Page 68 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

▶ discovering a new workforce paradigm � 47

Location, location, location
Connectivity, connectivity, connectivity
With virtual mobility, location becomes increasingly irrel-
evant. Connectivity anytime, anywhere is everything.

Joel continued—as our virtual thought-leader consultant—to prod
us. What do you lose, he asked rhetorically, with the new rules? “Loss
of personal touch,” he started, “in particular loss of physical cues, are
going to make a huge difference.” The nonverbal cues, such as how
people unconsciously read the size of the pupils in another’s eyes, will
be gone.
Another loss will be fewer opportunities for folks to connect face
to face and create “verges,” as he calls them. Verges occur when peo-
ple “bump against stuff you would never bump against otherwise.”
Verges—these unlikely intersections—create conversations, ideas,
partnerships, new processes, and innovations.
The list grew some more. No paradigm shifts are without losses.
Will working mobilely increase or decrease anxiety as people contem-
plate their job security? What will it do to our personal privacy? Will
it reduce those great opportunities to go to barbecues together and
build otherwise unthinkable relationships with unlikely people? All
of these are potential losses with the new paradigm.
When we were done talking with Joel we were mentally exhausted.
Thinking about paradigms stretches your brain cells! Ever the gentle-
man, he encouraged us to continue contemplating the rules, the prob-
lems, and the problems that will be solved by the mobile workforce
paradigm. 17