This post is the second in our 3-part series called "Building Trust at Work", with Chris Brogan. Chris is president of Human Business Works, providing business, communications and emerging technology strategy for mid- to large-sized businesses. He blogs regularly at chrisbrogan.com.

Bestselling author Charles H. Green wrote the book on trust. His seminal work with David Maister, The Trusted Advisor, taught countless business professionals how to go beyond simply booking billable hours with clients to instead provide them much, much more. He, along with Andrea Howe, recently released The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, which further explores the concept of how leaders in organizations work with trust. So who better to talk with about how to build trust at work than Charles? After all, trust is one of the core elements behind successful efforts to launch remote and distributed employee programs.

According to Green, there are 4 pillars of trust. Through his work in surveying many leaders and stakeholders from companies of varying sizes and industries, he's discovered that workshifting success takes credibility, reliability, intimacy and low self-orientation.

Credibility

Credibility makes sense without much explanation. If you aren't very credible (people won't take your word for things), then there's not enough trust to allow you to work on a project-centric basis. To repair credibility, simply make small commitments and keep them. If you miss a commitment, own up immediately, and then take extra steps to do even better.

Reliability

Reliability is also clearly important. If you're being counted on to do the work, do it. But the way we express reliability is another matter altogether. Sometimes, we feel that being responsive - answering email within a few minutes - is the same. It's not. That just means you're easily distracted from your important work.

Other times, leaders feel that "butts in chairs" is the only measure of reliability. That's equally as wrong. The goal here is to build up trust by delivering within certain parameters and by keeping that level of quality going. If credibility is about doing what you say you'll do, then reliability is about doing it in a way that people can count on.

Intimacy

Intimacy is a strange word when thinking about work relationships. In this case, it's a mix of being attentive to details (an intimate relationship with the work at hand) and to the needs of the people related to the project.

If your boss needs morning email briefs to feel comfortable, then intimacy would suggest that you know to help by sending these along without being asked. If you're working remotely, you miss some of the "hallway chatter," so your role is to know what's being said anyway through inquiries to team members. Though you need all 4 pillars according to Green, intimacy strikes me as being one of the most crucial.

Low Self-Orientation

Having low self-orientation is one of the areas where people could use more improvement. The idea is that one must be a team- and goal-oriented individual. If you're to be working remotely and with less supervision, doing your best work from afar with the needs of the company in mind will garner you the trust of your employer and teammates. By focusing on the success of the team and the project, you're demonstrating a strong level of trustworthiness that isn't easily faked - and that becomes gold to the leadership at hand.

The 4 pillars of trust, as Green laid them out, make a great deal of sense for people seeking to build a strong relationship between leadership, team members and remote workers. It's a powerful mix of metrics to consider. If you're worthy of high marks in all 4, you'll likely do well.

Check back next week for the 3rd part of our "Building Trust at Work" series.

According to the Telework Research Network, productivity increases by 27 percent among those who workshift. This statistic should be of great interest to employers everywhere, as productivity, or the lack thereof, is one of the biggest challenges they face today.

Whenever you are responsible for a workforce, you encounter many varied obstacles to motivating your team sufficiently towards your established goals. New employees may be enthusiastic and dedicated, but it invariably doesn't take long before a certain amount of lethargy sets in, and productivity starts to drop. If the employees share a common workspace, then what's the problem? Is this some kind of condition that permeates from one workstation to another?

Many books have been written over the years about how to motivate employees and manage effectively, but perhaps these books are missing the most significant chapters. It's possible that the solution to low productivity in traditional office workspaces is to actually remove the workspace altogether. This is where workshifting can slowly but surely come to the rescue of floundering organizations.

The same research network that suggests that employees are considerably more productive when workshifting also suggests that employers can save up to $20,000 per employee yearly by eliminating the workspace. The savings are obvious: no more direct and overhead costs associated with each and every workstation. Furthermore, if the employees themselves are happier and more productive in their new environments, turnover will be reduced, meaning less hiring and training expenditures.

Companies that embrace workshifting have shown that employee attrition can be lowered by as much as 25 percent. To top it off, the new, more educated and informed employee tends to look for organizations that offer this kind of flexibility in the first place.

The writing is on the wall when you look at all these figures collectively. It's time to change the culture of oversight by trusting employees to be as productive as, or even more productive than, they were before. Whether we like it or not, productivity is always going to suffer if the employee is not as inspired or motivated as they could be.

When an employer actually gives an employee the freedom to workshift, trust that may have been missing before is established. This can, in turn, exponentially improve the relationship between both parties - each side stands to gain.

