Get Shit Done!
Get Shit Done!
Get Shit Done!
S#!T
DONE!
How to hack productivity in the
office with New Ways of Working
By Holger Reisinger
Preface by Louise Harder Fischer
“Get S#!t Done” is a strong contribution to the debate about the future
of work. A joy to read, tangible and to-the-point, mine is already full of sticky notes
and dog ears. If you’re looking to hack the productivity curve – personally or as a
team – this book should be at your side.
Chris Lewis, CEO of LEWIS and author of “Too Fast to Think”
This book should be on any business leader’s “must read” list. It sheds some
much-needed light on how to re-think office work to propel us on a new growth
trajectory. Jabra’s New Ways of Working initiative is an extremely valuable
contribution to the current debate on office productivity.
Mogens Elsberg, CEO Bluegarden
The New Ways of Working initiative is re-thinking the way we organize work,
nudging us toward a more attractive workplace that both drives productivity and
engagement. This book counters key challenges we face in the modern workplace
with cases and insights, but just as important it is a good and inspirational read.
Peter Green, Global Director, People Strategy & Planning, Coca-Cola
Nordic Services ApS
Finally, a book that illustrates not only the challenges, but more importantly, the
opportunities of New Ways of Working. As part of a dispersed and virtual organi-
zation, this book inspires me on how we better organize and conduct work for the
benefit of ourselves and our customers.
Klaus Trolle, Chief Marketing Officer, eMarketeer
In this book, Holger Reisinger introduces the new way to work – balancing both
the cultural and technological transformation as work is no longer a place we go to,
but something we do. The visionary blog is now turned into a book, helping thought
leaders embracing a digital transformation. Therefore Holger has been appointed
NewWayToWork Ambassador to Unify and Circuit.com.
Dr. Stefan Ried, Head of Technology Strategy and Chief Technology Officer,
Unify Software and Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
Modi Novi Laborandi
New Ways of Working
—
Comple materiam tuam
Fulfill your Potential
GET S#!T DONE!
1st edition
ISBN: 978-87-999444-0-8
Preface 12
CHAPTER 1:
Why New Ways of Working 14
The Secret to Greater Productivity? It’s In the Cube. 16
From Production Line to Knowledge Factory: The Past, Present and Future of Work 19
CHAPTER 2:
Work Isn’t a Place; It’s What We Do 22
Taking Harvard Wisdom to the Next Level 24
It’s Time to Face the Big, Open Space 27
Do You Trust Your Colleagues? … Honestly 29
Collaboration Black Belt: The Secret Art of Managing Remote Teams 32
Money Saved on Remote Working Should Be Spent on “Social Glue” 34
Introducing Most Productive and Collaborative Company in the World 36
“Start Sleeping on the Job or You’re Fired!” 39
CHAPTER 3:
Collaboration vs. Concentration 42
The Most Annoying Thing in the World 44
“Got a Minute?” 46
Think IKEA… and Reclaim Your Workspace 48
Hush! How to Harness the Power of Silence in a Successful Business 50
That’s It…I’m Finished – With Meetings, That Is 53
The Only Two Meetings a Year You Need to Attend 55
CHAPTER 4:
Communication and Technology 58
RIP: the Email (1971-2017) 60
The 28-Hour Hamster Wheel 62
Why You Should Call Someone – NOW! 64
Shifting Workplace Trends Highlight the Microsoft and LinkedIn Marriage 66
Start Collaborating and Get Twice the ROI on Your UC 68
CEOs, Forget “Technology” and Start Talking “People” 71
CHAPTER 5:
People and Organizations 74
Two-Thirds of Employees Just Don’t Care! 76
The Rise of the Chief Happiness Officer 78
Start Being Happy – It Will Double Your Productivity 80
Forget the Eight-Hour Workday. Work/Life Integration is Here to Stay 83
In the Future Your Employees Will Not Be Your Employees 86
Is Someone Looking Over Your Shoulder? 89
Workers (Not) Gone Wild: The Case for Employee Autonomy 92
CHAPTER 6:
Customer Service 96
Meet the True Value Creators in Our Companies 98
Do We Still Want Humans in Customer Service? 100
Finally, a Company that Takes Customer Satisfaction Seriously 103
Five Reasons Why You’re Waiting on Hold for Too Long 105
Will Avatars Take Over In Augmented Reality Customer Service? 108
CHAPTER 7:
Better Ways of Working – Now What? 110
Get it Done, Faster, with a “How-to-Do” List 112
The Ultimate Guide to Work Happiness 115
Five Tips to Stay in the Zone at Work 118
Conclusion 120
Appendix 121
Sources 125
A Vision for the Workplace
of Tomorrow
Productivity is the key to business success; without it, our organizations would
quickly cease to exist. However, the relentless pursuit of productivity is also draining
our finances, stifling innovation and exhausting our employees. Fortunately, there
is another way. In this book we will demonstrate how New Ways of Working can
help accelerate productivity, boost business innovation and increase employee
satisfaction – all without the need to work harder or longer.
Productivity is the only thing I hear wherever I go. From CEOs in industry associations to
international business news reports to politicians talking on my car radio, the words may
be different but the message is the same: nations and companies must become more
productive – or get out of business.
The ubiquity of technology and networked services is transforming our lives – from how
we work to how we consume entertainment to how we interact with people. How do we
apply these technologies to promote our goals in life both personally and professionally?
New Ways of Working is about designing and organizing work for improved productivity.
Our research and work over the last several years shows that this can be achieved by
making conscious choices and better decisions about the practices we apply each and
every day. These, in turn, lead to greater worker engagement and more fulfillment in
our jobs.
With this book, we hope to inspire and facilitate conversations on how to organize
ourselves to achieve our dreams, whether at work or in our private lives. We hope that
by sharing and developing ideas, we all may grow wiser together.
Best regards,
Holger Reisinger
Information technology and globalization are by far the most forceful drivers of change
in organizations. Understanding the causal aspects of these changes is paramount to any
business that wants to thrive and excel in the future.
For the past three years, I have collaborated with Jabra in gaining a deeper understanding
of the underlying aspects forming the future of work. We have been especially curious
about the future workplace for the rising numbers of knowledge workers. Many changes
are observable: from long-term to short-term employment; from vertical-oriented work
to horizontal work; from coping with one culture to spanning multiple cultures; from
command and control to bestowing increased autonomy; from physical co-located to
virtual distributed work; from one-size-fits-all IT to end-user malleable general purpose
technology.
Decisions – big and small – from management, HR, IT and facility managers have enabled
many of these changes: HR in supporting working from home, management in organizing
global teams, IT-department in deploying lateral and mobile technologies and facility
management arranging open offices. The list of supportive decisions and behaviors is
long. While it all has been in the name of improvements, many other issues have risen:
interruptions and noise hindering concentration in the open office, too many meetings
and difficulties in collaborating in a virtual setting and overflowing e-mail inboxes are just
some of the negative elements of a new way of working.
All of the above have slowly accumulated into what has become a tipping point in
knowledge work. An increased interest in how to tackle the complexity of the dilemma
is evident. At present, many managers acknowledge that the presumptions that used to
drive the organization forward are fading and something else is replacing them. It is now
evident that hierarchies – perfect in stable and predictive environments, managed by
command and control and steered by process design – hinder more than they enable.
The individual knowledge worker has taken center stage in value-creation. As a networked
individual, he or she best functions when in command and in control of a wide array of
work-related decisions, such as how to continuously stay innovative and productive at the
same time.
Jabra has, over the course of time, insisted on staying curious about the real challenges in
the workplace, acknowledging that deep understanding of what drives people is the key
to delivering end-user technology that truly enhance the situation.
This book is a collection of some of the most inspiring reflections made by Holger
Reisinger over the course of our collaboration, and shows how to cope with productivity
and innovation from the outlook of knowledge work. It is relevant for managers, HR, IT,
facility managers and all of us engaged in the future of knowledge work.
Amy W.
I’ve been writing about New Ways of Working for several years, and of the many questions
and comments I’ve received this one really stood out. I appreciate honesty, and it’s one of
the most to-the-point emails I’ve ever received.
So I thought I’d use this first chapter to explain the underlying framework behind Jabra’s
New Ways of Working concept, and introduce a tool to help managers and knowledge
workers plan their workdays for increased efficiency, productivity and job satisfaction.
We spend the majority of our waking hours each day on the job, so why shouldn’t work
be enjoyable? Equally important, it’s critical that our organizations be successful. The two
don’t need to be mutually exclusive. We know that greater employee engagement leads
to higher job satisfaction, which results in improved productivity and greater company
success.
The foundation of this concept we call New Ways of Working is the Productivity Cube,
a behavioral model developed by Louise Harder Fischer, Ph.D. Fellow at IT-University of
Copenhagen. The Productivity Cube is a graphic representation of everything knowledge
workers need to be most productive on the job.
# Concentration
A real-time activity where we’re zeroed in on a task by reflecting, conceptualiz-
ing, synthesizing and decision making.
# Conversation
Talking with others to solve or clarify issues, usually in real-time and in person,
by phone or instant message.
# Collaboration
Interacting with others to share information, experience and insights, usually
through meetings and group dialogue.
# Communication
Sending and receiving written, text- or sound-based messages from one
person to another or others, often not in real-time.
For maximum productivity while completing our daily tasks, it’s imperative that each of
the Four C’s of work-modes be supported by the right technology and workplace culture.
