Workshop 2
MAKING THE DECISION TO TELEWORK
by Sandra Fox O'Hara, CEO/Managing Director
Dr. Helen H. Solomons, President/Managing Director
Telework Development System International, Inc.

"I think things are moving at such a fast pace today that a decision made today isn’t necessarily appropriate a year from now or probably tomorrow." — Ken Blanchard

CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Begin with the "big picture"
• Why do it?
• Setting objectives
• A model to focus your resources in the right direction
• Relevance of the model to your telework decision
• Applying the model
• Allocating your resources for the most impact
• Evaluating alternatives
• Assess risk of negative outcomes
• Key questions concerning potential negative outcomes
• Select alternatives for the next step
• Communicating the decision
• Closing remarks

INTRODUCTION

Remote work has tremendous potential to benefit the organization, the individual, and society. Decisions of this importance need to be made on the basis of solid, reliable data. These data must be presented to the right people, at the right time, and in a manner that maximizes your chances of being successful.

In brief, you will need to

• Identify your organization’s objectives.
• Determine who needs what type of flexible work arrangement.
• Look for who has the power and where best to use your resources in designing a plan.

This Workshop points out some of the factors of concern when deciding whether or not to implement teleworking. It also presents a model for the decision-making process that you can adapt to your organization’s specific situation.

Because the business landscape is changing so rapidly, it is important to take into account not only current conditions but also those that will exist for your organization, employees and customers in the future. To make the best choice, you need to think of what’s "coming up" tomorrow as well as what is "going down" today. This includes "environmental scanning" to track issues such as traffic patterns affecting your offices, the changing needs of employees and customers, competition for talent with companies that have already started teleworking programs, and so on.

This Workshop will also include how to involve the people who will be affected by the decision or will implement it. This will probably slow the decision-making process down a bit, but involving these "stakeholders" will ensure that you target their needs in your proposal and greatly increase the likelihood of success.

BEGIN WITH THE "BIG PICTURE"

Before analyzing specific needs within your organization, focus on the "big picture." Consider such critical topics as:

• The size and scope of the decision: How many people are likely to be affected?
• Consistency with internal policy: What will need to change? What are you doing now that already fits with the change you are considering? (For example, are you managing by results or will you need to revise your performance management system and practices? How does distance work fit with your HR policies, compensation, benefits, etc.?)
• How might teleworking impact customer service? Customer satisfaction?
• To what extent will your proposed teleworking program be accepted by outside regulatory bodies. OSHA? Human Relations? Legal system -- right to privacy, etc.?
• What kind of support can you expect from those who will implement the program? Managers, supervisors, employees? Which of these constituencies are in favor, which neutral, and which actively resistant?
• To what extent can you expect support from the most influential people in your organization? (For example, large shareholders, key staff, people with formal or informal influence.)

If the answers to these questions indicate that a proposal to implement telework would have a reasonable chance of success, then it is worth performing the analysis which makes up the major part of this Workshop.

WHY DO IT?

Companies implement teleworking for many different reasons. To name a few:

• To improve quality of life for employees by increasing the flexibility of their working conditions.
• To cut the costs of real estate.
• To become an employer of choice.
• To recruit from a larger pool of talent.
• To improve retention.
• To increase productivity.

On the other hand, there are many reasons why people don’t think teleworking is a good idea. Some of these are valid, some are based on misperceptions. As a proponent of teleworking you must be prepared to counter these negative arguments with appropriate data -- they are forces to be reckoned with.

The process of setting objectives in the next section helps you identify the reasons why your organization should accept your proposal.

SETTING OBJECTIVES

The first step to any planning process is to clarify your objectives. These will be your guiding principles and serve as reference points as you move along. There are many issues to consider, including:

• What are the specific goals for your teleworking program?
• What are some of the business, management and employee needs that must be satisfied?
• What constraints are there regarding this decision? (e.g. budget, resources, nature of the work, size and cost of equipment, technical support)
• What do you want to achieve in the short term? Long term?
• Are the most important objectives measurable so that you will recognize when a telework option under consideration meets them?

The next step will be to classify your objectives into three groups in order of decreasing importance:

• Those that are absolutely necessary
• Those that are highly desirable
• Those that would be nice to have.

