I’m starting (or really have started) on a project I’m calling “Working Anywhere.” It’s about the nomadic worker, the kind of person who can work (and play) anywhere at any time. While not everyone can Nomadic those of us who have been in the agency world, working virtually with clients, colleagues and peers for years as I have, will understand that yes, it can be done.
Beyond juggling time zones, and avoiding the constant desire to stay on “home base” time, once you get past that mental hurdle and the physical “jet lag” that sometimes arises you realize that we now pretty much have the tools to, work just about anywhere with anyone, just about anywhere theirs high speed IP connectvity.
Peter Csathy’s point about both face time and handshake time is crucial. Days of staying put in the office ended a while ago for me, and SightSpeed and a few other apps make the team and client base I’ve assembled, now on an international level for both, seem like they’re just down the hall regardless of where that hall may be in the world these days.
Now days, it’s not where you are that matters, for me, its can I stay connected, for online is where I am, and for the industries and clients we serve, it’s the only way to be. Our tools–broadband, better, lighter PCs, fast wireless connectivity, EvDO, 3G and WiFi takes the concept of “always on, always connected, and makes it easier to be always in touch.” When you weave in more personal time when needed, it makes the whole world of difference.
Watch for a more on Working Anywhere as it will become for me as important as VoIPWatch as an outlet to help you and others be better Nomads in the world that is rapidly heading that way..
As a remote member of an otherwise office-bound company, I agree that face time and handshake time is crucial, especially when trying to establish and maintain trust relationships with people that I did not know before I started telecommuting full-time. Whenever I have to travel to the company offices, I always make sure to be there at least one more day that I need, and that day is not scheduled for anything. That way I’m free to just bump into people: it’s amazing how much you can get done in five minutes of face to face after five weeks of emails and voice conferences.
Video conferencing is second-best to facetime, but it’s helped me a lot. I find that part of what helps build that trust is the ability to break out of a more “formal” relationship that seems to be the only one that you can establish over the phone (in the absence of any other type of contact). It takes facetime to really see someone else as a human being and be able to relate to them other than at that strictly formal level.
But I have also found a flip side: a bad video connection can have the direct opposite effect. If you spend a lot of time trying to set up a video conference and are unsuccessful, or have poor image/audio quality, the frustration that people feel at being unable to communicate actually transfers itself to the participants at the other end of the link (regardless of whether the problem is their fault). This is purely anecdotal and based on my experience, but I find that I can garner more positive outcomes and trust from the participants from meetings where the technology worked unobtrusively. Glitches almost always translate into delays in getting agreement, far beyond what would be expected from just the delays caused by the communications breakdown.
Very interested in hearing more about the “Working Anywhere” project.