For example, let’s say you’re tasked with producing an important financial report, and,
as such, are in concentration mode. The supporting technologies you need to be fully
productive could include access to the organization’s financial database, a laptop with the
most current Excel capabilities and a noise-canceling headset that enables you to work
without interruption, among others. The required workplace culture could include the
freedom to work remotely or with coworkers who respect a “busy” light indicating that
you’re tackling a critical task and cannot be disturbed.
Having lesser supporting technologies – say, access only to paper reports rather than
the corporate database – or different workplace cultural norms, such as a culture where
it’s permissible to disturb workers who have requested privacy, would reduce your
productivity.
While the example I used above focuses only on the concentration behavior, it of course
applies to conversation, collaboration and communication as well.
In that case, you need to make some organizational changes, either by obtaining the
necessary technologies or working to change your corporate culture. Just as we wouldn’t
expect a carpenter to complete a job without the necessary hammer and saw, we
shouldn’t expect knowledge workers to perform their jobs without the right tools either.
So there you have it, Amy. The Productivity Cube is the tool we use to address our New
Ways of Working objective of increasing productivity and job satisfaction. It works for me,
and I hope it will work for you too.
Not to this point in the history of civilization. Rather, how we got to a place where 70% of
knowledge workers admit to being disengaged from their jobs? Equally important, how
can we overcome this issue?
To find out, let’s take a trip back in time. Because everyone’s favorite time-travel machine,
the DeLorean from “Back to the Future” fame, is currently in the shop, we’ll settle for a
vintage Ford Model T instead.
In a way it’s the ideal vehicle for our journey. That’s because the seeds of today’s discon-
tent were planted about a century ago, around the time Model Ts began rolling off Henry
Ford’s then-revolutionary production line.
So, let’s crank up the engine, climb in and rumble back in time.
Since most developed economies of the early 1900s were built on manufacturing, tough,
gritty production work predominated. Thus, the way work was organized was ideal for
a largely industrialized economy. Company structures were hierarchical, with strategy
set at the top and slowly trickling down to the workers. Power was a function of job title.
Workers were largely regarded as costs.
Returning Home…
Now let’s point our Model T back toward today. As we move into the present, the
economic and competitive landscapes begin to change. Information is becoming the
new currency, and production work is increasingly supplanted by knowledge work, giving
rise to the phrase “knowledge worker.” Competition becomes more intense, with greater
transparency and a free flow of information.
# The way we organize work must change too. As far back as 1999, legendary
management guru Peter Drucker3 noted that the biggest challenge of the
21st century would be how to make knowledge workers more productive. His
recommendations? Provide workers with more autonomy to manage them-
selves and make innovation a core component of their job responsibilities.
Both require a U-turn from our current command-and-control system.
# We also need to invest in our workers. In the past, workers were viewed as
costs – and we all know that costs need to be controlled. In today’s knowledge
economy, we need to view workers as assets – and assets need to be nurtured
so that they grow. We need to invest in technologies and training and give our
workers added freedom to make decisions, provide new ideas – even make
mistakes as long as they’re done in the spirit of innovation.
I can’t wait to see what the future holds. On second thought, why wait?
Time to fire up the Model T and find out. Road trip, anyone?
I’ve been an avid reader of the Harvard Business Review for years. It’s packed with
inspiring articles about modern business life written by some of the world’s most
prominent business leaders and professors. However, it isn’t beautiful pictures or splashy
infographics that pull me in. To be honest, the Harvard Business Review is as visually
appealing as a nuclear power plant. In HBR, just like the power plant, the power lies within.
That’s why I didn’t react at first when I saw images of some exceptionally hideous office
cubicles on the Harvard Business Review’s website the other day4. But once I started
reading the captions, the article certainly got my attention.
# Hours lost per employee, per year, to noise went from 32 to 22.8
# Hours lost per employee, per year, to drop-by visitors dropped from
34.8 to 22.8
# Hours lost per employee, per year, waiting for feedback or approval
from managers went from 29.6 to 13.6
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these new working environments make employees
happier and more productive. Not a bad result, given the additional cost reductions you
will get from the new designs.
From Spaceship to… Home
Lilly’s headquarters marks a trend among some of the most prominent companies
right now. To stay ahead of the curve, they’re switching the old cubicles to new,
environmentally friendly buildings designed to increase performance. Just think of
Google’s playful headquarters, Samsung’s new Gold LEED-certified building or Apple’s
infamous new spaceship-like headquarters in California.
I know, I know. You are probably thinking, “Yeah, right, but my company can’t afford a
glorious new building. They didn’t even approve our application for new chairs last year!”
That’s where I have an idea that can take Harvard’s (and Lilly’s) wisdom to a new level.
So here’s one from me to all the readers of the Harvard Business Review (or this book at
least…): let’s build the perfect headquarters – a virtual one. It beats Apple’s spaceship and
Lilly’s superhouse every time. After all, there’s no place like home.
They were the heroes of the financial crisis: the procurement officers who cut costs and
gave imperiled companies desperately needed cash on the bottom line. They saved our
butts when saving money was easier than selling products – and we thank them!
However, to slash real estate expenses, they also took big, open space offices to a com-
pletely new level. In a survey by CoreNet Global7, an association for corporate real estate
professionals, 55% of professionals surveyed reported that square footage per worker
has decreased between 5% and 25% over the last five years. Forty percent of the respon-
dents predicted that their companies will reach less than 100 square feet per worker in
2017, which is an all-time low. And the average for all companies for square footage per
worker in 2017 will be 151 square feet, compared to 225 in 2010.
Less space is more money saved. But cramming workers together in less space takes
a toll on worklife quality. An overwhelming amount of research shows that big, open
space offices generate stress, spoil coworker relations and reduce employee motivation.
Research from Sweden also shows that the bigger the office rooms, the more sick days
employees take.
So, here’s the combination from hell: in the coming years, employees will be forced into
even less space – which, in turn, will reduce their productivity, wellbeing and innovation.
When is your company’s most value-creating work actually done? Are you most
dependent on collaboration and constant interaction? Or are you more dependent
on individual work with a high concentration level?
Once you have decided, the next choices will more or less make themselves. First, the
design: individual thinking is best done in a library-like environment; knowledge-sharing
works better if you dedicate your few square feet to a café-like environment.
When the physical layout is in place, it’s time to work on your company’s culture. All
employees must respect the individual’s choice of workstyle. And you must provide
options if you need to collaborate in a quiet, work-for-yourself environment and vice
versa. That’s where things like small, separate rooms for meetings, opportunities for
working at home and headsets to reduce noise issues factor in.
If you all agree on the basics of your company culture, an ongoing fruitful discussion
commences, including such topics as: how can we be even better at taking care of our
work environment? How do we ensure that we stay innovative if we primarily work
in silence? And how do we get some personal work and thinking done if we are all in
constant dialog? In this way, we continuously improve. Essentially, that’s the key to any
great achievement. Rome – and the perfect open office – wasn’t built in a day.
The right choice, a supporting culture and continuous improvement are the ingredients
for productivity and satisfied employees. It may take some time to get there, but when
you do, it means a lot of money for your company. And we know that money makes
everyone happy – especially our friends in Procurement!
Just the other day, I witnessed an awkward moment at a neighboring table in our
cafeteria. While enjoying the cook’s lasagna, five of my colleagues engaged in a heated
debate over which team would win the soccer championships. One of them made a
reference to a TV show he had watched while working from home. The table went silent.
All seemed to agree that you just don’t do that. Or, at the very least, you don’t talk about
it. The silence was eerie!
Also, I know this particular employee quite well. He’s a very hardworking guy who never
misses a deadline and stays late whenever necessary to get the job done.
Still, episodes like this certainly give working at home a bad rep. Even worse: others might
think working at home means having a company-paid day off.
Well, according to Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, the answer is clearly a “no.” In 2013 she
instituted a ban on the practice entirely after spying into the internet traffic of employees
“allegedly” working from home.8
Ms. Mayer is not alone. Several other high profile companies followed with restrictions
on telecommuting and work-from-home policies. In a recent study, 50% of all managers
opposed working from home, and another 35% merely “tolerated” the concept.
It seems that some interference such as watching a little TV or putting laundry in the
washing machine at home takes less time than talking with your colleagues at the water
cooler or being distracted by noise at work. Research backs this up. Hence, 37% of all
employees state that they are more productive and 44% state that there are fewer
distractions when working from home.
Then there’s the commuting time. A couple of years ago, the British company O210 asked
the 2,500 employees working at its U.K. headquarters to work at home on a certain day.
In total, the employees saved 2,000 hours on commuting that day, and more than half
that time was spent on… working more.
We have to stop conventional thinking and look at the facts. It’s time for managers to
sponsor and promote profitable new ways of working like working from home. Most
importantly, it’s time to break the awkward silence when a coworker tells you that they
sometime watch TV when working from home.
P.S., What You Might Not Know About the Working-from-Home Dress Code
An enormous amount of data is available on the issue of productivity when working from
home. One of the more interesting studies asked employees what they wore when doing
so. Roughly half those surveyed answered that they wear jeans and a T-shirt. But what
surprised me was that 25% wear pajamas, while 7% prefer to work in either their under-
wear or in the nude. Try and erase that image the next time you attend a teleconference
with someone working from home!
Your best people are dispersed all over the world and you have a complicated challenge
to solve in a very short time. What do you do? Fly your worldwide team in at an immense
cost? Use whatever (mediocre) local resources are available? Or take a leap of faith and
create a remote team with your top people working from various locations around the
world?
Logically, the latter solution is the best. You’ll be able to draw talent for your team from
a larger, more qualified pool of candidates and break down geographical boundaries.
