Wikipedia defines telecommuting as “a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Many work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations.”
Many organizations spend a lot of time developing methodologies for telecommuting – a lot of what I hear about telecommuting is about how to go about “getting it done”. Establishing policies, procedures, technology, etc. This all comes from the organization’s perspective, but how does this relate to you? I personally have left a standard 9-5 office environment and now am telecommuting at least once a week. I realized quite quickly that I needed to change some behaviors to be effective and it helped me to establish some ground rules for myself:

Get dressed for the day. Sure it’s a lot of fun to think about spending all day in your pajamas, but getting ready psychologically puts me in a different frame of mind. I become more task oriented and effective.
Flexibility comes with responsibility. You are an adult – act like it! Be accountable to yourself and your employer. Meet deadlines and make sure they know what you are doing – communcation is key so that trust is reinforced.
Figure out a schedule that works. Seriously? Do you think your IT guy is going to hang out till you are ready at [...]

In recognition of the global environment that we all work in, I would like to take pause and recognize an upcoming milestone – January 23rd marks the next Chinese New Year: 2012, the year of the Water Dragon! I ran across a Feng Shui forecast predicting the following:
“In Eastern symbology, the Dragon is considered a benevolent creature that brings about luck. The Dragon, even though it was the largest, fastest and most powerful animal of creation, it arrived fourth to the call of the Jade Emperor because it stopped along the way to make rain for the farmers and to help the Rabbit cross the river that all animals had to cross to arrive at the palace. Dragon years are expected to be full of benevolence and grace.  This year is going to be a transformational life-changing year! Generally, there are more goodies in store for you in the year 2012 than 2011. It’s a good year to improve oneself, take calculated investment risks and to build wealth. The year 2012 holds much promise and may be a major transition in your life. Whether it turns out extremely good, or really bad, will depend on how you ride the mighty Water Dragon!”
Whew! The economist must happy to hear the “building wealth” part, but what does this forecast this mean for the workplace and the people who occupy it? The main message that I pick up is that of transformational change, either organizational or personal. It is often said that the [...]

This week marks the 5th birthday of the iphone! As I thought about this, I started to reflect on the impact that this one device has made…many people could not function well without it. I count myself in the group – I totally drink the Apple Kool Aid (full disclosure)! So why is it that I have become so completely dependent?
There has been a growing trend over the last 10 years called “convergence”, where many aspects of the world are coming together in ways that they never have before. For example, social media sites networking together so that you can pull a news story from one location and share on Face book – or vice versa. Grocery stores use cards to track what you purchase to give you specialized coupons intended to get you to try new products, as well as monitor your spending habits and sell that information back to the manufactures. All this data is tracked and stored for marketing purposes.
For me, convergence is epitomized on a personal level in the iphone – for example, when traveling I simply forward any email reservation confirmations to a website aligned with the Trip it application that organizes and creates a travel itinerary for me. When I arrive, the application interfaces with the GPS on Google Maps to give me direction for driving, walking, or public transportation to my destination. Also included are phone numbers that I can dial from the iphone for the destination if there are any problems along [...]