshifters need to go digital, and so that means that while you're still an office worker, you should start developing digital habits: take notes with software, keep a digital calendar, scan documents, opt for electronic versions whenever possible, etc.

Tip 3: Take stock of all your hard copy files. So, all those manilla folders that you've stowed in your filing cabinets over the years, it's time to go through them and decide why you're really keeping them.  Chances are, you will find documents that you recall why you wanted to keep them in the first place.  Trash as much as you can at this point.  It's about streamlining.

Tip 4: Scan everything you need to keep. Now that you've gotten rid of the excess, get access to a scanner and scan all the documents you've decided are important.  Once you've digitized (and backed them up), you will go ahead and shred these paper documents.  They will no longer weigh you down.

Tip 5: Store everything else with colleagues. If you're leaving the office worker role, but remaining with the same company, there may be files that you don't quite need, but that you think others might, or that it would be a good idea if someone had them.  Lean on your colleagues, or your successor to take this stuff from you.  Make sure to explain what it is, and why they might need it, otherwise it will land at the bottom of a filing cabinet, never to be seen again.

Tip 6: Digitize notebooks. As much as I like to think of myself as a digital native, I still take notes in notebooks, on notepads, and on post-its.  When I went back through these notes, I found that most of the stuff was no longer useful, but was surprised to see that some notes I had taken over a year ago could still be useful today.  So, I went through my notebooks and recycled or shredded that which was unnecessary, but added all my notes that were still relevant to a text file, that I could keep at my disposal.

Tip 7: Keep your notes as simple as possible.  In the previous tip, I said put the notes in a text file.  Over the years, colleagues have laughed at me for my staunch devotion to Notepad, the hyper-basic pre-installed Windows text editor (actually I've upgraded to Notepad++, but still find myself opening Notepad out of habit).  While they laugh, I continue to use text editors for many reasons.  They are lightweight, and so I can have a ton of windows open at once and not experience any additional drag on my hardware (and for those who've worked with corporate PC's, you know this can be crucial).  They're also universally readable.  I don't need to worry about the compatibility of my text file if I move it from my office desktop, to my Macbook or to my Linux laptop.  In a pinch, I can even read my text file from a command prompt.  This flexibility will come in handy as a workshifter.

E-mail

Now that you've cleared your physical world of clutter, it's time to do the same for your electronic world, and where better to start than with every knowledge worker's biggest time suck: e-mail. Note that this is really only going to be important if, like me, you're transitioning from a local e-mail client (a la MS Outlook or Lotus Notes) on a company machine to a web-based client, or using an exchange server.  If your email has always been cloud-based, then things should be business as usual for you.

Tip 8: Pick a system and stick to it. There are as many e-mail organization systems as there are people.  I have a colleague who is the neatest most organized person I have ever met.  The consequence of this is that you need a blueprint in order to figure out the folder structure of his Outlook mailbox.  Tracking down an archived e-mail is like navigating a labyrinth.  I am a Gmail fanboy, and my e-mail classification of using only 3 folders spills over from that experience.  This can sometimes be slightly problematic because Outlook's search functionality is not as great as Gmail's, but overall, I still find I have an easier time searching for an e-mail than I do retrieving it from a labyrinth of folders.  In the end, though, which system you use, doesn't matter, as long as it's consistent.

Tip 9: E-mails that you think will be important, save on your company Exchange server. Remember that when you archive e-mails, by definition they're coming off your company's server and being saved elsewhere (by default, that's on your PC).  If you're leaving behind your old machine when you turn workshifter, saving those important e-mails to its hard drive won't be helpful, so instead, make sure important e-mails stay on the server, so that they can be accessed from webmail, your Blackberry, or other e-mail client.

Tip 10: Locally archive things that you probably won't ever need. Like with physical documents, there are many e-mails you will likely never need.  If you are sure you'll never need them, delete them.  If you doubt that you'll ever need them, but aren't sure, archive them.  After all, most companies give you limited space to save e-mail on the server and require you to archive.

Tip 11: Create a copy of your archive. Now, if you're leaving your old computer behind, archiving files that you think you might possibly need some day isn't going to do you any good, so go ahead and create a copy of your archive.  In fact, create multiple copies, because data can easily be lost on something as fragile as a CD/DVD or a web server.

Tip 12: Get used to using webmail services.  I actually spent my last month as an office worker accessing e-mail through webmail.  Partially by necessity (I'll get to that later), but also because it was a good habit to create for when i would be accessing e-mail this way all the time.