It’s cost-efficient beyond compare, and you’ll be able to increase engagement with key
member of your organization.
Oh yeah, all the hurdles you face in assembling and managing a remote team.
Seeing is Believing
Times are changing swiftly, and it’s time
to get with the program and overcome
those obstacles. According to the New
It’s time to kill
Jersey Institute of Technology; 45 the idea of “the
percent of U.S. employees work from
home and 53 million people work as remote team.” Team
freelancers, contributing $715 billion
annually to the American economy11. members aren’t
The remote team is no longer an option
but an everyday reality, and we all have necessarily remote
to earn those black belts in a hurry. All it
takes are a few tricks of the trade from
just because they
someone who’s been there, done that don’t rub shoulders.
and ended up with the T-shirt that says,
“I Love Remote Teams!”
Make It Personal.
#
Invest time and tools in developing your team’s spirit. Instead of shooting off
weekly “to everyone” emails, take the time to call each member of your team
once a week. It doesn’t have to take more than five minutes. The important
thing is that you create a sense of belonging, make each member feel special
and interesting and demonstrate that you care!
# Make It Virtual.
Instead of firing off written memos or holding conference calls, make your
interactions virtual, through videoconferencing, whenever possible. Being able
to actually see each other’s facial expressions can help bring additional clarity
to your discussions; these expressions can help anchor the meaning of what’s
said and reveal what coworkers are thinking beyond mere words.
# Make It Social.
Stick to your workers like social glue. Remote team members don’t get to
meet up at the office printer or by the coffee machine where, as we all know,
many a creative idea has been developed. You need to make up for the lack
of small talk and co-create an informal “space” where you and your remote
team members can hook up. Make it virtually social – have a Hawaiian shirt
day, where you get to show off your cool prints or shorts. What you do doesn’t
matter as long as it’s informal and easygoing fun. Just avoid cultural no-no’s
and keep your bare feet off the table.
So let’s skip the old terms and not call it anything but a “team” going forward. This type of
working should be the norm in the future. There’s nothing remote about that!
Old-school managers might hate it – but employees and the procurement department
love it: remote working.
It’s the simplest and best deal in the world. You work from home (or your car, summer
cottage or wherever makes you happy) instead of commuting all the way to the office,
thereby avoiding wasting time in traffic, noisy colleagues, mind-numbing meetings and
all the other stuff that seems to be inevitable parts of modern knowledge worker life.
The arrangement is worth a lot of money. Research shows that most employees spend
the time saved on commuting by working more. Productivity is generally higher at home,
and companies save a substantial amount of office space, because more employees can
share fewer square feet, parking spaces and other infrastructure.
This is also known as the cult paradox. We feel more individual and free when we’re part
of a group – as long as it’s the right group for us. You may be a dentist, a postman or a
mechanic. But you really don’t feel like you are the best version of yourself until you join
the other guys and ride your Harley-Davidson in the Harley club, meet for soccer practice
or share stamps at the annual stamp fair. Then you are an individual at peace, feeling
comfortable in a perfect team.
That’s why it’s important to reinvest in our staff. Working from home makes them
happy and productive. Securing their team feeling with a common purpose makes them
profitable and committed to the company, customers and bottom line.
What does it take to create this happy, high-performing virtual group? Not much, actually.
It starts with a common vision and purpose: why are we here together? Then, we need to
build informal relationships, break down barriers between people in the group – especially
if they rarely meet – and finally, make each member feel indispensable as an individual, yet
still be rewarded for their efforts in the group.
It may sound easy, but like anything worthwhile, it requires an investment. Of course, with
all the money saved on real estate, we finally have the chance to do what’s right. So let’s
get on with it!
Scholars and industry specialists agree that the ability to collaborate with partners,
customers and colleagues is the key to success for large, global organizations. However,
there is plenty to dispute when it comes to which company or organization is the world’s
most collaborative.
We all look to Disney for inspiration on branding, Toyota for lean management,
McDonald’s for supply chain management and Tesla for innovation. But which company
sets the benchmark for outstanding collaboration skills?
As a frequent speaker and blogger on how work life will look (and feel) in the future, I am
often asked this question. Which company is a beacon of light when it comes to collab-
oration? Up until now I haven’t been able to decide. However, just like any other great
question, it does call for an answer. So here it goes (and please read this through, because
like any other good riddle, there is a catch…):
I believe that the most collaborative company in the world is… 37Signals.
Very early on, 37Signals made an important decision about how it would operate.
Although based in Chicago, nearly all employees work from home. Only about 10 of them
To top off the “library” theme, the company even initiated “no-talk Thursdays,” where
talking isn’t allowed in the office at all. During the summer, everyone works four-day
weeks instead of five, so employees can spend some time outdoors.
One might think that these work practices would be ineffective and costly. They aren’t.
37Signals makes a lot of money and is more productive than most other companies.
Here’s why: everything the company does leads to results. If you don’t talk, you produce
more. If you only participate in discussions when you are not productive anyway, you
don’t lose time being disturbed by others when you are in “flow.” If you work from home,
you save time commuting and benefit from a higher quality of life – which makes you
even more productive.
When I present 37Signals’ work model to others, most are intrigued, but soon after
conclude that working there must either be heaven or hell. You may be thinking the same
thing. And that’s the catch of my choice for the award for most collaborative company in
the world. It’s not 37Signals’ daily life you should imitate. It’s the company’s willingness to
be committed to its choices and implement them – fully!
Most companies don’t go all the way. We try to collaborate, concentrate and have
conversations at the same time. We create big, open space offices with no room to talk
privately. Or we put people in small rooms where they are able to concentrate on their
work, but forget to bring them together to re-energize, innovate and bond. Or we force
people to work from the office, when they would be much more productive at home. And
we rarely provide them with the necessary tools or training to help them collaborate and
share information in the most effective way.
We should all do a 37Signals: Find our way of working, agree on it and then implement it
mercilessly. That way, our companies would make earn more revenue and our employees
would work more efficiently (and less).
P.S., 37Signals has changed its name to Basecamp to reflect the company’s focus on its
most important product. Check out Basecamp online; it’s quite a unique company in so
many ways.
It wasn’t long ago that napping at work was a great way to get fired.
But if a U.S. company has its way, getting a few minutes of shut-eye on the job may just
make you a better employee.
Allow me to introduce MetroNaps, perhaps the most courageous company in the world.
That’s because MetroNaps is determined to eliminate one of the biggest taboos in the
workplace: dozing on the job. It’s the kind of organization that embodies a New Ways of
Working philosophy that’s crucial to business success in the 21st century.
MetroNaps bills itself as “the premier provider of workplace rest systems.” Climb inside
one of its futuristic-looking EnergyPods, don a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, tune
in to soothing music and drift off to sleep. Twenty minutes later, you awake refreshed,
invigorated and prepared to tackle the remainder of the workday.
Boosting Productivity…
While stealing a few winks on the job has long been a no-no, research shows a strong link
between napping and increased workplace productivity. According to sleep scientists,
our brains are wired to achieve maximum productivity only if every 90 minutes of work
is followed by about 20 minutes of recharging. Without that break, stress builds and
productivity plunges.
That means that a 15- to 20-minute nap is all that’s required to dramatically increase
productivity and alertness, enabling recharged workers to far outperform their less-well-
rested counterparts. Plus a bit of afternoon repose provides a healthier, longer-lasting
energy boost than caffeine from coffee or soda.
All this should come as welcome news for today’s organizations, which increasingly
need to tap into the potential of workers to get more done in less time while remaining
satisfied in their jobs.
That’s a problem, especially since researchers know that sleep is a big contributor to
improved health, better decision making, sharper brain activity and a stronger immune
system.
He has a good point, and others seem to agree. You’ll find MetroNaps’ sleeping pods in
many universities, airports and corporate workplaces, including Google, Cisco Systems,
Procter & Gamble and NASA, according to the company.
What do those organizations know that the rest of us don’t? It’s time for everyone to
begin realizing the virtues of napping while at work.
I was introduced to quite a drama the other day. An old friend from my university days
shared the best gossip I’ve heard in a long time. The core of his story was a love affair
gone entirely wrong: guy falls in love with his old buddy’s girlfriend. They talk about it
as mature adults and come to an agreement; he should keep his distance and not ask
her out. But he didn’t keep his promise, and it exploded into arguments, slammed doors,
friendships broken, etc. Oh, and in the end, none of them got the girl.
How do I know this? My old friend works in an open office space right near one of the
ill-fated Romeos, who had spent the past few weeks trying to resolve the matter via his
telephone – providing everyone in the office with front-row seats to the whole drama.
This got us talking about how little privacy the open office affords for either work or
personal matters. It’s also why most employees hate open office spaces and noisy
coworkers who, by far, are the largest nuisance when work needs to be done. Our brains
simply can’t cope with noise when we really need to concentrate. It’s just like if you’re
driving a car and trying to find your way
to some unknown destination. What is
the first thing you do? You turn down the
Our brains simply radio and ask the kids in the back seat to
keep quiet for a while.
can’t cope with
noise when we really Noise Kills Productivity and, if
You’re Unfortunate, You Too
need to concentrate. A couple of years ago my company
helped analytics specialists YouGov
design a survey about distractions and
noise in the workplace. We discovered
that 36% of the respondents are disturbed by people talking loudly across the office
space, 29% have difficulties concentrating because of noise in the office and 27% are
disturbed by coworkers’ questions or remarks. Finally – and to me most surprisingly – 12%
are disturbed by coworkers eating crunchy vegetables. I guess they prefer the stick rather
than the carrot!
