Is the Moment Now?

For a couple of years, I've been following developments in telework, waiting to see if it was an idea whose time has come in the environment in which I operate. This week, opportunity knocked -- maybe.

Travis County already has some of the fundamentals in place to make telework adoption an off-the-shelf launch. Because our organization is unique, the best practices will have to be customized, but the means to configure the telework tactic already exist. These include standardized measurements that assign actual dollar costs to parking spaces, offices, and furniture (we are required to use these to build our annual budgets). We already have experience with the technology (Citrix) that is a state-of-the-art telework tool. We have performance appraisal systems that already work to maximize employee performance and hold less-than-optimal performers accountable. None of these things are perfect here, but applying them to telework means we don't have to invent something completely new.

We also have well-documented, thoughtful objections that provide an outline of the work we have in front of us if we are to succeed.

There's a short deadline and a catchy label ("Big Push") to put telework implementation into our context quickly. To get something done around here, it's helpful if either (a.) you have all the time in the world to outlast the resistance, or (b.) some kind of externality prods the leviathan into action. Telework adoption falls under category b here.

And of course, quite a few people in our organization are already teleworking, but in a haphazard, ad hoc way that maximizes the risk without capturing all the benefits.

How dangerous is it to try to get into our telework adoption initiative? Well, we're already exposed. An item has been discussed in public this week that had the "records management" keyword embedded in the documentation. Maybe the time is right for an aggressive follow-up on that opportunity. Luckily, cooler heads have to give me a green light before I can get in trouble.

If you haven't seen my earlier posts on this topic, here's one, or you can just click back through this blog and find them all . . . follow some of the links to the telework tools that are already available for free -- white papers, surveys, vendor info, case studies, etc.