This will enable you to prioritize alternatives by assigning weights to alternative options depending on the extent to which they contribute to more or less important objectives. In particular, knowing which objectives are mandatory for success will help you reach the best decision.

In organizations, numbers count. Don’t try to "push" the project by yourself. Find colleagues who can answer each of the questions above and collate their responses. Preferably give each question to several people and see how closely their responses match. If they are in agreement, you can be relatively certain that your finger is on the pulse of the organization and that you’re on firm ground. Even more important, however, is the fact that by seeking their help you are also building support for your proposal.

If this task seems overwhelming, the information is unavailable, or your internal resources differ greatly in how they assess the above issues, you might benefit from the advice of a professional consultant. A consultant can often analyze what seems like conflicting data and make recommendations that hit the mark. Seek one with expertise in organizational change as well as remote work arrangements.

A MODEL TO FOCUS YOUR RESOURCES IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

The implementation of teleworking involves many changes in the organization – changes in thinking, attitude, process, expectations, work styles and culture, to name a few. Change, however, is difficult for people. We cling to the "status quo" because it is familiar, and will resist moving from it even when there is evidence that the change will be positive. How can you deal with this strong, yet normal, human dynamic?

Many years ago, German social psychologist Kurt Lewin created a model that helps to identify where we can use our resources most effectively to make a change occur. This model is useful in all change management. We’ll apply it here to the telework decision.

Lewin explained his model this way (printing out the chart in Figure 1 will help you to follow the explanation):

When you consider an event, there are driving forces moving it toward the proposed goal and restraining forces moving against it. These forces result from internal and external factors.

For example, in our case internal factors might include the organization’s financial status, needs of the staff, strategic goals, desire to be employer of choice, recruitment and retention improvement, cultural shifts, expectations of benefit from telework, etc. External factors might include competition, market forces, global economic conditions, political events, legislative pressures, etc.

Lewin said that change occurs when there is an imbalance between the sum of the driving forces and the sum of the restraining forces. If the driving forces are stronger, the event moves in a positive direction toward the goal. If the restraining forces are stronger, the event moves in a negative direction away from the goal. If they are equal, there is inertia.

Many telework programs never progress beyond a pilot project because of this inertia. The driving forces are strong enough to establish the pilot, but the resistive forces are strong enough to prevent a wider implementation. (Pilots often "operate underground" to avoid the resisting forces and "stay alive.")

The driving and restraining forces involved in each factor area oppose each other. In some areas, the driving forces dominate; in others the restraining forces are the stronger. The center line on the chart is curved to pictorially represent the relative advantages of the opposing forces.

RELEVANCE OF THE MODEL TO YOUR TELEWORK DECISION

In your organization, there are many forces on each side of this line. How will it help to explore them?

Internal forces are more able to be moved by individuals in the organization when:

• There is a champion of the cause in a powerful position.
• The change can be demonstrated to affect business objectives and the bottom line positively.
• An accurate assessment is made of who has the power and what they need to be successful, and steps are taken to help those with the power achieve what they seek.

External forces are often less able to be moved because they might:

• Concern society at large.
• Involve market dynamics.
• Require legislation or cultural shifts.

We have only so much energy and resources to effect change. Very often, a proposal to implement a telework program fails because its proponents concentrate their efforts on the wrong things, get discouraged at the resistance, and give up. Using this model will help you see clearly where your resources and energy will be most effective.

For example, don’t waste energy resolving

• Problems that have already been resolved because the positive forces for change are more powerful than the negative forces opposing them.
• Problems that are beyond your scope because you cannot influence the negative forces against change in that area. This might occur with external forces, particularly if they involve legislation -- the best you can do is show that the weight of support in other areas is so far on your side that these opposing forces can be ignored.

Here’s how to use the model in preparing for "Making the Decision to Telework."

1. List the individuals, groups, and departments who have power to affect the decision and those impacted by the decision to implement telework. These are the "stakeholders." Ask others for input, to gather as complete a list as possible.