The impact on our bodies is even more worrisome. Studies show that as noise levels go
up, our heart rates rise as well. A study from schools in Germany showed an average noise
level of 65dB, and at that level, teachers have a heart rate close to the one doctors see
before a heart attack.
Alternatively, you could gather everyone and decide on some common ground rules for
talking and making noise in the office. Or you could permit employees to work from home
when they really have to concentrate. But this, of course, requires that they have no other
tasks that demand their presence in the office that day.
I actually had given my old pal a pair of noise-cancelling headsets as a birthday present
about a year ago. Given the above story, I bet you’re now thinking, as I did, “Why didn’t
you use them when you were disturbed by your colleague´s many phone conversations?”
When I asked, he smiled and said: “The truth is, I chose to listen in. I just had to. These con-
versations have been the subject of all gossip around the water coolers for the past few
weeks, and I wanted to be part of the discussions. Plus, it was great entertainment, too.”
“Got a minute?”
Those may be the three most frightening words in the workplace today.
That realization came to me while having lunch with a friend recently. As we enjoyed
our sandwiches, he began recounting the number of interruptions and requests for
information he’d already received that morning. “I spend so much time responding to
people that I don’t have enough time to do my job,” he despaired.
We can’t allow rampant interruptions and requests for information to become business as
usual in the workplace. Despite organizational charts becoming flatter and the workforce
more dispersed, we can do some things to restore respect for others’ concentration time.
Our jobs are stressful enough without the added burden of continual interruptions. Let’s
take a stand – and take back our time.
“I am sure you can hear the drop of a coin on the concrete floor at least 25 feet from
where it landed.” I could hear the despair in his voice. My friend Michael’s company just
moved into new offices – beautiful, spacious ones – and now he was having a difficult time
getting the soundproofing of his large industrial open plan office to work. I’ve offered to
accompany him to IKEA for some basic supplies and to provide ideas to mask the sound
and lines of sight in his new space before his 75 employees make the move.
Office layout planning and soundproofing is one of the challenges of business life. It is
no longer just about getting a table, a chair and a set of drawers for each employee and
placing them in a room. Today’s open plan offices take a bit more planning if you want
your staff to feel invigorated by the office environment, and indeed, if you expect your
people to get anything done during the day.
Granted, IKEA is often noisy, crowded and relatively better known for testing relationships
than for office layout. But the Swedish furniture chain does one thing particularly well,
which every office planner can learn from: it exploits every square inch of space to create
a comforting and homey feeling, without mindlessly cramming items into a room.
Similarly, you should consider placing the desks in ways that allow for collaboration in
teams: open, but not so open that people are constantly disturbed. Here, line of sight is
important. Break it often. Offer some shelter from the main walkways. Visual noise is as
counterproductive as audible noise. In addition, you will tie the team closer together by
providing them a space to call their own.
This brings me to the point about clean desk policies, which were originally invented to
keep confidential documents out of sight. Pictures of babies and small personal items
make your employees feel a sense of belonging, and no office needs to be so clean that it
shows no sign of human habitation. I say allow it.
The possibilities are endless, but you have to think about people first. Therefore, when
you get your new offices, I suggest you make sure that you get furniture that is flexible
and can be reshaped. This is another good reason why I love IKEA, and why I am taking
Michael there. I am sure we will find some great furniture to make his employees thrive.
I recently learned a new word: schizophonia. Never heard of it? Well, neither had I. But let
me explain: according to Julian Treasure, an expert in how sounds affects us, schizophonia
is a state of confusion experienced when what you hear and see does not match for a
longer period of time – say, a full workday. It is an interesting concept, because about 70%
of all office workers work in open plan offices, and many of those use earbuds with music
to cancel out the noise of chattering colleagues.
Yet open offices are not going away, even though they’ve been shown to reduce
productivity by 66%22 compared to a silent environment. Listening to music through
earbuds simply places a layer of noise over an already noisy environment, and you cannot
get rid of your carrot-crunching, next-desk neighbor because she is also your greatest
resource in accounting.
Block it Out.
#
What you see is what you get interrupted by. Offering natural breaks in your
field of vision, using bookshelves or room dividers, for example, can block out
a bit of the noise, but more importantly, also block some of the visual noise:
people constantly moving back and forth. This is highly effective, as you are
suddenly awarded a hint of seclusion, which makes a huge difference to your
productivity by limiting the schizophonia caused by the visual input your brain
receives.
Get Away.
#
If all else fails, have a place to escape to: your home, the coffee shop or the
library perhaps. Please note, however, that this is not a solution that will stand
the test of time. If it is, you need to implement one or more of the above, or
you may end up putting your health at risk.
So here is some unsolicited advice for anyone who wants to invite me (or anyone else, for
that matter) to a business meeting:
Several years ago, I visited a Danish company that wanted to eliminate the insane amount
of time it wasted on meetings – a pain that many other organizations share. The company
had already created some strong points of view around better time management and
prominently displayed advice through posters on meeting room walls. These were all
standard best practices: start on time, prepare an agenda and follow it, stop discussions
when they are not leading somewhere, make sure you agree on your conclusions, etc.
Unfortunately, good advice isn’t always followed, and the campaign didn’t work. So
the company decided to take a completely different approach. Executive management
dropped half its meetings. This empowered senior management to make more decisions
rather than push them upstream. However, responsibility for evaluating and making
more business decisions equates to additional work time. With the need to spend more
time on work, senior managers found themselves needing to spend less time in meetings
as well. Over time, other employees found themselves with the added responsibility of
making business decisions, so that senior and executive management were provided with
solutions rather than additional problems.
This domino effect carried on all the way through to the lower levels of the organization.
Decisions were still made, only more efficiently and more locally. People felt more owner-
ship of business decisions and took greater care to take more informed action,
even at lower levels in the organization.
This is exactly what is now happening at the company I visited several years ago. We
should all do the same!
Even though some internal networks were operational in the early 1960s, it’s generally
acknowledged that the first email was sent by Ray Tomlinson to himself in 197127. After
a slow start, I guess it is reasonable to say that the email has become one of the most
successful technological breakthroughs since that time. According to technology market
research firm the Radicati Group, we will send some 132 billion business emails every day
by the end of 201728.
A brave bunch of frontrunners have already figured out that this is the road to disaster.
These pioneers are already testing life after the email for the rest of us.
Some have started off with the most destructive element of the email: the copied email
string. You know, where anyone, with a swift click on one key, can include most of the
company in an email string about a subject that should have been dealt with in a mean-
ingful conversation between two people at the very beginning. Broadcasting of emails is
a major time killer. That’s why Peter Hughes, director of collaboration at Cisco, is said to
have banned the string-mail practice altogether, even issuing fines to the perpetrators30.
Other companies go after the traditional emails. French IT company Atos SE plans to ban
emails altogether31. However, given the dependency on emails, the company has issued
an extended timeline where emails can still be sent but should be brought down to a bare
minimum. The company has even appointed a set of ambassadors – called Zero Heroes –
to help their colleagues stop the practice. Others have decided to quit emails one week a
month or shut down the email servers at specific periods of time every day.
For information sharing, all documents belong in the cloud, and for day-to-day chatting,
the format must be social and searchable. According to McKinsey & Company, using
social media technologies, such as wikis and workplace collaboration tools such as
Yammer, echo.it or Chatter instead of email could improve productivity by up to 30%.
When you have a searchable repository of social messages, people wouldn’t have to
send emails asking questions that have already been answered.
The technology is there and the initial results from the pioneers are encouraging. So, just
like the workhorses of the past got a well-deserved rest when motorized vehicles became
widespread during the early 20th century, so also should email retire in honor in favor of
more efficient technologies. The email is dead. May it rest in peace!
I guess that the lyrics of traditional boy/girl break-up love songs seldom have much to
offer in solving today’s management challenges. But just the other day, Cliff Richard’s old
hit “We Don’t Talk Anymore” was playing on my car stereo, and it got me thinking.
My company, like most others, spends a great deal of time on emails. According to the
McKinsey Global Institute, the average knowledge worker spends a whopping 28 hours a
week emailing, requesting and sending information back and forth32. I receive more than
200 emails a day and often have to spend my evenings answering them all, just so I can
get my other work done when I’m back in the office.
Twenty-eight solid hours! That only leaves about 12 hours for actual work that week. And
I can’t help but think that so much time spent on emails is not time well spent.
In short: you may write it. But they don’t get it.
And that’s where Cliff Richard’s song comes in. Conversations are the lifeblood of any
relationship. When you stop talking (and start emailing…) your relationships start
dying – in your personal as well as in your professional life. Slowly, but surely.
True working knowledge contains values, personal experience, expert insight and
emotion. And you can’t convey that in an email. It’s in the talks in the cafeteria and
hallway, the bull sessions around the watercooler, the phone visits and the shoptalk
over coffee, that knowledge crucial for your business is created and shared.
Twenty-eight hours of emailing and searching is too much. So let’s dismantle the hamster
wheel, stop hiding behind our screens and start having meaningful conversations instead.
Personally, the next time I’m contemplating writing someone an email, I will make good
use of the old kindergarten traffic school warning: Stop and think! I will consider whether
an email is really the best tool of communication for this particular situation or if I am
better off starting a real conversation instead.
Statistically, it will solve the problem faster. The result will be far better. Everyone will be
tuned into the same solution. And it may even leave me a little extra time for humming
along to old ’70s hits on my car stereo as well.
