Doing good from far away: teleworking in the Social Sectors

Picture this: You wake up after 8 solid hours of sleep. You make a simple but nutritious breakfast for yourself and your family and sit together and enjoy the early parts of the day with a steaming cup of nice coffee. The kids and your spouse head off to work/school, you walk outside to see them off, then grab your backpack and walk a short distance to your workspace. This is a small structure of rough cut lumber nestled beneath tall pine and oak trees. Surfboards and kayaks adorn the ceiling above a large white board. After a few minutes of meditation, You fire-up the treadmill under your standing desk and light up your laptop and large monitor screen. Your workday has begun. 

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My work in international humanitarian response has a core duality. Parts of the work are physical and direct. Delivering food and shelter materials to people hit by a disaster. Setting up a logistics supply chain to move water and sanitation equipment. The other part of that work is cerebral. This is the knowledge-work component. The  collecting and managing of information and data that make the concrete parts possible. The first part of my career saw me doing that direct work. Managing the convoys of people moving from one place to another in Liberia. Setting up and running a supply chain to bring in sanitation equipment to tsunami affected areas in Indonesia. In the current phase I’m working on the information and data systems that help make the concrete work possible. 

This movement from physical to data orientation makes it possible for me to work and contribute to the effort from far away. Web technology allows me to create systems, design information products and conduct analysis from anywhere in the world. I first encountered the teleworking concept when joining a new consulting firm called Global Emergency Group in 2008. At the time, this was a revolutionary concept: a globally dispersed team working from co-working spaces in various countries, that would deploy to disaster zones as needed. Now this type of distributed team is commonplace both in the business and Social Sector worlds. 

After working in the field for many years and then briefly in a traditional office at an organizational headquarters in Switzerland, the remote work concept seemed strange. I had been fully immersed into the direct action /hands on way of life.  

But now, with a few exceptions of longer deployments to Central Asia, I have been living and working within the remote work concept for the past decade. Remote work represents the strange but beautiful evolution of the professional sphere. It is strange to focus deeply on concepts completely foreign to your current reality. It is beautiful to integrate meaningful work into the stream of your life, anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection. 

My current remote work/life setup finds me in rural Virginia in a self built high tech shed, Built from wood cut from our land, the standing treadmill desk and whiteboard is a space that welcomes me each morning. Surfboards, bikes and carpentry tools share the space: all physical representations of different kinds of productive deep work and flow habits. 


What is the research on remote work? 
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 24% of employed people did some or all of their work at home in 2015. This remote work level was already at 19% in 2003, with managerial and professional occupations more likely to work at home. 

How is remote work good?
Potential for deep work - The remote configuration offers the opportunity for deep task focus on your work. With the right systems in place (mindsets, strategies, tactics), remote work makes a new level of focus possible. Cal Newport argues that this type of deep and productive focus can bring measurable and concrete benefits to any work project. He explains that this ability to focus and produce is like a super power in a world of distraction. Remote work gives us more ability to practice deep work towards our Social Sector cause of choice. 

The first step in creating the life of your dreams - As I’ve written before, time is our most valuable Social Sector asset. Remote work can put you in the place you want live, while also connecting and contributing to a cause that matters. 

Telework eliminates commuting - This alone saves several hours per day that compound into months and years over a typical career. You can use this extra time toward work projects or to build up your skills, physical health or family wellness. 


What  is the downside of remote work ?
Here is the negative stereotype of telework: Lying on the couch with your pajamas on and laptop open at 11:30am. The house is a mess with piled laundry, the TV is on in the background while talk radio also plays in the kitchen. You haven’t gotten anything done yet today but can’t seem to focus. You’ll just check a few more websites and maybe buy that gadget you needed online. You convince yourself that once you take care of those purchases, you’ll be able to concentrate. 

Teleworking is surely not for everyone. Many people thrive in an office context and love the intrigue, camaraderie and in person collaboration that only a traditional workplace can offer. My partner Kirsten loves the intricacies of any organizational structure and relishes the mastery process of getting the organization to produce its best work. If you love that environment, exclusive telework is not for you, but you will still find benefits from occasional remote work on discrete, essential tasks like writing or design. 