Photo Credit: thorinside

By this point, if you are workshifting you have either earned the ability from an employer or chosen the path yourself as an independent workshifter.

And, although workshifting is becoming more and more accepted and valued among traditional employers - sometimes, getting to a workshifting position is not the most difficult step on the path.

Having transitioned from a fully-traditional position to a bona-fide workshifter with the same organization, and with little to no guidance on the what-when-and-how of workshifting expectations by this organization, I initially found myself in a world of uncertainty and self-doubt!

Time tracking, defining project scope and deadlines and "showing up" virtually were not the issues - I knew that the quality of my work would not suffer whether I did it chained to an office desk or on my leather sofa. What I did not know, however, was how my output was being perceived simply because the work was being done remotely. Out of sight, out of mind? Offsite and unreliable?

So, I took some steps to ensure that my efforts were recognized and I instilled, from the outset, an inherent trust in my capacity to work remotely without adversely affecting the organization. I knew I could be counted on, but others needed to know it, too.

To whom much is given, even more is expected! The one step I took to ensure that, as a new workshifter, I could be trusted, was to OVERcommunicate in the following ways:

• Inclusively: Not only were pertinent email CCs necessary, but I took it one step further and provided a weekly summary and monthly time sheet with detailed logs of what and whom I had handled. Sure, it took time for me to track, and often a measure of precision to report on exactly how my time was being spent, but it also ensured that my time could never be questioned by my superior nor his, in spite of the fact that the results spoke for themselves.
  
  
• With Honesty: In the same way I reported what I was doing to produce work and results, I similarly and candidly reported when I would be away from my home office and/or taking time during the day to handle non-work tasks. At the same time, I set clear expectations about the alternative hours I would keep on those days to make up the time and ensure that my results were met.
  
  
• Selflessly and Flexibility: If the goal of my new schedule was 100% flexibility, I recognized my threshold of tolerance (translation: what I was willing to concede) and knew that its cap was roughly 80% - this left room for any unscheduled or impromptu meetings or projects that would require on-site presence without completely disrupting my sense of autonomy and freedom.

What is the one step you've taken to ensure trust as a workshifter?

Photo Credit: vagawi

Complete this sentence: If you want to get something done, __________________.

That's right. You ask a busy person. Why? Because a busy person obviously knows how to get things done.

At my house, however, I get a little more specific. "Busy person" is synonymous with "Chris," my husband. At work and in his extensive volunteerism, people know he's the go-to guy. At the hint of a challenge or task, he instinctively rolls up his sleeves and takes the bull by the horns. It's clear that he delights in both hard work and the results. He's not perfect, of course. A certain languishing household project comes to mind -- the office ceiling that still needs sanding two (or is it three?) years later.

This anomalous fault aside, hard work appears to be hard coded in Chris's DNA.

Hard Coded to Work Hard

Actually, fingerprinting is his game -- biometrics for the bad guys, though it's not just about the bad guys. I've already said too much.

Last year, Chris's team welcomed a new supervisor. And within a few weeks of coming on board, the new supervisor invited Chris to work a day or two a week from home. This was entirely unexpected. Chris works for a government agency with a culture that leans towards conservative practices (e.g., no jeans).

The offer to workshift was an astute first move. Exceptional employees aren't exactly wallflowers -- they stick out. They're the ones who move easily between work groups, who are actively engaged in projects and who constantly deliver results. Rewarding a proven team member who provides tremendous value to the organization is a no-brainer for a smart supervisor.

Chris already had some experience workshifting a day here and there over the years, but he'd never implemented a formalized routine. He wondered how a regular workshifting schedule would impact his fellow team members and the projects they shared. After carefully mulling over the offer, he decided to give it a try and designated Friday as his official remote workday.

Veteran workshifters know that having the right tools is essential. Chris carefully maintains a presence and keeps projects moving by using IM for instant feedback, phone for short status meetings and email for milestone updates. These tools keep him engaged in the workplace and connected to his team.

Chris recalls a situation in which he and his team leveraged GoToMeeting to conduct a critical brainstorming session between two government agencies. The two groups needed to assess each other's data fields. (Just for a moment imagine the painful process of describing data fields over the phone.) GoToMeeting enabled both groups to view each other's desktops so that they could intelligently address the issue, run dynamic database queries and ultimately find out how they map to each other. According to Chris, "GoToMeeting allowed us to do the things we needed to do without getting in the way."

Chris's advice for employers:

• Provide the right tools to do the job -- inside and outside the office
• Make sure policies don't stand in the way of getting work done
• Build a foundation of trust, regardless of where an employee is located
• Recognize the value that an exceptional employee provides the organization
• Reward an exceptional employee with a workshifting perk

Chris sums it up this way: If you know your employee is working, it shouldn't matter where they work.