I can’t deny it: I write A LOT of emails. But I’ve recently noticed an interesting trend,
especially among younger employees. In two-out-of-three cases when they have a
question, they would rather start an online chat than pick up the phone and simply call
someone.
This is my own observation, but I spoke to a friend, Howard, about it a couple of weeks
ago. Howard is CEO of a major public relations outfit, a fast-paced industry that relies on
building relationships and pitching clients’ stories to major news outlets. In recent years,
he’s witnessed the same trend. It’s forced him to spend lots of time implementing policies
for effective voice and face-to-face conversations in a business where a lack of impactful
conversations on your part only benefits the competition.
Granted, chat and emails are easy and quick. But why don’t we feel inclined to speak to
one another? In a symbiotic relationship, like the one Howard has with the media, you’d
think that both sides would welcome the personal interaction. If anything, it should make
the media mill spin faster.
But no matter how easy it might be to just chat or send an email, it’s bound to distance
us from one another, and distance is not good for business – not Howard’s, not yours and
certainly not mine.
We Need to Talk!
You put your most I venture that you put your most
important business relationships at
important business risk if you fail to interact, whether by
voice or face-to-face, because it is
relationships at risk very easy to delete emails or ignore a
# Chat and email provide you with none of the peripheral knowledge and
subsequent opportunities you’ll receive from regularly talking with clients and
partners. When you listen, you often learn a great deal: What are they working
on now? What are the main difficulties? Which things could you possibly help
with? How would you pick that up in a chat? Reading between the lines of a
written message can only get you so far!
Conflicts and disagreements are also more easily and immediately resolved if you nip
them in the bud. Such resolutions and solutions are easier on the phone, because intent
is better conveyed in person than by chat. Talking simply saves time and a considerable
amount of unproductive writing back and forth.
I will call Howard right now to get his tips on how we can do it better, and the next time
you make a pitch or follow up with a client, you should call someone, too – just like we did
back in the day. I guess you can call it going back to the future.
Much has been said and written about the recent Microsoft and LinkedIn deal. According
to the companies, this is the perfect marriage of two organizations that share a common
objective of connecting and empowering the world’s professionals to be more productive.
When I listened to their joint statement to investors, the logic seemed to make sense.
Which it should, given the $26.2 billion pricetag.
Yet we often tend to confront business problems by bringing in people we know and
are comfortable with. Sociologists refer to these contacts as having “strong social ties,”
while one of my colleagues refers to them as “the usual suspects.” Opposite them are
There’s nothing inherently wrong with inviting familiar colleagues to join in on the
problem solving. After all, they have some expertise in the matter at hand. But do they
represent the best resources available? Not usually; those resources are often found in
our weak ties.
That’s where the real potential of the merger lies. If Microsoft can tie its productivity
tools to the vast resources available in the LinkedIn database and enable us to more
readily identify those weak ties, we as organizations can better connect with the differing
perspectives and critical expertise we increasingly need for success. Let me put it another
way. LinkedIn’s 430 million users make up a massive virtual Rolodex. By combining it with
Microsoft’s array of collaboration tools, we suddenly have a lot of outstanding resources
right at our fingertips.
If these trends continue, most of the people working for our companies in the future
won’t be employees at all. They’ll be self-employed or work for us only temporarily before
moving on to another “gig.” The HR prophets call these workers “the extended workforce.”
They’re part of an ever-expanding network of freelancers, consultants, outsourcing
partners and vendors that don’t work from a single location, but rather from anywhere.
This trend is picking up speed as more millennials shun traditional office jobs in favor of
these nontraditional ad-hoc ones.
This merger should make it far easier for us to identify, connect and collaborate with
these workers to create the virtual teams that will define the workplaces of our future. In
one session alone, we can search LinkedIn for the people with the skills we need, hold a
quick Skype for Business video interview with each, pull the team members together and
have all the tools we need for collaborating – all from a single, integrated platform.
Deploying unified communications is almost like playing the lottery – except that
everybody wins every time. At least that’s what most companies making UC software
told us when the UC market was swamped with the first wave of fancy technology five to
10 years ago.
Unified communications is basically the tool (the little green icon at the bottom of your
screen) that brings audio and video conferencing, messaging and presence together into
one single integrated application. Among other things, this comes in handy when employ-
ees are working somewhere other than their office desk, which an increasing number of
them do nowadays. They are in meetings, at home, traveling, waiting in meeting rooms,
airports, hotels and the like. Mobile phones, Wi-Fi, cloud services, social networks and con-
nected devices enable them to work from anywhere. When they are equipped with a UC
solution, they can easily bridge that gap between devices and become more productive.
The missing “C” stands for collaboration. While unified communications allows us to
communicate seamlessly across multiple devices, it’s still just a channel to get a hold of
Surprisingly, a lot of the technology solutions that companies invest in are already
capable of making employees work in collaborative – and very productive and innovative
– virtual teams. But for some strange reason, many companies do not take full advantage
of the solutions.
Skype for Business, a popular instant messaging system, enables you to see a team
member’s presence, conduct audio calls, video conference calls and present information
to all attendees. But these features are rarely used. I have even heard reports of some
companies limiting the use of the messaging feature because they felt it was not used for
work but as a personal means of
communication only.
It’s time to find and activate the In the future, it’s not
missing “C” in “UC&C.” In the
future, it’s not about sharing about sharing docu-
documents and information
one-on-one, it’s about making
ments and information
your investment work and setting one-on-one, it’s about
collaboration free. You wouldn’t
make people’s private Facebook making your investment
accounts the primary company
communication platform either work and setting
– knowing that employees are
banned from attending via their
collaboration free.
company owned devices!
There are benefits for everyone. In a report by the international analysis consultancy
Frost & Sullivan, a company that has UC&C installed and working, its engineers were able
to improve product development and reduced costs associated with innovation. Sales
and marketing professionals saw improvements across sales performance, customer
retention and their ability to respond to competitive threats. Investor relations and public
This is where the big benefits are waiting for companies who dare to go for the high
(right) C of UC&C. According to Frost & Sullivan it’ll be worth your while. It calculated that
organizations going from “basic collaborators” to “advanced collaborators” double the
effect of their investments36.
All it takes is using the technology you already have to facilitate a group sharing culture,
where all employees are part of a continuous, digital discussion about almost anything.
That way you don’t just win the lottery. You win it twice.
It was all over the news – and with good reason. For the first time ever, the 1,500 top dogs
in IBM’s annual CEO survey chose “technology” as the most important external factor
that will impact organizations and businesses in the coming years37.
As far back as anyone can remember, the two top spots on the official CEO horror list
have always been “market factors” and “people skills,” the classical duo straight out of the
Harvard Business School curriculum. Suddenly, after years of financial crisis, globalization,
major changes in the workforce and plummeting revenues, the majority of the CEOs
name “technology” as the top driver of their business decisions in the coming years.
It’s easy to understand why. New advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology and IT have
revolutionized, and will continue to revolutionize, the way that we work, live and play.
The new networked social economy with its smart mobile devices, wearable gadgets, Big
Data and new democratized communications platforms have revolutionized products,
operations and business models within less than a decade.
We’ve seen major technological advances many times before. Just think of the IT bubble
in the late ’90s. The technology companies all went bankrupt and most of the inventions
became redundant and disappeared. They’re long gone, but the mindset lived on, and
business was never the same again. I believe the same thing is happening. Facebook may
be worth billions on the stock exchange, but my kids are already looking for other ways of
expressing themselves.
The challenge is twofold. First, the CEO must bridge the ever-widening gap between the
adaptation skills of Generation M and the rest of the workforce, while they all wait for us
old-timers to retire and leave the world (and, I guess, also the space) to the fittest.
After that, the smartest CEOs should redesign their work streams, create new workspaces
(not places) and define the new social norms that will fit with the super workers of
Generation M. The companies that adapt to the Generation M mindset first will be the
ones to rule their industries and beat all of the competition.
A piece of advice from me to the CEOs of the world: free, of course, in the spirit of the
young, ultra-sharing Generation M’ers. And a plea to the young people who will
revolutionize the world (and pay for my pension): Please take me along for the ride. I
know I’m only in adaptability mode 2.0, but I would really like to be part of the spectacle.
It’s going to be grand!
I have bad news for corporate leaders everywhere: Most of your workers just don’t care.
They don’t care about their jobs. About your organization. Or your customers.
That’s the depressing conclusion I’ve come to after reviewing a Gallup workplace survey
of U.S. companies and quoted extensively in Forbes38. The study found that an astounding
70% of U.S. workers are disengaged from their jobs.
That means that seven out of 10 workers are going through the motions, putting in
their time and then leaving. They’re unhappy in their work, and invest neither energy
nor passion into it. Some are so disengaged that they even work to undermine your
organization. You know who they are. The manager who “checked out” years ago.
The assistant who responds “it’s not my job” when asked to fill in for a coworker. The
employee who’s more interested in checking emails and Facebook than participating in
the staff meeting.
On the other hand, just three out of 10 are engaged – the ones who feel inspired, work
with passion and feel a profound connection to the organization. You know them, too.
The accountant who double- and then triple-checks everything before sending the
quarterly report to the printer. The sales rep who calls on a prospective customer outside
her sales territory despite knowing she won’t earn a commission on the sale.
Since the U.S. accounts for roughly 20% of the world’s economy, a little math indicates
that global revenue lost to highly disengaged workers is truly astounding – more than
$2 trillion.
Now imagine how profitable our organizations would be if we could cut that 70% rate
of disengagement merely in half, to 35%. Global productivity would zoom. Morale and
customer satisfaction would improve dramatically. Brand awareness would soar.
