Working from Home or anywhere for that matter
Is it possible to do online coaching or online consulting or deliver services from almost anywhere in the world? Today I would like to share my experiences and lessons about working from home or anywhere for that matter.
The news is flooded with articles about Elon Musk forcing employees to return to the office, changes to legislation etc.
I would like to share our recent experience with you. We’ve were away on a week-long break-away, to plan and strategise the future of our coaching and consulting business. We decided to go to a holiday resort to get a change in scenery and the day-to-day routine at our home office. We both had meetings scheduled for the week and we knew more would come. We have learnt that customers expect you to be available when they are available.
Because it was planned as a work trip, I had to ensure that we would have enough data to work from our destination. We knew the resort had WiFi, but you can’t bargain on their speeds or availability. For this reason, I bought an extra data LTE SIM card with sufficient data. My first lesson was that I had to check that the venue does have network coverage and connectivity from the service provider, else my new fixed LTE product would not serve much of a purpose.
Let me share some of my notes from my journal: “Today, after a tiring day of travelling we went to bed early. I woke up at 23:15 and as usual reached for my tablet to read. I opened an article about “WhatsApp groups could be breaking the law” which triggered me to write this blog article”.
My Friday started at 4am quickly answering an email from a client, telling them that I would be on the road today, so I would only be able to work on their request after I arrive at my destination. This is the second lesson on working from anywhere – communicate to keep your customers in the know and very important set boundaries.
My next experience came from a standing weekly client project progress meeting. It is a critical meeting for their strategy implementation and because we are busy with a culture change this meeting happens come rain or sunshine. I knew beforehand that I would have to attend the meeting from my car while driving.
This meant I had to be properly prepared since we use a tool called Holaspirit to facilitate our meetings and to implement the self-management culture for the client. I uploaded my feedback, metrics and documents to be presented during the meeting the day before. This also allows all the meeting participants to prepare for the meeting resulting in us only focussing on the challenges or tensions during the meeting.
When the time arrived for the meeting to start, I clicked on the Zoom link on my phone ( the invite and link are automatically sent via Holaspirit) to start the meeting. During the checking-in, I realised that I was not the only one travelling since two of the key participants were also in a different town than usual. Another learning, using effective technology and tools enables us to be available because in the past the meeting would probably have been postponed or cancelled if key members could not attend. Technology and online collaboration tools like Zoom and Holaspirit ensure that companies are more efficient and effective. It is also important to note how dependent we have become on these tools.
During the meeting, I lost signal a couple of times, but my phones connected automatically without me missing out on the discussions. I also realised the benefits of having a set agenda or rhythm (as prescribed by the Holacracy philosophy). It means that if the chairperson lost connectivity, any of the other members could step up to chair because everyone knows what comes next. Using Holaspirit also ensures that I do not need to take notes while driving, everything discussed as well as new tensions and actions can be maintained by any member attending the meeting. The actions are captured live in the tool and after the meeting is concluded the meeting minutes are available for download.
Needless to say, we had a very productive and insightful meeting, which we could wrap up within the hour using our methodology. It might be worth noting that before implementing this methodology, these meetings lasted for a minimum of two hours.
Back to our road trip, when arriving at the venue were greeted with load shedding, something I did not think of when planning the trip. Luckily they had a generator running, so the power would not be a problem. During check-in, they mentioned that their Wi-Fi is unstable at the moment. When trying to connect we could not find the hotspot connection, so I was glad we came prepared with the extra SIM card.
While unpacking, I got a call from my client in the Congo asking for some information and files we worked on. I mentioned that I was travelling and not in front of my computer, and we agreed that I would send the information requested later in the afternoon. Again technology enabled me to effortlessly access the files that were stored in the cloud on OneDrive.
After settling into our room we realised that we could not connect to the LTE network because it was affected by the load-shedding. Luckily we had a mobile hotspot with a sim from another network provider that was able to connect to their network. Yet another lesson, have a backup for everything. Having laptops also saved us when the power dropped for load shedding because the resort took a couple of minutes to start their generator.
This highlights the need for having a proper setup to enable you to work effectively. We realised the comfort of having an extra screen on your desk in the office and had to use both our laptops for one of the meetings. All of this was part of our learning experience.
During our stay, we could effectively perform our work and attend all the planned meetings. We did experience the network dropping once or twice causing us to lose connection, but it was quickly restored. We also realised that most people are a lot more comfortable and tolerant towards using technology to work from anywhere, even with the dog barking in the background or someone losing connectivity.
Technology allows us to continue to work even in adverse circumstances. To give an example, while busy with the DRC project, we could not go back due to lock-down, but with the use of Zoom, we could continue the work from the comfort of home. To give further context, the work involved two-hour-long job profiling interviews. To make matters more interesting, we had to work through interpreters because many of the meetings were in either French or Chinese. Even with these complexities, we could effectively complete the work as if we were onsite in the DRC.
It is important to mention that being available anywhere and at any time is also creating new challenges. This requires you to set proper boundaries and communicate effectively in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
All of this brings me to the conclusion that providing coaching and consulting services from home (anywhere), is possible when using the right technology & tools, setting boundaries and effective communication with everyone involved.
If you are interested in any of the tools or techniques mentioned and would like more information, please send me an email and I will gladly set up some time with you to discuss it further.