Teleworking: Kiss of Death for Innovation?

Innovation is much in the news today. That's exciting when you edit a website which is busy pushing "innovation" as a means of adding value to business services. It all stemmed from a leaked memo sent last Friday by Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, announcing that she was no longer in favor of remote-, or tele-working. Although there’s been a passionate backlash in the media, her reasons may have less to do with concerns about lack of overview or effectiveness, and more with promoting face-to-face collaboration in order to avoid being left behind in this hugely competitive industry. Mayer knows that Yahoo is lagging companies like Apple and Google (both, perhaps non-coincidentally, not supportive of teleworking) when it comes to being innovative. So Mayer’s message is that to promote innovation, and the collaborative efforts that get you there … you should all be sitting in the same office. Apple and Google, the holy duo in innovation and innovative technology, have been quoted across every newspaper and news outlets as undisputed leaders in getting it right. And it’s hard to argue with that, Apple’s current shareprice notwithstanding. In fact, Apple's innovation per employee was quoted on a leading news site as being six times that of Yahoo. Obviously, not a sustainable sitiuation from Yahoo’s perspective. What's interesting to me is not the debate about whether you should have teleworkers or not (though I’ll get to that in a second). What’s interesting is that innovation is recognized as the only means of survival – the lifeblood – in this particular industry; and the implication that to innovate well, you need to be able to bounce ideas off your teammates, go for a cup of coffee, and then regroup to come up with some amazing solutions. In other words: it’s the return of the flesh-and-blood, "old-style" team. There are, of course, sensible detractors. CNN posted: "Mayer's reasoning makes some sense. But mandating face time will not automatically lead to creativity and collaboration. The key is establishing a culture of innovation and aligning talent and performance. Telework should not have to axed in the process." It may,after all, simply be a case of "a company whose teleworking had gone out-of-control …horribly wrong," to quote CNN again. What’s your opinion? Is teleworking a brake on innovation? How are you collaborating? I’ve posted a survey on our LinkedIn group [if you are not yet a member just apply (at 22,000 members, we are the largest LinkedIn group for Shared Services & Outsourcing and full of interesting discussions), or email me your yes/no answer]. And for full-disclosure: I am an effective, plugged in telecommuter – constantly pushing new ideas! [inlinead]

Teleworking: Kiss of Death for Innovation?

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