I happen to agree. And since not everyone is hard coded to work hard, employers should do what they can to retain the ones who are. If the job complements a workshifting arrangement, providing the option to work remotely a few days a week can be a powerful tool to sweeten the pot for exceptional employees. Don't you think?

Photo Credit: Multiple fragments of tissue

When organizations and individuals start having conversations about workshifting, the discussion seems to naturally gravitate toward how to manage a person who isn't sitting around an office all day. It's a reality and unfortunately, this is where the workshifting concept can often get stuck.

A basic tenet of workshifting is being able to manage yourself. That's not to say people who work in offices can't manage themselves, but I've heard from many people over the years that they need an office to visit each day. Because working from home or the local coffee shop can sometimes be a distraction. And having an office away from home keeps them focused.

So I thought it might be interesting to start a discussion on qualities of self-management. Obviously, they apply whether you're in a workshifting arrangement or not. But if you are considering asking for a workshifting arrangement, this might be food for thought. And even if you find these are qualities you need to work on, that doesn't mean you won't be successful in workshifting. It just means you need to reflect a little and perfect your ability to self-manage.

The first quality is knowing yourself. It's about understanding your strengths and weaknesses. Being very honest with who you are. Let's face it - we're not all rock stars at everything.

There are a few ways you can spend time learning about yourself. I always say there are three ways to learn - hearing it, seeing it and doing it.

1. Ask for feedback. Talk with people who have a sense of your working style and ask them for feedback about your strengths and areas for improvement. If you don't have anyone you can ask right now, think about prior performance appraisals you've received and use that feedback.
   
   Once you get feedback, take the time to process and evaluate it. I'd caution people not to immediately dismiss it. You might agree with all of it, parts of it, or none of it. But think it though, make the decision for yourself, and then decide what you will do with the information. Do you need to create an action plan to work on something that was mentioned?
   
   
2. Read books about developing strengths. One terrific book is called, "Now Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham. In the book, there is an opportunity to take an assessment that can help you define your personal strengths. Great way to create your own path of self-discovery.
   
   If you have ever taken any assessments in the past, this is a good time to take them out and review them. Consider the results and, like the process above, evaluate what you need to focus on moving forward.
   
   
3. Step out of your comfort zone and do something you haven't done before. For example, if you're apprehensive about public speaking...go out there and volunteer to do a public presentation. Use the evaluations from the sessions to improve. Then do it again.
   

Stepping back to assess and evaluate our personal strengths and weaknesses is a valuable exercise not only for workshifting but anytime. It allows us to keep ourselves focused and positioned to adapt as necessary.

Next up, how self-management and our careers are intertwined.

Photo Credit: Valerie Everett

Recently I polled some fellow workshifters on the twitter network asking about what some of their biggest challenges were when working out of the home office. It was an interesting find because quite a few folks said that the biggest challenges included trust and communications. After having been a professional workshifter for the past three years I can honestly say that I concur with this challenge. So how do we deal with them? I've created a few methodologies in which I live by on a daily basis. I hope these help. Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Would love to get your take.

1. Always be honest. Recently I fell ill to a nasty flu bug and needed to take a couple days off to recover. I was very open and honest with my team and did everything I could to minimize the impact on the team for those two days. Look, people will see right through a lie. I've always found that being honest whether it's for a sick day, a family event, or anything really is the best policy.

2. Keep Good Logs. I keep logs of everything I do on a daily basis. For me this happens in two places. I use Evernote for my digital logs and a yellow note pad for quick notes and a second hard copy of my daily logs. Evernote is an application that runs in the cloud. You have access to these notes on any computer with the app installed as well as the majority of all mobile devices. I am an iPhone user and absolutely love it!

3. Don't flood the email. I have found that throughout my career it's best not to flood coworkers email. This is inefficient and wastes a lot of time. If I have questions I try to note them on my pad and send one email with all the items if possible. As workshifters I know there often feels like there is a disconnect between you and the main office so email is a great way to let everyone know you're busy. Resist the temptation and be conscientious of others time.

4. Clarity in Communications. make sure that you are clear on the methods of communications used by your team. Maybe they use Google docs and spreadsheets, maybe they are heavy users of GoToMeeting and Citrix products. there are many ways to communicate but be sure to find clarity there. If your organization has no clear communications system or methodology it might be time for you to do some research and lay out a plan!

