A New Way To Look At The Business of Team Work

We are in the business of managing team-based knowledge workers. Our business is based on three primary values:

1. Time Management
2. Cost Justification (Commercial Purpose)
3. Synchronization of Effort (Team Work)

The concept we have developed is best described as a "virtual workplace." The idea is based on the fact that knowledge work is not some place you travel to, it is what you do. It does not matter where you do it, as much as why and for what commercial purpose. And ultimately what matters most is to whom are you accountable. In team-based knowledge work, accountability is about commitment to shared commercial purpose and synchronization of effort.

Time Management

How we spend our time reflects what we value most. Both in our personal time and the time we devote to work. In team-based knowledge work, each individuals time and effort must be measured collaboratively. Project management tools are used for this purpose so that tasks are assigned with milestones and benchmarks to monitor progress.

I believe that "working" in the traditional office, the place most of us commute to daily, wastes a great deal of time. The commute alone is a time waste that also has a cost both in actual consumption of resources and in the time it takes to prepare and recover from the effort.

Many of us find ourselves commuting to sit in front of a computer. Some of us actually carry our computers with us on the commute - plugging it in, in the morning, unplugging it to take it home at the end of the day. In most organizations being part of a team requires commuting to a computer, even if the the work itself could be done by having the computer do the commuting, on the Internet.

In a traditional office showing up on time and leaving at the expected end of the day is a way to justify earning a paycheck. What you accomplish each day is seldom measured accurately. For most it is summarized at the end of the week when time sheets are filled in for payroll. The actual time spent doing real work is often a fraction of the time spent at the workplace. Which is why sitcoms like "The Office" and comics like Dilbert are so popular. The premise of most of the humor is lack of trust between workers and their bosses. Bosses want to see work getting done, workers want to be judged on the value of their work. Showing up is too often the only way to measure effort.

When work is transparent, so that you actually see it performed it is easier to cost justify. The more complex the work, the more difficult it is to see it performed. This is why most knowledge work is measured by final output the "deliverable." Days, weeks and months can go by without anyone actually seeing how the work is progressing. (to be continued)