Electronic Files

Tip 13: Organize your files. Are you starting to see a theme here?  When making the switch from office worker to workshifter, organizing yourself is a great way to make sure nothing gets missed.  In terms of organizing your files, there are actually software programs that will do this for you (Belvedere for PC, Hazel for Mac).  Or, you can do what I did and take this opportunity to go through your hard drive and see just what all the files that you've saved since you started working for your current employer are.  You can then triage, organize, and delete to your heart's cotent.

Tip 14: Store everything in a specific folder.  For ease of back-up, and to make the next step painless, it's a good idea to save all the files that you will want to keep to the same folder.  That folder can have as many subfolders as you'd like, but it's important that everything be in one place.

Tip 15: Sync that folder to the cloud using Dropbox. As a workshifter, there are tons of applications out there that will promise to make your life easier.  For me, Dropbox wins the crown of favourite workshifting app.  Its potential uses are nearly limitless, but in this case, you'll be doing something very simple.  You'll install Dropbox (Dropbox referral link) on your machine that you're about to abandon (if you follow the above link, you'll get an additional 250 megs on top of the basic 2 gigs - I will also get an additional 250 megs - win win!).  Once that's done, you will take your folder that you've organized all of your files in and move it into your Dropbox folder.  Now, you can do two things with this folder.  First, you can install Dropbox on the machine you will be using from here on out so that you have access to those files indefinitely.  Second, you can share this folder with another user, so that if you want to leave your boss all your old files so he's not lost without you in the office, he'll have access to them too!

Tip 16: Backup to an external hard drive.  Honestly, this tip is mainly for those who work with large files that may be too large for Dropbox's free basic 2 gig limit.  In my case, the vast majority of my files were excel reports, databases, power point presentations and word documents.  Nothing too heavy.  But if you do video editing, or heavy design work, you may want to invest in an external hard drive to bring your old files with you.

Software & Hardware

Tip 17: Make a list of what kinds of files you use. As mentioned above, in my case, the majority of my files were spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations, word documents (and of course text files).  By doing this exercise, I know exactly what medium I spend my time working in.  That's important for the next tip.

Tip 18: Determine what the ideal tools for you would be. Here's where you get to have some fun and create your wishlist of tools you want.  Based on the file types you saw that you used, what tools would you ideally like to have?  Word?  Excel?  MS Project?  Photoshop?  Adobe Premiere?  Write this list down.

Tip 19:  Determine what on that list will be provided for you.  If you're workshifting, but are still an employee of a company, you may still get all the tools and comforts you're used to having at the office on the road, and it's just a matter of asking.  So, see what you can get your workshifting laptop set up with from your IT department.

Tip 20: Find open source alternatives.  If you're not workshifting on the company dime, or you prefer to use your own tools, shelling out for things like corporate editions of MS Office and Photoshop may be cost prohibitive, so find alternatives.  For starters, open source software is awesome.  I have been running Open Office on my home PC for years, and NeoOffice on my MacBook Pro with great success.  To find other open source alternatives for traditioinal software, check out osalt.com.  

Tip 21: Find cloud-based alternatives. Cloud-based software has come a long way in the past year or two, and many cloud-based apps are more than enough for most people.   Cloud-based alternatives can even be more convenient than traditional software because for a workshifter, it allows you to work from any machine with internet access.  Good starting points for cloud-based software are Google Docs, Zoho Docs, and the 37Signals suite of collaboration applications. There are tons more with price tags varying from free to pricey. Explore them all.

Tip 22: Determine your hardware needs.  I firmly believe that it is only once you've decided what software you need that you should decide on what hardware to purchase.  If every piece of software you need is Windows-based, buying a Mac is nonsensical, even if you can dual boot Windows on it.  (Although, it should be said that since having made the switch to Mac, the only file I have had issues with is MS Visio .vsd files, so perhaps I'm overstating the importance of picking the right hardware.)

Now, install your software, access your dropbox and your webmail, and it's like you never left the office!  The transition from office desktop to mobile workstation is complete.  If you've gone with cloud-based apps and webmail, your freedom is virtually unlimited.

Habits to Keep

Tip 23: Take digital notes. I'm horrible at following my own advice on taking notes one way.  In addition to text files, I use Evernote, moleskines, sticky notes and voice memos on my phone.  Don't be me.

Tip 24: Keep all your files in the cloud.  Whether you use Dropbox to keep all your files in the cloud, or Google Docs so that they're just cloud-based documents to begin with, keeping this habit means that you could drop your laptop in a river, and never miss a beat.

