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December 1, 2009

WDC is pleased to announce the formation of a new “Private Client Network” beginning on January 1, 2010.

In today’s dynamic economy it is increasingly difficult to think about the future, let alone prepare for it. While a clear vision, an explicit strategy, and extensive corporate agility are essential to success, they are not enough.

Organizations also need a powerful peripheral vision—a wide-ranging sensitivity to the “weak signals” in the environment that offer clues to where the world is going (see “Pay Attention! To What?” from the October 2009 newsletter for an extended discussion of this idea). To thrive in the future you have to pay attention both to trends and to potential discontinuities to ensure your place in the future. And you can’t do it alone!

Our mission is helping to create the future of work. We believe the next wave of corporate agility will come from the comprehensive integration of human resource management with technology and facilities management. Four pragmatic issues in particular will demand the attention of senior executives in 2010:

Managing an increasingly mobile and dispersed workforce;
Sorting out the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on work and the workplace;
Designing new workplaces that support collaboration and foster innovation;
Developing a new generation of workplace management professionals.

We invite you to collaborate with WDC in addressing these challenges. Beginning on January 1, 2010, we are forming a new Future of Work private network of strategically selected clients to foster collaborative inquiry and provide network members with confidential research and practical guidance as they confront these challenges.

One of the key promises we make to our clients is to act as a “weak signal” detector and amplifier. Our focus is identifying nascent trends, wildcard events, and anomalies in the larger global environment that can significantly impact your business. We are your “early warning system.” Consider some of the “weak signal” indicators we have identified in the past:

February 2005—Open source is the business model of the future.

December 2006—There is a fundamental flaw in the financial markets. “We can hear the ice cracking.”

June 2008—Changes in public policy (i.e., health care, energy use, environmental impact) will force major changes in business operations.

Looking back, these views may not seem so profound today, but at the time they were well over the horizon. If your business had begun to focus strategically on these issues back then, how different a place would you be in today?

We want to help you monitor the future in a highly leveraged, cost-effective way. That's where we come in; we will complement your own strategic planning resources with our continually expanding knowledge base and by calling on our global relationships with the smartest people we know.

To summarize, we are launching a new, private network of clients and expert resources that will make practical sense of the future. We'd like to you be part of it. We "go live" on January 1. Please choose now to be part of our growing community.

For more information about our 2010 research and network programs, and to schedule a conversation about becoming a member of the network, please contact us directly.

September 15, 2009

We are very pleased to announce a new partnership with e-Work.com, Inc, a global leader in e-Learning solutions that provide knowledge workers and their managers with the knowledge, tools, processes, and resources to thrive in a virtual workplace.

"We are excited to partner with the Work Design Collaborative, whose vision and mission complements the e-Work.com philosophy of building excellence and maximizing performance in the virtual workplace," said Neil Norris, CEO of e-Work.com. "We are particularly eager to collaborate with WDC in developing, testing, and refining workplace and workforce best practices with our clients."

Since both organizations are virtual workplace leaders in their own right, we expect the partnership to play a leading role in advancing best practices in the field. "We fully expect to see much of our advanced workplace research bear fruit in real-life applications," said Dr. Charlie Grantham, "proving our theories and advancing the practice of highly effective mobility. This is an exciting time for us and for the mobile workplace."

The principals at e-Work.com and WDC expect to collaborate on a number of levels. Both are active members of, and active contributors to, the CoreNet Global Workplace Knowledge Community.

For more information about e-Work.com and its world-class online learning capabilities, please visit this new page on our Future of Work website:

http://www.thefutureofwork.net/eWork.html

And you can go directly to a brief online video outlining e-Work.com's learning programs by clicking here: http://www.e-work.com/ewvideo.html. Or download this brief brochure describing e-Work's offerings and capabilities.

About e-Work.com

e-Work.com, Inc. (www.e-Work.com) builds excellence and maximum performance for the virtual workplace including mobile work, distributed work, and telework programs and virtual call center agents. e-Work.com offers highly interactive e-learning courses and management tools based on global best practices that are easy to customize. Neil Norris, CEO, and Michael Dziak, COO, the two e-Work.com principals, have over 30 years of virtual work experience at both large and small organizations, including Microsoft, Nissan, Aflac, Pacific Life, Pearson Education, and many others.

September 11, 2009

Work Design Collaborative is pleased to share the following special announcement from the IFMA Foundation:

New Book on Cost-Efficient, Sustainable Facility Practices to Debut at World Workplace

HOUSTON — (Sept. 11, 2009) — The IFMA Foundation is pleased to announce a new publication detailing how facility professionals can immediately cut operating costs, institute sustainable building practices and gain a voice in the strategic facility decisions made within their organizations.

