Hi all,
My name is Michele Bowman, and I'm new to this list. I've been lurking for
the last week or so, and thought this might be a good time to jump in.
I am by training and profession a futurist, and my company, Global
Foresight Associates (GFA), has some experience with an "office-free"
environment, which may be of interest to you.
I founded GFA a few years ago with some collegues of mine at the Hawaii
Research Center for Futures Studies. We wanted to create a truly virtual
company - one which could form and re-form as consulting and research
projects arose. The underlying principle of our association is that given
the information technologies available to us today, we don't need to be
physcially located in the same space in order to work together. We have
associates in six states - from Hawaii to Boston - and we exist almost
entirely in cyberspace.
For the most part, our experience has been a great success. For instance,
we recently prepared a futures report for an engineering association; the
report was 350+ pages long, and we had associates from five states working
on different pieces of it. The entire team, in nearly five months of
work, never met face to face. We wrote and published the report entirely
via email, fax and an occasional phone call.
Some drawbacks to the virtual company model.... creative design sessions,
such as when we are preparing for a futures workshop, are difficult in
cyberspace. Scheduling is always tough, given different time zones.
On another note, Anderson Consulting moved two years ago to the "hotel
office" model.... (most) executives effectively gave up their corner
offices.... instead, when they are going to be at a particular office
site, they make a "reservation" for office space. When they arrive, files
folders are waiting for them, as well as pictures of their kids or their
favorite paper weight.
I'd be interested in hearing others' experiences with virtual
companies/offices/teams.
Aloha,
Michele Bowman
----------
From: Ragnar Heil[SMTP:Ragnar.Heil@urz.uni-heidelberg.de]
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 1999 8:43 AM
To: learning-org@world.std.com
Subject: Changing offices LO20756 -Office "Hotelling"
A couple of days ago I have heard of a new project in a company where I
worked. They are planning a kind of "office-free company". Researches
have found out that especially in the lower- and middle-management only a
third of all offices are used and occupied most of the time. Many managers
visit the production, travel or join meetings. So the idea is that he/she
looks out for a free office when needed.The personal information are saved
on the server, so every PC can be used. Questions for a research can be:
How does the satisfaction of work change? How does the rotation influence
communication-structures in the company? Could this idea build (with
other factors) a infrastructure of a learning organization?
I would like to know if the are any articles etc. are published. Has
someone personal experiences with this approach?
best regards
Ragnar
--"Michele C.S. Bowman" <mauka@ix.netcom.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>