Tip 25: Save things in standard file formats. This is especially important if you start using some of the open source software I mentioned earlier.  Open source software generally allows you to save files in about 1,000 different formats.  Always pick the format that most closely resembles the standard file format for industries.  So, while I use Open Office and Neo Office, both of which have a .odf standard file extension, I save everything in MS Office XP format.  That way, I know just about anyone can open my file.

Bonus

Not so much a tip, but an anecdote that illustrates a bonus that comes with this kind of preparedness. I started preparing to transition to full-time workshifter about one month before my planned transition.  About two weeks before the move, my company laptop (an IBM Thinkpad T43 - a tank of a machine) died.  Had this happened to me two weeks earlier, I would have lost about two years worth of work that had been saved on my local hard drive, and that I had not been very diligent about backing up to company servers.  Because of my preparation to move to full-time workshifter, I lost nothing. All my most important files were already in my Dropbox, and ready and waiting for me when I booted up my MacBook Pro.

Being a workshifter is all about planning for eventualities, so planning to become one, has the fortunate byproduct of just plain making you better prepared.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Matthileo

Consensus Would Save Taxpayers $11 Billion a Year

Just two weeks after a narrow defeat in the House, the Senate unanimously passed legislation (S.707) that would beef up federal workshifting participation. Passage of H.R. 1722--The Telework Improvements Act, a nearly identical bill, missed by only 4% with all but one of the nay votes coming from the Republican side of the house. It's hard not to blame party politics for the House failure since they themselves passed an almost mirror bill in the last months of the Bush administration.

Many of the House naysayers cited costs, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated to be $30 million over a five year period, as the reason for their opposition to the bill. Our reseach shows the bill would actually save agency and employee participants $11 billion a year. Let's see, that's something like a 1,800x return on investment.

The House bill should have made it a no-brainer. You'd think the staggering costs of lost productivity from federal workers during this Winter's snowstorms--estimated by the government's own bean counters at $71 million a day--would wake lawmakers up to the need for a trained teleworkforce. Apparently, at least in the House, those memories melted along with the ice.

Only 5.2% of the 4.7 million government workforce telecommutes on a regular basis but 61% are considered eligible. Based on assumptions from a 2006 study commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration (conducted by Booz Allen) our Telework Savings Calculator shows that if those eligible employees who wanted to work from home did so just one day every other week (the level required in H.R. 1722):


Agencies would:

• Increase productivity by over $2.3 billion each year - equivalent to 26,000 man years of work
• Save $850 million in annual real estate, electricity, and related costs
• Save $2.3 billion in annual absenteeism
• Save $3.1 billion in annual employee turnover
• Improve continuity of operations
• Improve work life balance and better address the needs of families, parents, and senior caregivers.
• Avoid the 'brain drain' effect of retiring boomers by allowing them to work flexibly
• Be able to recruit and retain the best people
• Offer fuller employment for disabled workers, rural residents, and military families

Federal Employees would:

• Achieve a better work-life balance
• Save $400-$1,400/year in transportation and work-related expenses
• Collectively save $57 million a year at the pumps
• Suffer fewer illnesses

The Nation would:

• Save almost 3 million barrels and $233 million in imported oil
• Reduce greenhouse gases by 532,000 tons/year--the equivlient of taking 97,000 cars off the road
• Reduce road travel by 1.2 billion miles/year saving $20 million in road maintenance
• Reduce road congestion thereby increasing productivity for non-teleworkers as well
• Save 1,000 people from traffic-related injury or death each year and save $117 million a year in related costs
• Improve emergency responsiveness
• Reduce pollution from road work and new office construction
• Preserve open spaces
• Alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure
• Reduce terrorism targets of opportunity
• That's a savings of over $5,000 per telecommuter.

Supporters of the H.R. 1722 need your help bringing the bill back to the floor under a full session. The President, the First Lady, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry, have all professed their support for workshifting. If you agree, please contact your political representatives and urge them to vote to make the road less traveled the way to work. A list of those who opposed the vote is available and you can cast your own vote on the bill at OpenCongress.

Want to know what your company could save by workshifting? Download our latest white paper: Workshifting:The Bottom Line


Photo Credit: myoldpostcards

Despite the mountain of data to support workshifting, many companies are challenged to get a viable workshifting program in place.  I believe it's because they are looking for a detailed road-map, and it's impractical to provide that level of detail.  