Remote work without the proper mindsets, systems and tactics can be a disaster. I learned the hard way, by falling into wasted time, distraction and a negative mixup between work and recharge activities in the form of never switching off. This constant unproductive ‘grey zone’ limited my potential for the first part of my life when I was plugged in from afar. 

Distance can decrease empathy. We are an empathic species and sharing space is the best way to build rapport. Remote work can diminish some of those human connections. As remote workers, we need to monitor this potential and take the right action to connect in person when needed. 

Mindsets for remote work in the Social Sectors
These mindsets have helped me thrive in the telework world:

Kill guilt - Our remote work is valuable. Given the potential to minimize distraction and dedicate full focus to producing things that matter, our remote focus is potentially more valuable to our origination and its social mission. We may be able to do more good remotely than our colleagues who are dedicating time to commuting, long meetings and the distracted settings that make up the standard ‘open plan’ office. 

You are not always available - New teleworkers can feel the need to prove connection and productivity by instantaneous reaction to email, phone calls and chats. Just as in a  standard work setup, you need to protect your focus to be able to conduct real work. Constantly checking email and immediately responding to any input will limit your ability to do your best work. Always batch your emails by checking a certain times of the day, rather than trying to constantly refresh and respond. 

There is also the danger when working remotely, that work never ends.  It’s critical that you define your workday both when it begins and most importantly, when it ends.  Resist the urge to  respond to emails when your workday finishes.  Of course there will be exceptions, but your workday should be defined and limited, so that burnout from being ‘on’ all the time, doesn’t happen.,

Strategies for remote work in the Social Sectors
Here are the strategies that I’ve developed for myself over many years of remote work: 

Spending some time with people that you work with in face to face meetings is essential, especially at the outset. Professional and informal outside work interactions can build that report that can establish months, or even years of positive remote collaboration. 

Be fair to yourself and to your organization. Setting clear project plans and accountability systems (here’s what we are all going to do. It is due at this date), makes the process transparent. While the deadlines may be tough, they are clear and each team member can can align their

 work and expectations around the planning. 

In his classic work article Maker vs Manager, Paul Graham explains how we all have a mix of making (writing, programing, designing) and managing (meeting, talking, checking in). We can figure out our best balance of these ways of working to help guide our days. Remember, we can be effective managers in a remote work scenario if we have the right mindsets, strategies and tactics in place. However, the Maker is more easily at home in the telework setting as professional distractions are easier to avoid. 


Tactics for remote work in the Social Sectors
Reduce decision fatigue - Plan every minute of your work day and week so that you avoid decision fatigue, where the quality of our decisions declines over time. Our brains get tired after making even small decisions. Remote work increases the chance for decision making on small things like how to structure your day, or what to work on next. Paradoxically, reducing those decisions by knowing what you work on and when for every minute of the day increases your ability to do your best work on things that actually matter such as your Social Sector mission.  

Have your gear dialed - having the right setup that meets your needs for when you are at your base or when you are traveling for work is essential. Have your kit ready to go so that you can use your brain for things that matter, not small choices that can lead to decision fatigue. 

Limit tech distraction - Batch your emails and chat checking to set times through the day. After your check in, turn the alerts off and set a timer where you promise yourself that you will focus only on getting done the most important thing on your agenda for the day. When the timer rings, make a checkmark on your task list and then walk for a few minutes reset your mind.Read about this approach here. 

Set limits and turn work off - As Social Sector workers, we are dedicated to our cause. Work can easily take over your life in a classic office setting. And remote work makes this even more possible as there are no physical lines dividing work and the rest of life.  We need to remember the performance equation: effort + rest = growth. All work without recovery will produce results at first but will ultimately result in burnout and reduced performance toward your Social Sector goals. Set clear periods of time to focus on the reset of life. Then return to remote work refreshed and enthusiastic. 

Additional remote work resources
Trello, an online collaboration and project management platform has a useful blog that discusses remote work. 

Ramit Sethi who teaches about online business has an excellent free guide to remote work with embedded video from high level thinkers on this issue. 

Making it work for you
So are we ready to attempt remote work for the first time? Or are we thinking about taking the leap for one day per week as an experiment? We can multiply our positive impact within our Social Sector organization and on the world by experimenting with the power of remote work. What is your experience? Email or post your ideas and suggestions for everyone. 

Happy Trails!

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