Sheldon Anthony IO

Working from anywhere provides much-untapped enjoyment, but also requires flexibility and attention to detail. Apart from eliminating things that make us unproductive, it emphasizes the productivity of individuals. This can cause a lot of stress if we're unclear about how we want to succeed daily. Despite removing so many hindrances that have made us unproductive, we should not be complacent because there will certainly be new challenges that we are not prepared for. We need to keep an anywhere operation well-oiled and keep learning from experiences therein to make it better than we found it. This article provides some tips on keeping your anywhere operation productive.

1. Effective performance management is critical

   Investing in high-performing, motivated employees is essential for business growth. As a business, you need to be able to measure what each person is doing effectively. This will become an important practice, especially in an anywhere operation where we are not in control of people's personal spaces. Individuals, irrespective of personal problems, will almost always strive to achieve what is expected of them if they are clear about what is expected and how it will be measured.

2. Keep tools and technologies functioning properly and maintain them

   An anywhere operation has a heavy reliance on tools and technology. An organization must ensure that its employees' tools and technologies are functioning appropriately. We must realize that it is not just about implementing a tool or technology and leaving it. Anywhere operations require a lot of effort in functionality and maintenance of employees' tools and technologies that it cannot be left unmaintained for a long time without being a big risk. If the hardware and software architecture that your business chose is not unified it can quickly become a huge headache and threat to your operation. It is not just a matter of remote management of computers and software but a whole new discipline is opening up in this area.

3. Listen to people, document and address their problems

   It is crucial that we grasp the fact that we must switch to a new approach of working with people, listening to them, and understanding their petitions to make an anywhere operation successful. Every anywhere operation has its own set of personal people problems and listening, documenting, and addressing them effectively is crucial to the success of the operation. We are driving a new business domain and understanding it is pivotal to its success. 

4. Learn to compromise on individual preference where it doesn’t impact the business operation

   As a true people leader, you will learn to compromise especially in an anywhere operation. Each individual has their preference and wants to work their way. If they feel it will make them more productive then your business shouldn’t stand in their way but rather support and facilitate their preferred way of working. The effective performance of each individual builds up to an effective performing organization.

5. Don’t allow individuals to copy other people's preferences without understanding the impact on the business operation

   So often the saying goes "Why can developers... and we can't..." many leaders don't explain and try to plight an organization into overall fairness and others try and find alternate solutions to promote overall fairness without explaining it clearly to their staff. The truth is we can't copy an individual or working unit's preferences until we truly understand the impact it has on the overall business operation.

The impact of supporting or facilitating an individual or working unit's preferences can have a huge impact on the productivity of a business operation. We have to take a stance on who we are and how we want to perform better and apply our own preferences to make the business operation more productive. An anywhere operation is an exciting operation to fit into in the beginning but as time goes on you learn to realize that it has its own set of challenges and problems. These problems and challenges should not allow us to become unproductive and slip into the "why don't we go back to" syndrome.