The reason, every business and every business culture are unique.  Yes, there are general similarities: employees, customers, revenue, and all the other obvious attributes of a sustainable business, but that's where much of the similarities end.  The common thread, no matter how diverse the business, is the intense desire from employees to workshift, and the willingness from management to learn how to make it happen.

The basic workshifting framework will help you develop the business case needed to roll out a pilot program.  


First, clearly define the objective and the problem that will be solved by implementing the program.  If you are not clear as to the value of the program, the organization will not be either.  

Next, define success and how it will be measured. Then identify the people and resources you'll need to make this happen.  As you identify people and resources, start to list the obstacles.  In other words, what are your blockers?

Once identified determine if the blockers are perceived or actual.  For example, do you know unequivocally that your organization values butt-in-seat time over all else? Sometimes the obstacle appears to loom large, but may only exist in the mind of a small handful of people.  If my example rings true with you, then you need to demonstrate productivity gains, improved real-estate efficiency, etc.

Next, identify a small group of employees that would like to participate in the program.  Once complete, you're ready to being socializing the pilot with the stakeholders.  Don't stop at socializing; you have to ask for the sale.  Get the thumbs up to green light the pilot.

It all sounds very tactical, but it's very important to remember to humanize the process.  Start the conversation with your peers.  Keep the dialogue moving and ask for honest, actionable feedback.  Ignore the trolls, every company has them.  

Create a groundswell in your organization.  Take responsibility for the outcome and make it happen.  Rolling out a workshifting program will be one of the most powerful statements a company will make to their employees.  It says, "I believe in your ability," above all else.

Nothing screams confidence more than a company's willingness to hand over the reins to the employees, and trust in their ability to achieve great results, irrespective of their physical location.  If you are the person that lead the charge, you are destined to become indispensable.

Quick List:

1.  Objective
2.  Success
3.  Resources
4.  Obstacles
5.  Volunteers
6.  Socialize
7.  Sell

In the spirit of collaboration, I encourage you to take this framework, build upon it, and share it.  My viewpoint is unique to my experience.  To make this meaningful and scalable for the community, add your experience and your voice

Whenever I'm out of the office, it never fails that I need a file I don't immediately have access to.  A typical example is I'm at a conference or job site and a prospective client wants some info about my company.  Instead of saying they need to wait until I get back to the office to send something, I've been looking for a way to have a couple of files on my iPhone.  That way when I get a call, I can just email the information.

So I've been trying out a few iPhone file storage apps to hold everyday documents.  The ones I looked at were GoDocs, Box.net and Dropbox.

Very similar to my last post on note-taking apps, all of these apps provide tutorials or help documents to get you started.  And good news!  They are all available for the iPad.

GoDocs ($3.99) is a great app if you use Google docs on a regular basis.  I have a few assignments where the team is using Google docs to report project results and this app gives me access to those files.  You can view files online or offline.  And I really like the ability to email files.  I didn't see a way to edit a document - hopefully that will come in future versions.

Dropbox (Free) provides a lot of flexibility when it comes to storage.  It's easy to use - simply drag/drop files.  It also supports multiple file formats.  If you have a group of people who need access to a file, Dropbox also has a collaboration feature. 

One thing that was interesting about Dropbox is the ability to earn extra storage space with referrals.  So if you're part of a group looking for a file storage app and leaning toward Dropbox, be sure to check out their referral program details.  You can also share a referral link with your Facebook and Twitter friends
.
Box.net (Free) offers many of the same features as Dropbox (i.e. drag/drop files, multiple file format support and collaboration options).  A couple of additional noteworthy items include being able to email a file link and the ability to edit documents.  The free version gives you 1G storage and a premium versions can boost that storage to 10 - 15G for a fee.
 
Having a good file storage app can make life easier for any workshifting situation.  The three things that seem to set file storage apps apart are (1) how much storage space you need, (2) what file formats you work with most often, and (3) if you need editing capability.

 
What kinds of file storage apps are you using?  Leave us a note in the comments.



Photo Credit: jazzmasterson

Today's guest post is by Phil Montero the founder of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com and an evangelist for distributed work. For more than a decade he's been teaching how to work effectively from a home office, the road, or practically anywhere. On his blog, TheAnywhereOffice.com, he shares tips and articles about living a digital lifestyle and navigating the changing world of work.


As a reader of this blog, you know that business as usual no longer involves working in a traditional workplace at set hours. Today's professionals are working from virtual offices, client sites, home offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels, and any number of remote workplaces.