I invite you to join me in exploring this issue further. Together, we can make a difference
by winning the hearts and minds of our workers.
I regularly attend networking meetings for senior executives. Here we discuss the topics
and challenges facing our companies and borrow ideas from each other. Over the
past few years one topic has predominated: how do you increase productivity in your
company? Unfortunately, few ideas have come up worth borrowing.
Several surveys have revealed that productivity is a major concern across companies all
over the world. According to McKinsey & Company, 58% of the world’s companies are
proactively addressing productivity issues39. And according to business school INSEAD,
nine out of 10 companies have declared that boosting productivity will be their top
priority in the next three to five years.
For many companies it’s a matter of life and death. Productivity equals competitiveness.
And if you are not competitive, you are not in business.
Here’s my take on it: offer a carrot, not a stick. Modern-day business excellence tools are
basically big sticks aimed at prodding employees forward. However, no one – regardless
of their level in the organization – likes being pushed around. It kills motivation. And once
motivation is down, your business is in a downward spiral. No paradox; just plain old
dissatisfaction. This challenge centers around people, and therefore must be solved
by people.
The CHO will base his or her work on two very simple psychological aspects: motivation
and engagement. If you are happy, you are more motivated, and if you invent your own
solution to a problem, you become engaged and are more likely to implement it.
That’s the reason why happy people don’t get divorced. And that’s why overweight
people are three times more likely to actually stick to a diet if they have created the diet
in cooperation with their dietician. The same goes for employees.
Companies need to create productivity solutions with their employees, not impose
solutions on them. If we get working involved in making the productivity solutions they’ll
be implementing, we’ll help them rediscover their work satisfaction and boost their work
motivation at the same time.
In the future, the Chief Happiness Officer will be responsible for improving managerial-
employee dialog. She will create new, efficient business processes in cooperation with the
employees. He will keep assuring the managers that trust is better than control. He or she
will continuously calm down the finance folks and the trade unions and reassure them
that employees are actually capable of making their own decisions and that everything will
be OK. And he or she will make people love – and not loathe – every piece of technology
and every new system we implement to improve productivity.
I know this may seem far-fetched. But trust me, it will happen. Because positive thinking
has, since the beginning of time, always outperformed negative thinking. And motivated
employees will always be more productive than employees who are only at work to bring
home the bacon.
My new hero is the psychologist Shawn Achor. I caught his TED40 talk about happiness in
the workplace, which really struck a nerve. When you have some spare time, I recommend
that you spend it watching his 10-minute explanation of how we change the lens of
reality and achieve greater happiness and productivity at work. One of his points I found
interesting was that happiness is an inside-out or outside-in process and how you get the
process of being happy started.
So, how do we get there? First, according to Achor, we have the process of achieving
success and happiness all wrong, which I, in retrospect, can see is probably correct.
Usually, we say that good productivity leads to success which leads to happiness.
However, in reality, once you achieve your goals, your perception of success has changed,
and you need to pursue even greater exploits to get the same result. In effect, you have
moved the goalposts of what it takes for you to reach a state of happiness. Instead, Achor
recommends that you reverse the process and start with focusing on creating a happy
baseline, and the success and increased productivity will ensue.
A recent survey in Forbes41 about which U.S. professions were the happiest echoes some
of my observations. I was struck that compensation in terms of financial rewards matters
very little in the greater scheme of things. The top 10 happiest professions do not even
mention compensation, but instead highlight collaboration, autonomy and mastery as
the greatest sources of happiness in their profession.
I believe that implementing happiness into the organization is a laudable goal. Happy
people not only make for better company, they’re also more productive, energetic and
creative, which is something we all need, every day. In fact, I think I’ll start by writing a nice
email to a colleague right now.
While meeting with my assistant, Tina, to review my work schedule for the first months
of the upcoming new year, we couldn’t help but notice how many meetings were outside
what we used to consider “normal” working hours.
The schedule was filled with early morning teleconferences, evening dinner meetings and
more than a few Saturday evening flights overseas.
At one point I even quipped, “Do I have any meetings during the workday?” As we
laughed, I was struck by how quickly times have changed: Our jobs are no longer the
typical 9-to-5 ones that our parents or grandparents worked.
Absent, too, is the notion of “work/life balance” popular a decade or so ago, where walls
existed between work life and personal life.
It’s clear that “work/life balance” has been replaced by a new paradigm: “work/life
integration.” It’s no longer about when, where or how many hours you work. It’s about
getting your work done, regardless of time and place.
# Take Responsibility.
The autonomy work/life integration provides requires increased personal
responsibility. Without a boss monitoring our every move, we must be mindful
of our commitment to our employer. Just as we would while in an office, we
should strive to get our work done well and on time and respond to the needs
of our coworkers in a timely way.
# Get Organized.
Success in integrating work and family requires organizing our schedules so
that we’re working during the times we’re most productive. For me, that would
be mornings and while I’m on airplanes. By scheduling the bulk of my work
then, I take less work home and have the flexibility to tackle a workout or some
personal chores during afternoons, when I tend to be less productive.
# Set Boundaries.
There will always be times when our work and personal lives collide, so it’s
important to set boundaries. Ultimately, healthy work/life integration means
knowing when to say no. This makes it acceptable for me to step away from
>
# Use Technology.
We can’t be in two places at the same time, but videoconferencing and other
technologies enable us to at least bridge the gap. If it’s not critical that I
physically attend a meeting, or if I just can’t be there, I try to participate by
video, which increases my feeling of presence.
# Be Flexible.
Above all, work/life integration requires flexibility, both on the part of employ-
ees and organizations. No one likes a 9 p.m. conference call. But if the trade-off
is a Monday afternoon spent with the kids, it’s one worth making. For their
part, organizations need to grant employees the flexibility and autonomy to
make work/life integration a success. The notion that “You’re on company
time” no longer exists, and shouldn’t.
As my calendar – and likely yours – can attest, work/life integration is the new normal
today. By thoughtfully integrating the two, we can take live happier, more fulfilled and
more productive lives – both at work and at home.
By now you may have noticed my keen interest in how new technology, changes in
demography and the mindset of future generations will change the way we work and how
our companies adapt to these changes.
The HR prophets call them “the extended workforce,” and they are part of an ever-
expanding network of freelancers, consultants, outsourcing partners, vendors and other
types of nontraditional workers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
number of temporary employees in the U.S. rose by 29% between 2009 and 2012. A
survey of the 200 largest companies found that temporary workers represented, on
average, 22% of their workforce, and that percentage is growing. A recent study
conducted by softwarecompany Intuit estimates that more than 40% of the American
workforce will be freelancers by 202042. That’s more than 60 million people.
The super workers of the future are looking for the toughest challenges, not a steady job.
They want to be free to switch from project to project and to solve their work tasks with
whomever they prefer in the gigantic, worldwide web of freelance specialists, which is
held together by social media.
Companies are also pushing talent into the extended workforce. Most companies are
actually not very good at keeping employees happy with new, challenging projects or
work. In an Accenture survey of 1,088 U.S. workers, only 34% of respondents reported
feeling that they could easily move to other roles or jobs in their organization where their
skills would best be utilized43.
At the same time, the flexibility for you is tremendous. Without much ado, you can
assemble world-class top specialists for any job you need done. They will be masters at
collaboration and will bring in additional skills when needed. And when your problem is
solved, you no longer need to pay them for their services, nor will you have the burden
of finding new projects challenging enough to keep them happy until the next time you
need their special skills.
Top people and high flexibility are the ingredients for success, so unsurprisingly numerous
studies verify that using an extended workforce makes companies more competitive.
In an Accenture study, 55% of executives surveyed described the contingent workforce
as highly valuable for their businesses44. When ManpowerGroup surveyed 41,000
employers in 35 countries, 34% of the respondents said that non-permanent members
of an organization (including outsourced workers and consultants) were an important
element of their organization’s workforce strategy45.
At the same time, access to these new super employees is becoming radically easier.
New online platforms enable you to find exactly the skills you need. Online independent
contractor talent platforms such as UpWork and TopCoder are growing rapidly, with
more than 1 million workers.
If you get that right, you are good to go. Have fun with your 60 million new (almost)
employees! I’m sure you are going to accomplish great things together.
I recently visited a webpage comparing different software solutions that monitor your
employees’ online activities. The site also offered a quick calculation showing how much
money you can save by controlling your employees’ behavior, which amounts to around
$2,000 per employee per year.
While some of the functionality these software products offer makes sense (like
prohibiting employees from visiting virus-ridden web pages, for instance), others left
me baffled. Most noticeably, almost all of the software solutions can monitor ingoing and
outgoing internet traffic, so you can observe employees working from home, locate the
position of field workers and track which software programs employees use and for how
long. In short, you can spy on your employees’ behavior.
Control is also an integral part of modern open office space design. With all employees
together in one room, managers have a clear view of what’s going on. In theory, that
should make employees more productive and ensure that they use the proper
procedures when working. At least that’s what numerous academic papers are still
claiming, indicating that while trust is good, control is great.
While controlling employees may make them do more, they are not necessarily doing the
right things. Typically, employees overcompensate and spend too much time making sure
The idea of overcompensation is fully integrated into our way of working. In a career-
related article, TIME Magazine advises remote workers to “…make replying to your
managers’ emails a high priority. Get back to them promptly so that they trust you’re
working, not sleeping or playing video games.”47
Conversely, however, creating zones of privacy increases performance. When you leave
people alone for a while, they start thinking. Sometimes they come up with ideas that
might make the company more productive, more innovative or a nicer place to work. All
of this almost never happens in a super-controlled environment. Privacy creates value.