   Some stakeholders listed by companies already involved in telework are:

   _________ CEO

   __________ Financial Department

   __________ Real Estate Office

   __________ Alternative Work Department/Task Force

   __________ Human Resources

   __________ Employees

   __________ Managers

    

2. Assess the degree of power or influence of each stakeholder over the decision in your organization. Rewrite your list in order of power – with number one, the greatest influence, at the top.
3. Determine the driving and restraining forces for each stakeholder. For example, the CEO might have driving forces of wanting to stay competitive and be an employer of choice, and a restraining force that he or she fears the impact of the telework learning curve on productivity.  Use Figure 1 (preferably a printout copy) to brainstorm with your colleagues to draw up a list of the internal and external forces that influence the decision TO telework and those that RESIST it.
4. As you plot these forces on the chart, start with the most influential or powerful person, group or department.

Consider whether at this moment the forces driving towards telework are weaker or stronger than the forces resisting the decision. This will help you decide whether and in what direction the line bulges. For example, is the CEO’s interest in being an employer of choice stronger than his or her concern about the learning curve?

You will not know these things for sure, but when several colleagues work through this analysis separately then compare responses, it is remarkable how close they often are to reality.

For each stakeholder, there may be many forces. List as many as you can. Your chart might look something Figure 2. In this example, the numbers represent the order of perceived power or influence over the decision.

Once your analysis is complete, what’s the next step?

You will be most successful in persuading the people, groups or departments with the most power to act on your proposal if you can provide

• Options for action that match their driving forces.
• Arguments that counter their resisting forces.

There are many alternative forms of remote work. It is critical at this point to see which options are the best match.

What kinds of telework programs fit your needs -- hoteling, telecenters, flexitime, telecommuting? Will you propose closing down offices and creating full-time teleworkers, or will they be part-time? The alternatives you develop will depend on your analysis above.

Your objective is to design the best alternatives to satisfy the driving forces of those most influential in the decision.

This is a creative, brainstorming process. The more alternatives you generate that fit your objectives, the better the chances of a successful outcome.

EVALUATING ALTERNATIVES

• Do you have specific, complete, and up-to-date information on your alternatives? (See Workshop 1 -- Getting Educated)
• Is each alternative realistic (in terms of your constraints) and does it match your most important objectives? (If any is not realistic or doesn’t fit critical objectives, drop it from consideration.)
• How well does each alternative match your non-mandatory, desirable objectives?

ASSESS RISK OF NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

Now think about what could go wrong in implementing each of the alternatives. (If your organization is new to telecommuting you can refer to the experience of other organizations).

KEY QUESTIONS CONCERNING POTENTIAL NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

• Where might some of your information be invalid or inapplicable to you? Inaccurate or out-of-date?
• What problems might you encounter as a result of implementing this alternative? How serious would it be if it did occur?
• For each serious problem: What is the probability of it occurring?
• What can you do to prevent or minimize the possibility of these problems/potential negative outcomes?

Consider each of the alternatives, weighting benefits against potential problems to decide which of the teleworking options you will include in the next phase of your decision making process.

Key Questions for Shortening Your List of Alternatives

• To what extent are you willing to accept potential risks to gain the benefits of your choice?
• Will the key stakeholders accept this degree of risk?

You have worked hard to analyze the dynamics, the players, and the alternative forms of telework program. Getting approval for a telework program is only the start, now you need to make it a success.

For this, communication is critical. The next segment of this TELEWORK AMERICA educational series will focus on "Selling the Decision." For now, we’ll conclude with a few thoughts on maximizing a positive reception to the telework program.

It is critical that the decision be clearly understood by everyone in the organization. To do this, you will need to plan communications about teleworking right from the beginning of the decision-making process. Many people have inaccurate ideas and concepts of teleworking, and many people have expectations based on unrealistic hopes or imaginary fears. Education and explanation are essential. (See Workshop 1).

• Do people in your company know what telework means?
• Do they know how it might affect them?

Your communications need to be sufficiently complete and begin early enough in your decision-making process to prevent negative rumors and inaccurate assumptions from spreading. Once erroneous ideas have become widely disseminated it is difficult to change them no matter how little connection to reality they have.

Making sure that all stakeholders are accurately informed at each stage of your decision-making process is also very important. Allow enough time to put an effective communications procedure in place, it is a long process.

CLOSING REMARKS

We hope this Workshop in the TELEWORK AMERICA series is a resource to you as you take the step toward "Making the Decision to Telework." Each month we will raise challenging issues and share the expertise of our members with you.

Revisit this session as often as needed.