International Data Corporation (IDC), in a forecast released in February 2010, Worldwide Mobile Worker Population 2009-2013 Forecast, projects that the world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people - more than a third of the world's workforce - by 2013. The global economy and increasing speed with which we conduct business makes the rise of distributed work and virtual teamwork inevitable. What is more, the benefits of workshifting are real.

The biggest problem is that most organizations take an ad-hoc approach to workshifing, which has been thrust upon them. The business landscape began to change; they increasingly found themselves working across time and distance with team mates, remote offices, clients, vendors, and other outsourced professionals. And they mostly left individual employees, project teams, and offices to decide for themselves how best to conduct business. Virtual teamwork was not deliberate, and not undertaken with any real strategy.

The key to success with distributed work is getting a handle on how you interact. In order to help with this process I have developed what I call the Information, Communication, Collaboration (ICC) Workflow Audit™. It's a way to wrap your mind around the methods of your distributed teamwork and determine how to best use your technology, regardless of specific field or industry. Choosing the right tools and thoughtfully applying them to your business processes can turn your office into The Anywhere Office®: allowing you to work with people around the world as if they were across the hall.

Regardless of what stage of workshifting you're in, or which flavor your individual remote work comes in, you can benefit from this simple exercise to organize your thinking. Look at your workflow and workstyle, and separate all of your tasks and responsibilities - the day-to-day functions of your job - into 3 categories: information, communication, and collaboration.

Then, with those lists in front of you, consider what tools and technology you are using and how; think about what types of strategies and guidelines you have in place or need to institute; and think about how to better manage your process and solicit feedback from your team members and distributed employees.

I will briefly outline below the thought process and the key questions and consideration involved in performing your own ICC Workflow Audit™. It is intended to allow you to take a step back and get a perspective on your workflow process and the mobility of your work.

INFORMATION
When it comes to your information needs, your primary concern is access to files, data, and research. How it will be synchronized, updated, and exchanged. If you are someone who works from the road or remote locations often, the challenge is how to access your files or take your data with you when you are away from the office.

QUESTIONS

• What does your team need?
• Documents
• Contact management
• Shared calendars
• Research
• Reports
• Are special programs or data needed?
• Should data be centrally located?

Your primary goal is to determine if the data that your group needs is as current and easy to find as possible.

COMMUNICATION
Choosing the right tools is only part of communicating well. It's also important to discuss certain communication guidelines within your organization or team.

Setting up these simple guidelines will make sure there is no miscommunication and that everyone has a clear understanding of expectations.

QUESTIONS

• Methods/Tools
• Phone
• Instant Message
• Text Message
• Email
• Discussion Board
• Online Meetings
• Timeliness
• Presence
• Clarity
• Synchronous vs. asynchronous

I often say it's important to "communicate about how you are going to communicate." This will help you develop clear guidelines and create an environment that supports an open and free exchange of ideas.


COLLABORATION
Look at synchronous vs. asynchronous methods of collaboration and try to incorporate both. It is also important to determine if decisions are often made as a group during meetings. If so, you'll want to consider tools that support live polling or other features that support rapid decision-making.

QUESTIONS

• Asynchronous or synchronous?
• Are decisions made as a group during meetings?
• With what style or tool does your team seem to be most comfortable?
• Do project teams work as unified groups? Or do teams tend to get broken down into smaller groups that work in tandem?

For many teams, collaboration is enhanced by developing more structured policies. Look for things the group is doing successfully and use these as models and ideas for future development and best practices.

You can conduct the ICC Workflow Audit™ for yourself, but if you're managing a team you will want to get your people involved in answering these questions. This will ensure that you have an accurate picture of how work gets done and what tools can best help improve productivity and communication flow.

Once you've chosen the best tools for your workstyle, learn to really use and manage them: Get some training or coaching to help you master the features and maximize your efficiency.
Also, remember that technology changes daily and new tools are cropping up all the time, so it is important to make this assessment part of your ongoing process.

For more information on how to implement the ICC Workflow Audit™, read my white paper or attend this recent Webinar.


If you have any ideas on how you can use this workflow to better your organization, please share!