We have seen similar results from surveys conducted with knowledge workers. Managers
may hate the concept of working from home. Evidence shows, however, that most
employees are more effective when not continuously disturbed by coworkers. That is, of
course, unless employees have to overcompensate by bombarding their colleagues with
emails in order to demonstrate that they are not doing something other than work.
Interestingly enough, research as far back as the 1950s indicates that control measures
are not necessarily good for value creation. Somehow, decision makers have been
more concerned about how you can make control measures work in the corporate
environment.
I had a crazy thought the other day – one that had me questioning my business sense, if
not my sanity. Let me explain.
For a long time we’ve been exploring the topic of providing employees with additional
freedom to do their jobs how, when and where they’d like.
After discussing this issue many times the past week, I spent part of my weekend helping
friends chaperone a birthday party for their kids. If you have kids – and even if you don’t
– you know what happens when you set two dozen of them loose in a yard: Soon they’re
everywhere imaginable: Rolling through the lawn, stomping through the garden,
swinging from tree branches.
Yesterday, in a quiet moment, the two – increasingly empowered employees and kids
playing with reckless abandon – somehow collided in my mind. The kids got replaced
by my colleagues – and the result was pandemonium in the workplace. Deadlines were
ignored, product launches skipped and chaos reigned.
I awoke in a panic. Later in the day, I met with our New Ways of Working research part-
ner, Louise Harder Fischer, who is also an external associate professor at Copenhagen
Business School and a Ph.D. fellow in productive practices in the modern workplace at
IT University Copenhagen. I needed to know: Was this a foreshadowing of doom? Would
additional worker autonomy unleash untold anarchy on the organization? And how could
I prevent it?
To my relief, her first words were, “Of course you should be granting additional autonomy
and flexibility to employees. Every organization should be doing it.” Phew.
She even provided a few tips all organizations should use to empower employees.
I’m glad to know that I haven’t gone crazy; that allowing workers to do their jobs their way
makes good business sense and is an idea worth pursuing.
“Anyone who thinks every day or every call is just like the previous one obviously hasn’t put
on one of these headsets.”
That comment, one of several shared with me by the head of a customer service depart-
ment, dispels misconceptions and sheds light on a vital component of our organizations
– one that operates largely in the shadows and rarely receives the recognition it deserves.
The average customer service representative resolves more than 30 issues a day, which
In their jobs, time is of the essence. Among customers’ biggest complaints is the all-too-
familiar message that says, “All of our representatives are busy….” By the time they reach
a representative, customers want their issues resolved – immediately. Service reps need
to create on-the-spot solutions, and without the benefit of time to analyze, take polls
or deep-dive into research. They possess the vital human touch that’s vital to quick
problem-solving. Their decisions are based upon equal parts training, experience, instinct
and savvy.
They have the resources to do their jobs, but not much more. On average, organizations
dedicate just 12% of their marketing budget to satisfying existing customers.50
“When you’ve worked an eight-hour shift in this job, you know it.”
Reps are keenly aware that they represent the “face” of the brand. Although not
necessarily part of the job description, they need to stay upbeat and positive. That’s
because 73% of consumers note that friendly customer service representatives can
actually help them fall in love with a brand.
Customer service jobs are challenging and mentally taxing. Not only do service reps
defuse difficult situations, they also make the complex simple, explain, counsel, reassure
or just listen and empathize.
I had to keep myself from jumping in and explaining what a colossal mistake this would
be. Some functions simply should not be automated, and customer service is one of them.
Yet it seems that more and more organizations are choosing to do so. When was the last
time you called and didn’t get frustrated by the labyrinthian maze of “Press 1 for this…
Press 2 for that…” options?
When an issue requires resolution, the risk to the organization is too big to
entrust the task to a machine. At that point, the organization is at an important
crossroads and can choose from two options:
# Delight the customer with friendly service, and 73% will fall in love with your
brand.
# Anger the customer with poor service, and 91% will leave (and tell up to 15
people about it while heading out the door).51
And while we’ve all witnessed what computers are able to do these days, a digital
voice will never express empathy the same way as a human voice does.
>
I’m glad I didn’t make a scene at Enterprise Connect by barging in and sharing my
opinion. If you’re the marketing executive standing by booth #1508 at the Gaylord Palms
Convention Center, now you know.
I had the most gratifying experience while on hold the other day.
Being invited to take a survey sounds like an odd reason for celebration. But the
experience suggests that my credit card company is taking customer satisfaction
seriously. Instead of – or perhaps in addition to – metrics such as calls handled per hour,
time spent on a call and time-to-resolution, the company is also seeking hard numbers
that shed a light on customer satisfaction.
We’ve heard plenty about the price of poor customer service – and the numbers are
pretty grim. A full 89% of consumers say they’ve stopped doing business with a company
after a poor experience. Worse,
95% of disappointed consumers
say they’ll share their story, and
with up to 15 people.
Losing a single customer
is unfortunate, but
Bridging the Reality Gap
Losing a single customer is potentially losing 15
unfortunate, but potentially losing
15 more is a nightmare – and more is a nightmare
something no company can afford.
– and something no
My credit card company appears
to understand that fact. They’re
company can afford.
trying to avoid falling into the
That they’re eagerly seeking my feedback about the outcome of my call indicates they
have confidence in the ability of their customer service representatives to deliver an
outstanding experience.
It’s probably a good wager on their part. That’s because 73% of consumers say that
friendly customer service representatives can actually make them fall in love with a
brand. In my case, the credit card company believes that the one-to-one, human
interaction between service rep and me will win the day by resolving my issue quickly
and to my delight.
And by falling in love with their brand, I’ll likely spend more. According to the Harvard
Business Review, customers who had the best service experiences spend 140% more
than those who had the worst55. In essence, my credit card company is saying, “If Holger
isn’t just happy – but actually thrilled – with the service we’ve delivered, he’s more than
twice as likely to reach for our card, and not someone else’s, for his purchase.”
The fact that my credit card company is focused on my satisfaction is something for
which I’m grateful. But it’s just the beginning, and I think they can do even more.
With the trove of data they’ve accumulated about me – how much I spend, where I spend
it, the fact that I fly to Munich every week – they can personalize my experience even
more. They can get me discounts for certain purchases, provide extra points for others,
better monitor my account against fraud… the possibilities are endless.
Ever called a customer service number and experienced an excruciatingly long hold time?
Or once you got through, the rep seemed frazzled – or often needed to consult notes or
with others to find your answer?
The reasons may trace back to the employee’s work environment. Call-centric workers
have long indicated that distractions in the workplace are preventing them from being as
productive as they can be.
Yet a survey of 3,200 call-centric workers across seven countries finds their productivity
negatively affected by workplace factors beyond their control. Apart from the business
issues it causes, this reduced productivity has far-ranging ramifications for all of us
consumers who rely on these workers.
While conventional wisdom suggested that email, chat, text and other technologies
would make phone calls obsolete, that hasn’t happened. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Before, a detailed conversation with your bank, consultant or lawyer was almost certainly
held in a face-to-face meeting. Today, these complex interactions often take place over
the phone.
Add to this the vast amount of information available via the internet. With it, consumers
have become more knowledgeable about the topic at hand and able to ask more
complex questions. A full 73% of decision makers in call-centric environments have seen
an increase in the complexity of customer interactions.
Thus, at a time when conversations are more complex and valuable than ever, the people
charged with conducting them are more distracted and have less time to prepare for and
So if your wash machine is making a disturbing clunking noise, for example, you’ll whip
out your smartphone (or whatever its successor may be), turn on the video and link to
customer service. Your avatar will appear, and from his database will diagnose the
problem and provide a tour of how to fix it, complete with step-by-step instructions
and 3D video. It’ll be as though he’s right there in the room with you, peering over your
shoulder and guiding your every move.
Which brings up some interesting questions. Even with the many benefits augmented
reality customer service could provide, will we as consumers accept it? Will we be scared
off by the fact that it knows so much about us? Or will we put privacy aside in favor of
outstanding, personalized customer service?
Is our desire for help from an actual human being so strong that we’ll reject this mode of
service? Or will we instead embrace the prospect of learning from a computer-generated
persona?
I guess we’ll know soon enough. I just wonder what I’ll look like as an avatar.
That’s the revelation I had while reminiscing about a fantastic sailing trip I took not
long ago.
It was a dream voyage – a few friends, a week of sailing and an opportunity to visit
interesting new places.
Because we would be crossing some unfamiliar waters, preparation was vital. We spent
hours poring over navigation charts to plot our course and define the tasks we’d need
to perform each day. We also identified the tools and technologies for getting us to our
destination and back safely, securely packing a compass, maps, charts, GPS and even an
EPIRB emergency locator beacon.
Those preparations, combined with favorable weather and friendly people, resulted in an
unforgettable trip.
While reflecting on the journey, I had my revelation: that extra level of preparation –
outlining not just the necessary tasks but also how to address them – could also pay
dividends in the workplace.
The trouble with ordinary to-do lists is that while they nicely summarize and prioritize
what we need to get done, they don’t provide guidance on how to complete those tasks
most effectively.
We can also choose when we do our best work. We know that our brains are wired so that
mornings are better for tasks that require concentration while afternoons are better for
collaborating with others.60
A Closer Look
Turning your to-do list into a how-to-do list is easy. Simply record the tasks to be complet-
ed that day, as you’d normally do, and then take things a step further by identifying the
resources you need to accomplish each task.