5. Do Amazing Work. This one is obvious right? It's really hard for your boss to come down on you with fury if your work exceeds expectations. This is the number one way to build trust and make sure you are always in the communications loop!
 
What do you think?


Photo Credit: Assbach

We started this blog with the goal of building a community by providing content and resource material that was tailored for workshifters. The community was not built based on promoting products or services, although the occasional promotion is ok (just don't be "that guy"), it's based on fulfilling the need for information and the desire of sharing a common interest.

Over the past year I've watched as solo-preneurs chat with large enterprise companies about a wide range of topics.  It's less about what they are talking about, and more about the fact that they are talking, discovering and to enabling. Many of the questions and conversations are fielded and managed by the community.  One of the biggest lessons learned, is that once the community takes off, the community is in control. However, their desire for a consistent diet of rich and tasty content only grows with the community. So stay on it.

Another lesson learned is that your services are talked about alongside competing services.  Gasp!  I know it's hard to swallow, but your services are not right for everyone.  At my company, we absolutely love our products, but we know one size does not fit all.  We hope we attract customers that are a perfect fit.  Sometimes we don't and we definitely hear about it.  If you're going to build a community you need to be ok with that, because much of the conversation extends beyond the blog and takes place on Twitter, Facebook and other community blogs.  

What's really fun is watching the conversations that have little or nothing to do with technology. Common topics include comfortable office chairs, pets, marriage, diet, travel and about everything in-between. This is a nice lead in to one of, what seems to be, the hardest areas in managing a community and that's being REAL.

You could also replace REAL with HUMAN, HONEST, TRANSPARENT, etc. The point is it must come from the heart. You really and truly need to care. The community has low tolerance for corporate speak and canned responses. If you do more listening than talking, it will start to come naturally.

Online communities are not the exclusive domain of companies. We all belong to communities, online and in the real world. There is your Facebook community which you maintain, monitor and contribute to. In this day and age, it will become most people's first experience with a community. Then you may be belong to a car club, or cooking group and neither of which are online.  

As workshifters we often build a community around our co-working locations. You probably know the person that works the espresso machine, a few of the regulars, etc. This real world community probably extends to the web in the form of check-ins on Foursquare (who doesn't want to by mayor of their joint?), photo uploads to Flickr and messages in Twitter. If you're thinking about starting an online community blog, take that same casual demeanor and move it online. Be consistent, be transparent, be real.

My top 7 lessons:

1.  The community is in control
2.  Be the best electronic version of yourself
3.  Listen more than you talk
4.  Keep it really interesting
5.  Monitor and contribute daily
6.  Don't let questions or comments go unanswered for more than 24 hours
7.  If you don't genuinely care, don't do it

These lessons aren't particularly earth shattering, and you may read similar advice on other blogs. What's important is the application of the lessons. Much like when you read a book on a topic that's important to you. The reading of the book is not the measurement of success.  You are not striving to be an excellent book buyer. What matters is the practical application of the advice.  

That's my opinion, what's yours?


Photo Credit: Niall Kennedy

First and last is just fine when you're renting an apartment, but not when you are a company's first full-time workshifter. Someone has to be first, of course. You just don't want to mess things up so badly that you are also the company's last full-time remote employee.

I know the thrill of being first. It's exhilarating. It's liberating. It's what I'd been dreaming of for years. In the interest of full disclosure, I wasn't completely green at workshifting. I won't speak for all writers, but I've always had the ability to work (and sleep, incidentally) anywhere. I'd enjoyed project-based freelance writing gigs for years. Full-time workshifting was a first for me though. And a first for my company.

It just so happened that the year I relocated 2,000 miles across the country to embark on a new journey, the country was celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The parallels between the famous expedition and my own lesser known one were not lost on me. I felt like an explorer for my company--breaking out of the traditional office to see what was beyond the four walls I'd painted industrial green to encourage productivity.

Being first also made me nervous because I knew the task ahead of me was more than just doing my job remotely. I was setting out to prove that workshifting full-time could actually be done and that it could be beneficial for both me and my company. The journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition document important discoveries made along the way. Similarly, I knew that decision-makers at my company were documenting discoveries made during my workshifting journey. If I failed, it meant that colleagues would likely not be able to workshift full-time in the future. It was an enormous responsibility, and I took it very seriously.

Here are a few lessons that stood out for me during my transition to full-time workshifting:

Stay calm during emergencies. I lose composure and my grasp on reality when I encounter a technical problem. Out of necessity, I've learned a few basic troubleshooting tricks over the years. But that doesn't prevent the immediate rise in blood pressure, creative strings of profanity and general mayhem that ensues when a glitch arises. This was especially true in my first few months 2,000 miles away from IT. As a workshifter, I learned how to take a deep breath, communicate problems better and recognize that the world was not ending. The use of remote-support technology helped me to let go and let IT do what it does best.