Photo Credit: the_tartanpodcast

If every person in the U.S. with a workshifting-compatible job worked at home on Earth Day, collectively it would:

• Save 900 Million vehicle miles
• Save 45 Million gallons of gas--$188 Million in consumer savings
• Save 2.3 Million barrels of oil--valued at $185 Million
• Eliminate 423,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases--the equivilant of taking 77,000 cars off the road for a year.
• Save 28 million kWh in net electricity--enough to power 2,600 homes for a year
• Save 775 people from traffic injury and deaths

Less than 2% of U.S. employees work from home the majority of the time (not including the self-employed), but 40% could. If they did so just half of the time (roughly the national average for those who do), as a nation we would save over a half a trillion dollars a year and much more.

• Workshifting offers a relatively simple, inexpensive solution to some of the world's most vexing problems:
• Environmentalists applaud telecommuting because it significantly reduces greenhouse gases and energy usage.
• Astute company owners support telecommuting because of the cost savings and increased productivity.
• Work-life experts endorse telecommuting because it addresses the needs of families, parents, and senior caregivers.
• Workforce planners see telecommuting as away to avoid the 'brain drain' effect of retiring boomers.
• Human resource professionals see telecommuting as a way to recruit and retain the best people.
• Employees see telecommuting as a way to save time and money, and improve the quality of their lives.
• Baby Boomers find telecommuting offers a flexible alternative to full retirement.
• Gen Y'ers see telecommuting as a way to work on their own terms.
• Disabled workers, rural residents, and military families find home-based work an answer to their special needs.
• Urban planners realize telecommuting can reduce traffic and revitalize cities.
• Governments see telecommuting as a way to reduce highway wear and tear and alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure.
• Organizations rely on telecommuting to ensure continuity of operations in the event of a disaster or pandemic-all federal workers are required to telecommute to the maximum extent possible for just this reason.

More details about workshifting are available at the TeleworkResearchNetwork.com.

"It's time we made the road less traveled the way to work." What are your thoughts?


Photo Credit: FlyingSinger

Bandize / Basecamp

One of the first things we teach musicians is to treat their music like a business. That may be an easy concept for many reading this site to understand, yet many musicians are running their career like a hobby. The first step beyond all the legal mumbo-jumbo is to get organized and start tracking progress of all the things happening in the band. We use project management software to do this. For smaller indie bands we go with Bandize, a project management software made specifically for musicians where they can track everything from mileage to gigs to inventory, accounting and more - all from a very nice user interface that gets even the most computer loathing musicians in tune. For those bands with a bit more going on, we use Basecamp from the 37 Signals crew. It gives more power to the big projects and allows us to tie in all kinds of users from promoters to PR to techies to booking agents, managers and even the band members themselves.

Email Solutions

photo by LoneGunMan

The largest asset a band has are its fans. They dictate the income, travel and release schedules for all musicians that are paying the bills through their art. When artists are on the road they need quick and effective ways to communicate with all their rabid fans. For us, we teach that the email is the most valuable metric to their business and we have gone on to show that more than 30% of their revenue will come as a direct result of the emails they send. There are countless email software providers and each has its own little quirks and features. In the music industry there is FanBridge and Reverbnation that are the two big players for indie artists. Again when the musician gets to a point where their skills pay the bills we look into larger solutions like Aweber or InfusionSoft.

Bandcamp

In the music sharing space the hands down leader is BandCamp. This service allows you to upload high quality .wav files and distribute them to your fans in a multitude of ways including

• Pay What You Want
• Per Track
• Per Album
• Free W/ an Email
• Free W/no Email
• With physical merch
• In any format of your choosing (.mp3, FLAC, WAV, etc)

I can't say enough about the service other than they rock and will be a huge player in the direct to fan movement happening in the music business right now.

 

Google Suite of Tools

What business would be complete without good old Google. From the web apps to the smartphone connectivity nearly all communications go through Google in one way or another. Whether its brand management through Google Alerts, managing a street team with Google Groups, checking Basecamp and fan mail in Gmail or reading up on some trends with Google Reader, we can go on and on about the "G." The best part for a band. They are all free, which fits right in their price range.

Mobile Blogging With Wordpress

Fans love interaction and they love seeing behind the scenes. Technology has really helped give musician's the edge here as their ability to quickly and consistently post photos, videos and text to their official sites has become very seamless and effective. Wordpress is our weapon of choice, however posting updates to a Tumblr account is just as easy. The simplicity of sending an email to your Wordpress account as a post means that even on the road or on someone's couch they can keep their fans updated with the latest happenings. There are plenty of other tools, yet you have to draw the line somewhere. We keep seeing new industries get into the location independence mindset. I love learning about them. Let's share some other tools and industries that help make this lifestyle attainable.