Culture And Trust Necessary For Managing Digital Nomads

by Johan Hjelm of Techdirt / Sep 24

First, if people need supervision, or if the company feel they need supervision, forget mobility. You can not work in a mobile way if your workers can not be trusted to perform their tasks on their own - and the tasks can be performed in a decently decentralized way. Perhaps some managers need to learn how to distribute work for mobility to take hold, or companies may even choose to get rid of managers altogether.

Because being mobile comes down to trusting your people. Giving people a task which means lots of autonomy means giving them the opportunity to do it where they like. Tailoring the tasks to the person is tricky (not everyone can create their own tasks and run with them, at least not in a big company). Having a reporting system which lets the manager check every month or so that things are going to plan is necessary, however, as are administrative routines - which have to be 100 % electronic, except for the submission of receipts and similar. And, not too much of those either. Too much administration shows little trust.

A second thing that is needed is a strong culture, so everyone feels they are engaged in the work, and that the workplace wants them to perform - and trusts them to do it on their own.

The worker needs to feel that he has been given the power to do his job anywhere, anytime. But this is precisely where the problem lies. The worker has to be able to do his job, but he also has to be able to manage his job. Making sure there is time for friends and family, making sure there is time for relaxation. If workers just plug away a hundred hours every week, you get a stressed-out society, with people dying from overwork and population shrinking. This means a lot comes down to the person: Making the balance work means not accepting more work than you can handle in the given time, and it means making sure you are only accepting things which are right for you - as a member of a team. The goals for the team (and the goals for the individual) have to be set so that they map to the business goals of the company, of course. But they have to be possible to perform independently.

As an individual, you have to know your limits. Both in terms of work competence and time. How much time does it take to continue to build that competence? Reading a book about your area of work at bedtime may sound less attractive than reading Harry Potter, but it is one way that work will continue to infringe on life. On the other hand, going to the bank on Tuesday morning is not a problem. You have to pace yourself so you get a decent balance.

But you have to be able to trust your co-workers, especially those formerly known as managers, who are responsible for getting your budget for the work you have to do. And trust, of course, goes both ways: They have to trust you to perform. Eventually, the basis for making workers mobile is trust: in themselves, in their co-workers, in the organization they work for. And customers, as well. If you have that, there is no need for an office (other than for security reasons). Building that trust is what companies have to do - and they will be rewarded by more creative workers, who create more of the currency of the future - ideas and solutions. Because the worker is an investment, not an expense, and you have to be careful about your investments. The knowledge in peoples’ heads expand with experience, and that means every hour worked is an investment, too. So for the company to make sure that workers know how to pace themselves is going to be important - merely the cost of replacing a person who dies suddenly is going to put you back against the competition.

So ultimately, maintaining the work-life balance comes down to the worker himself. If you work in a company you trust, with people you trust, and know how to pace yourself. The company is there to help you do it. There are of course checklists you could make and long items you could write about the practicalities of this, but trust is what it all comes down to.

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