Cut it Out: Save for Today, Build for Tomorrow is an 11-chapter quick-reference guide focused on efficiency and featuring distinguished authors from organizations such as Jones Lang LaSalle, SCAN Health Plan, iNPOINT Advisors and the Work Design Collaborative.

The new book will be formally unveiled during a press conference on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. during the International Facility Management Association’s World Workplace 2009 Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla. It has been produced in partnership with Steelcase, JohnsonDiversey, Acuity Brands and other industry-leading companies.

“This publication is the collaborative result of a team of experts who understand today’s economic and environmental climate in the commercial real estate industry,” said Jennifer Corbett-Shramo, ICE, IFMA Fellow, regional vice president of DCS Global Enterprise, and one of the authors of the book. “It is a must-have tool for facility and property managers who need to rapidly reduce their operating costs while maintaining their sustainability initiatives.”

The new book will feature chapters outlining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® strategy; how to save money on real estate expenses; remote and mobile workplace strategies; energy efficiency; landscaping; outsourcing; and making the business case for facility initiatives, among others. It will also include specific case studies describing how companies achieved their results.

The book’s authors and other distinguished guests will speak about the new publication at its unveiling during World Workplace. The general public and members of the media are invited to attend. The publication will be available in the IFMA Bookstore upon its release.

And you can order Cut It Out! online from IFMA right now. Just click on this link.

To learn more about World Workplace 2009 or for a complete list of details, visit www.worldworkplace.org. Members of the media interested in attending World Workplace may register at no cost here.

IFMA’s World Workplace Conference & Expo is an annual three-day educational and networking event focused on the future of the built environment. Building on the professional development opportunities available through the association year-round, the World Workplace experience includes a conference focused entirely on education and an exposition incorporating product demonstration and instruction. This year’s conference will be held Oct. 7-9, 2009, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. For more information, visit www.worldworkplace.org. To join and follow IFMA’s social media outlets online, visit the conference’s NETworkplace page.

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April 20, 2009

Work Design Collaborative, LLC, is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Realcomm Conference Group, LLC, a global leader in providing education, information and networking opportunities for the commercial real estate industry, to present a work design summit at Realcomm 2009. "The Future of Work | Mobile Workforce Summit" will be held Monday, June 22, 2009, from 1:00 to 5:00pm at the Chicago Hyatt Regency.

"We are excited to partner with Future of Work, whose vision and mission matches what Realcomm has been talking about for years: maximizing technology and promoting/creating innovative work practices to survive and thrive, especially in today's tough economic times," said Jim Young, president and CEO of Realcomm. "This Summit will provide our attendees additional and critical tools and knowledge."

In today's extremely uncertain times, the old financial and corporate institutions, which gave a certain measure of stability, are no longer functioning. The Future of Work Summit is designed to help participants understand today's uncertainties, learn what they can do to cope and how to get started on a pathway to get their business back under control. The integrated and interactive series of presentations and conversations will be based on hard research and years of experience to help companies of all types navigate the whitewaters of change.

"We are delighted to have this opportunity to showcase the great synergy between Realcomm and Future of Work. We believe in the power of data and fostering technology and knowledge, and in the process discovering new ways to harness critical resources," said Ware. "The old ways of doing things are not working - this track will present success stories and real-time solutions targeting the industry's facility managers/designers and IT decision makers."

To view session details, click here

We are actively seeking sponsors for this event. To download a sponsorship prospectus, click here. To discuss this rare opportunity, please contact Jim Ware as soon as possible. There are a limited number of sponsorships available

About Realcomm
Realcomm (www.realcomm.com) is the world's leading conference and exposition on technology, automated business solutions and intelligent buildings for the commercial and corporate real estate industries. Founded in 1999, Realcomm's mission is to provide opportunities for industry leaders to gather to discuss, demonstrate, and debate the latest innovations that are impacting the commercial real estate industry.

About The Work Design Collaborative
Future of Work (www.thefutureofwork.net) is a global network of resources - practitioners, thought leaders, researchers, and senior consultants - who are committed to building and implementing physical, social, and technology-based work environments that are cost-effective, socially and environmentally responsible and personally satisfying. The Work Design Collaborative, LLC, provides leadership and infrastructure services for the Future of Work community.

Photo provided by Neal Zimmerman, author of "At Work At Home"