As an illustration, let’s look at my how-to-dos for a recent task. Among the day’s work was
to review a proposal for a new product and evaluate its feasibility. Knowing that I would
need some time to concentrate, I booked a quiet room to read the proposal without
interruption. Anticipating that I may have questions, I checked the report writer’s
availability status online in case we needed to discuss it, and I sent him a short instant
message to alert him that I may be contacting him. And because he works remotely, I
made sure my wireless headset was at the ready.
I’m convinced that a “how-to-do” list makes me more productive, and I’ll bet it can do the
same for you. Give it a try!
Large and innovative companies like Google have made a science out of creating spots61
where employees can achieve work flow together or alone, playing with colors, shapes,
themes and space to create a place where this magic can happen. For example, Google
has invested in ski gondolas at its Zurich office, a pub-like meeting room in Dublin and a
sidewalk cafe in Istanbul, and the company claims that the product of these efforts can
be measured in double digits.
# Silence or Sound?
I am a music man myself, so I like nothing better than the tunes; they often
shoehorn me right into the zone. I find that the sound/no sound question is
critical and actually the big divider on which people have the strongest
opinions. I have a friend who says that music has her humming or singing
along in her head, losing focus. Others, like me, get carried away on the
emotional highs of music, which puts them right where they need to be. It is
deeply personal, so choose your flavor.
>
Today, I had a confetti day. You know, one of those days where you’re constantly
interrupted, making it impossible to complete even the smallest of tasks. The name
comes from the fact that the interruptions rip your day into little pieces, ensuring that
your to-do list at 5 p.m. is at least as long, or longer, than it was at 8 a.m.
While any interruption is frustrating to the individual disturbed, it also costs the
organization plenty in money and lost opportunities. We can do better, and here’s how:
Unfortunately, confetti days are a fact of the modern workplace. You can avoid many
distractions by making use of some simple tips and tricks. However, if all else fails, you
need to do what I will be doing in a minute: Wait for the house to get quiet and then work
from the kitchen counter.
Ideally, every day and every assignment should be fun and thrilling. But, as we all know;
some days are harder than others. However, if you feel, that things could be more fun and
much less challenging than they are. Then perhaps you’re stuck in a way of working, which
does not make the most of your abilities – and your capabilities. Which means you have
probably not yet realized your full potential.
For a long time I have been interested in the concept of ‘potential’. How to recognize it.
Make the most of it. I think what really provoked me was a term coined by the psychologist
Shawn Anchor, who discusses the disadvantages of “the cult of the average”64. What he
refers to is, how when crunching large amounts of data about a certain group of people,
there will always be a couple, who differ from the average. But we ignore them, because
from a scientific point of view the average forms the best basis for a new truth.
But what if we studied the outliers instead of deleting them in our studies. Think about
the potential in knowing how these non-average outliers perform and behave. What they
might be capable of and if we learned from them – what we would be capable of.
There is of course a huge difference between ability and capability. While ability describes
what you are able to do now, capability describes your potential. In that sense new ways
of working is a matter of making our capability or potential turn into an ability.
I don’t care where you fall on the line. It doesn’t matter to me, whether you are above,
below or on average. We all have potential and we all have talent. Period. Often, however,
it can be hard for us to recognize this. Perhaps we take some skills for granted. Perhaps
our strengths lie in something that we never thought of as a skill, like being good at
collaborating, something which could make a huge difference to your company and
career. Most of us have a good idea about, where our strengths lie. But when managed to
fully realize our potential, we will be able to contribute more and for the benefit of your
life and the world around you.
Knowing this will be the first step towards growing as a professional and as a person.
And therefore, we are proud to invite you to learn just that at www.jabra.com/campaigns/
nwow, where you can test your professional potential.
Maybe you are the Guardian at work. Or the Game Changer. Maybe you are the Genius
in your team. Or perhaps you are the company Guru. I think most of us know deep down,
what we are good at or which tasks we like more than others. But often, this insight
requires assistance. Therefore, we have set up the Work Potential Test as an online
multiple-choice test, which can assist you in unlocking your potential with advice and
suggestions on exercises that can optimize your way of working. And at best help you
grow as a professional.
The test gives guidance towards attaining the optimal combination of abilities and
capabilities. Because perhaps, the capabilities and potential in your office will come out
better, if you swapped tasks around a bit. This could even help your team unfold their full
potential too.
Jabra’s philosophy on ‘New Ways of Working’ is the idea of organizing work towards
realizing people’s full potential. Jabra wants to advocate managers and employees alike
to make a conscious choice of work-modes depending on the task whether collaboration,
concentration, conversation or communication:
# Concentration
is about making good decisions by turning information into knowledge
# Communication
is transference of knowledge independent of time and location
# Collaboration
is the most powerful tool to turn complex problems into
valuable solutions. Bring new knowledge into play with colleagues or
business partners
# Conversations
between two people, who genuinely listen, understand and talk to
impact behavior, is the most effective tool to elevate the value of human
interactions
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/jabra
Twitter - @We_are_Jabra
Facebook - facebook.com/jabra
Chapter 1
2. http://blog.jabra.com/get-it-done-faster-with-a-how-to-do-list/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
Chapter 2
4. https://hbr.org/2011/09/high-performance-office-space
5. https://burningpine.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/high-performance-office-space-har-
vard-business-review-degw-lilly/
6. https://hbr.org/2011/09/high-performance-office-space
7. http://fmlink.com/articles/corenet-global-research-office-space-per-worker-to-drop-
to-100-sq-ft-or-below-for-many-companies-within-five-years/
8. http://allthingsd.com/20130222/physically-together-heres-the-internal-yahoo-no-
work-from-home-memo-which-extends-beyond-remote-workers
9. https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/cwf/global/pdf/Bloom%20et%20
at_Does%20working%20from%20home%20work-chinese%20experiment_2012.pdf
10. https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/cwf/global/pdf/Bloom%20et%20
at_Does%20working%20from%20home%20work-chinese%20experiment_2012.pdf
11. http://betanews.com/2015/09/11/the-rise-of-telecommuting-45-percent-of-us-em-
ployees-work-from-home/
12. http://www.gallup.com/topic/employee_engagement.aspx
13. http://www2.technologyreview.com/tr35/profile.aspx?TRID=452
14. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html
15. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm6008.pdf
16. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/emo/12/5/1015/
Chapter 3
17. http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=283464243
18. http://www.techradar.com/news/audio/how-your-noisy-open-plan-office-is-making-
you-66-less-productive-1148580
19. http://www.fastcompany.com/3044667/work-smart/the-hidden-costs-of-interrup-
tions-at-work
20. https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54968373.html
21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRepnhXq33s&feature=youtu.be
Chapter 4
27. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/6116/First-e-mail-sent-by-Ray-Tomlinson/
28. http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Email-Statistics-Re-
port-2013-2017-Executive-Summary.pdf
29. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2181680/Youve-got-mail-The-aver-
age-office-worker-spend-half-hours-writing-emails.html
30. http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/kill-off-email-to-boost-productiv-
ity-20140411-zqtik.html
31. http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150324-the-companies-that-banned-email
32. http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/High%20Tech/Our%20
Insights/The%20social%20economy/MGI_The_social_economy_Full_report.ashx
33. http://qz.com/65279/40-of-americas-workforce-will-be-freelancers-by-2020/
34. http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/wireless/4400-series-wire-
less-lan-controllers/uc_roi_wp.pdf
35. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/aberdeen-group-report-reveals-uni-
fied-communications-pays-for-itself-nyse-hhs-1173285.htm
36. http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/executivebriefs/eb_meetings-around-
the-world-2-a-study-of-advanced-collaboration-and-its-impact-on-your-enterprise_
en_xg.pdf
37. http://www-935.ibm.com/services/c-suite/study/studies/ceo-study/
Chapter 5
38. http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/23/surprising-disturb-
ing-facts-from-the-mother-of-all-employee-engagement-surveys/
39. http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability-and-resource-produc-
tivity/our-insights/how-companies-manage-sustainability-mckinsey-global-survey-re-
sults
40. http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work#t-15498
41. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2012/08/13/the-surprising-truth-about-
what-makes-us-happy-at-work/
42. http://qz.com/65279/40-of-americas-workforce-will-be-freelancers-by-2020/
Chapter 6
49. Jabra Report: Unlocking the Power of Conversation: Customer Service Challenges,
2016 http://blog.jabra.com/downloads/
50. http://www.lyspersolutions.com/the-facts
51. Jabra Report: Unlocking the Power of Conversation: Customer Service Challenges,
2016
52. BT, Contact Centers 2020
53. McKinsey & Customer Experience Impact Report by Harris Interactive/RightNow,
2010
54. Peppers & Rogers Group, Customer Experience Maturity Monitor, 2009
55. https://hbr.org/2014/08/the-value-of-customer-experience-quantified
56. Jabra Report: Unlocking the Power of Conversation: Customer Service Challenges,
2016 http://blog.jabra.com/downloads/
57. http://www.lyspersolutions.com/the-facts
58. http://blog.jabra.com/when-your-washer-leaks-call-these-people-last/
Chapter 7
59. http://blog.jabra.com/got-a-minute/
60. http://blog.jabra.com/the-hidden-secret-of-super-productive/
61. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-google-workplaces-from-perks-to-nap-pods/
62. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324339204578173252223022388
63. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/work-distractions-employees-lose-fo-
cus-companies-problem_n_2294054.html
Appendix
64. https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?lan-
guage=en
RRP;
39,99 $
33,50 €
249 DKK