Get out of the house. Occasional workshifters might think that full-time workshifters experience that I'm-not-in-my-office-and-yet-I'm-working euphoria every single day. The novelty wears off after a while. And that's perfectly fine. Full-time workshifting means that day in and day out, workshifters workshift. I set up shop in my home office and became freakishly uptight about noise volume inside the house and also on the street. On more than one occasion, I hissed in my sleep: "SHHHH! I'm WORKING!" And with no official end-of-day departure after work, the lines of time blurred. A day of not leaving the house turned into a string of three days inside the house. Upon realizing this, I promptly left the house with no destination in mind except out.

Play by the rules. Being my company's first full-time workshifter made me feel like the official steward for all things workshifting. I was devoted to ensuring the stage was set properly for future workshifters. Soon after I went remote full-time, a few other employees were granted similar privileges. One colleague in particular drew my ire because she showed a complete disregard for the critical relationship between workshifter and HQ. She was difficult to track down during business hours, missed remote meetings, turned projects in late and was, generally speaking, a complete flake. Her unprofessional behavior wasn't just affecting her reputation at the company--it threatened to reflect poorly on her small tribe of fellow workshifters.

Deal with the 24/7 expectation. Truth be told, I was available 24/7, but that's not the point. It's just the way I'm wired. Inspiration strikes writers at unpredictable times. I was used to scribbling ideas at 3:25 AM in a bedside notebook. I had no qualms about working on the weekend. I longed for work while on vacation. But workshifting full-time wasn't about me as much as it was about nurturing a balanced relationship between me and my company. Every healthy relationship has boundaries. I had to guard my personal time carefully. I made sure colleagues knew my hours of availability and every possible way to contact me. I promptly answered email, IM and phone calls. To offset a two-hour time difference, I adjusted my workday to cover HQ's business hours.

Grieve a little. Even though I was already comfortable working alone, I missed my coworkers who were now 2,000 miles away. I also pined for the seaweedy smell of the air and dangerously close mountain views back at HQ. At first, it was hard to be so far away from everything I was used to seeing on a daily basis. (And to be honest, I shed a few tears on the company's dime.) I worked with some truly talented, fun folks who were also my friends. Not bumping into them in the kitchen, grabbing a quick lunch or staring at them across a conference table made for a difficult transition. The upside is that I also no longer saw the one or two folks who I considered, ahem, a tad challenging. Sure, I still worked with them, but I no longer had to endure the awkward chitchat in the HQ hallway.

Create a new routine. Within a few weeks, I found my rhythm. I worked through the separation anxiety. I adapted to my new surroundings. But most important, I was patient with myself and also my colleagues back at the office. We all came to the table (figuratively, of course) with a unique set of experiences and expectations about the working life. I wasn't the only one learning new ways of working--everyone back at the office was exploring new ways of interacting, collaborating and working with me, a full-time workshifter.

These days, occasional workshifting is commonplace and full-time workshifting is gaining ground quickly. Fewer people stare blankly at me when I explain what it is that I do and how I do it. We've all seen the IDC predictions about the mobile workforce. In case you haven't, here it is: "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." (IDC) That's a whole lot of workshifters workshifting. I'd like to think I had some influence over the numbers, thanks to my efforts in setting the stage as the first full-time workshifter at my company, but that's just silly. The way we work has shifted. And I, for one, couldn't be happier to take part.


Photo Credit: Bob Travis

I sat down with the President of Citrix Online, Brett Caine.  It was fun to sit informally and chat about collaboration, culture, the need for simplicity and much more.  He even fields a few questions from the Twitterverse about tools he can't live without and his favorite Workshifting location.



What makes this interview interesting is that it is completely unscripted and unrehearsed.  I whipped out my Flip camera and we just rolled with it.  A company's willingness to do this speaks volumes about their commitment to transparency and to their community.  I'm a trust agent in my organization so I have credible chops which allows me access.

Being a trust agent or trusted advisor is how you gain access to thought leaders. The lesson is that your social credibility and that of your company is at the fingertips of anyone with a keyboard and a browser.  Be mindful of your reputation and the digital crumbs you leave behind.  Don't feel intimidated to ask the thought leaders for their opinions.  If you're kind and thoughtful in your approach, you'll not only be heard, but you'll be invited back.

What do you think?

What does business productivity have to do with kettles boiling? Bear with me and you'll find out.