Ahead of Times at Work

Reading Charles Handy's Beyond Certainty - The Changing World of Work, I realise I am way ahead in my thinking at work. This is causing tension and angst in an organisation steep in tradition and conservative thinking. I will reproduce Charles Handy's insights. I can say we have been there and done that!

In Chapter 35, HOW DO YOU MANAGE WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE THE PEOPLE?
Insight 1
The choice of people becomes more important than ever. One bad apple ruins the batch. Recruitment, placement, and promotion become key managerial priorities. An interview may no longer be enough. I suspect that we shall see more probationary contracts give people time to be sure.
This is how we hire new members of our team. They come in as a temp and will be converted to permanent only when we are satisfied that she or he fits the teams and produces good work.
Insight 2
How many people can you know well enough to trust? Probably not more than 50 at most. Organization units must become small and more stable so that people can get to know each other over time. Teams are now the fashion, but for teams to stay together the team have to be flexible enough to tackle a range of tasks. Trust, therefore, leads to a demand for constant updating and re-education.
We invest in training and education of every team member. Training is not limited to job related responsibilities only.
Insight 3
Trust is fueled by talk. E-mail, voice-mail and every other sort of mail are essential if out of sight is not going to mean out of mind. But hi-tech needs to be balanced by hi-touch. Video conferences work better when the participants are friends not strangers. Virtual organizations make a point of meeting together, not necessarily in offices or in office time, so that they can know each other personally as well as electronically.
We hold regular gathering that is offsite. We get to know each other personally as well as know the family of each team member.
Insight 4
The vision and values stuff really matters. If there is no common goal, people put their own goals first. If, however, those who are out of sight think that they are only working to make some anonymous shareholders a bit richer, they are unlikely to do more than they need to. There has to be more point to their work than that, and many hi-touch meetings of the group will be concerned to reinforce the mission and goals of the organization in order to win the commitment of its people.
Our values is very clear. We invest in our team members to improve and increase our capability and our Customers are number priority. Making things happens for the Customers and responding to their needs are the key purposes of our team.
Insight 5
Trust is tough. If people let you down, you cannot afford to trust them anymore. Virtual organizatons require loyalty and good performance. They reward results, but they have to punish incompetence and repeated failure. If they don't, they will have to reinstitute inspections and controls. Do not expect a guaranteed job for life from an organzation based on trust. The security has to be earned.
We help team members to move on when he or she does not meet performance expectations. Feedback is candid and improvement is expected. Otherwise timeline to move on will be set. Two members had moved on in our team attesting our practice of Insight 5.

Like it or not, the times are changing. More of us are going to have to run organizations that we cannot see and learn the ways to do it.
Since Oct 2001, I have managed the team based in Kuala Lumpur from remote. From Oct 2001 to Dec 2001, I manage from Toronto and Jan 2001 to today, I lived in Singapore who the operations stays in KL. Our performance and results are clear indications that the future of work in Charles Handy's vision has arrived.