Gist.

A wise man once said “I like being able to work at any moment. I don’t like having to work at every moment.”

Clever huh? It was Gist’s senior engineer, Tom May, during an email exchange about The New Workstyle and whether being ‘always on’ is a necessary evil.

The idea raised eyebrows and blood pressure when we first blogged about it last year, with commenters arguing the damaging effects of blurred boundaries between work and life and others embracing it as the reality of how we work today. Many of you told us you needed time to disconnect, to turn off email, to unplug and do something else; that you deliver better results if you have that sacred time off the clock. Equal numbers of you shared experiences of fluid workstyles where ‘always on’ is a comfortable state of mind.

More often than not, the conversation about employee connectedness, availability, reachability and ‘always on-ness’ is one about how workers incorporate devices into their daily routines. Most of us today are mobile workers through and through. We roll over in the morning and check email, twitter and facebook (or all of them together using Gist). We might leave work at a reasonable hour, but we’re back online after dinner attending to bits and pieces. Certainly, many of us read and respond to emails 7 days a week, either voluntarily or to keep up appearances.

While many discussions focus on whether or not this trend borders on an unhealthy obsession with work, what we’re all coming to terms with is the fact that workstyles have changed. A recent Pew Research study tells us some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email, including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day, while Neverfail’s Osterman Research commissioned study (2010) shows 95% of workers are checking email outside of work hours. — Tweet this stat?

For better or worse, most of us are connected almost all the time, in one capacity or another — professionally or personally. Technology has blurred the line between work and life and as we continue down the path of social networks, enterprise consumerization, cloud computing and a powerful mobile workforce, that line will become more and more fuzzy. The question now is what are the rules of engagement?

Take, for example, Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital’s recent vacation responder, made noteworthy by Brad Feld and Gizmodo. In it, Josh exemplifies the reality of being connected as a modern, mobile worker, even when on vacation. Note, he isn’t on a working vacation and he isn’t promising to work, but he’s acknowledging that he isn’t not not working…

Let’s take a closer look at what is done here; Josh is having an upfront, formal communication with us about a topic that’s a little awkward and most times avoided, by:

• defining the circumstances of “after hours” availability
• setting and sharing his intention for responsiveness
• setting a communications boundary, including an exception to the rule
• setting expectations for others
• trusting the others to act accordingly

Josh’s formula can be applied to situation specific connectivity or to an individual’s general personal strategy for being connected and disconnected at work. The conversation about what’s expected of workers “after hours” is crucial to managing expectations and respecting each other’s workstyles.

At Gist, we’ve had lots of conversations about productivity, efficiency and how work really gets done. We’re big believers in Parkinson’s Law, which states that time is wasted to the amount of time which is available. (tweet this) A key problem we see is that the new ‘always on’ connectivity has turned into a ‘yes and’ extension of employees’ required in-office time. While most of us are already quietly unconvinced that more available/interactive/consuming-the-web time, makes us better contributors, those people who are willing and compelled to work in said style, can set the bar for everyone else. The perception of busyness has become synonymous with work output — and is the new normal. A herd mentality has been established and is keeping us in a perpetual state of alertness, responsiveness — but not necessarily productivity.

The challenge now is in reestablishing the rules of ‘always on’ to mean working smarter, not harder. If your best ideas happen late at night, you should be free to hammer them out, but there should be no expectations that you will and you shouldn’t anticipate others joining you online at midnight. For employees, this new arrangement requires a bit of responsibility to get the right things done at the right time. The challenge for employers is to stand back and let their employees succeed or fail on their own. The net result, we think, is a chance to work in our optimal style instead of a one-size-fits-all model of old corporate America, with the added insanity of a device centric, always on, always available workforce. Our advice? Have the conversation.

Just be cool. Just be yourself. Just be who you are. Just be honest. These reassuring little nuggets are often the best advice we get about being authentic, but the truth is, they don’t always apply at work.

In Gist’s 10 Characteristics of the New Workstyle, we talk about authenticity as a shared passion for work. We propose dynamic, multidimensional products represent the environment and people who created them. But do passionate, authentic people, mean authentic, dynamic products? Not necessarily.

Putting authenticity into action at work starts with people working on what they’re passionate about, using tools, techniques and processes that work best for them, with the common goal of helping the end user, customer or consumer.

Finding your workstyle
A workman is only as good as his tools and if those are out of step with the creative process, then the product, project or team suffers. What is really important in cultivating authenticity in the workplace is encouraging authentic work practices, rather than authentic personalities. It’s more about giving workers the freedom to choose their tools than the freedom to practice scream therapy in a conference room. In life, the authentic self may take precedence but at work it’s more about finding and doing what works for you to deliver results.

Here’s a personal example. In another life, I worked at a public relations firm in San Francisco. My clients were exciting technology companies and startups and I envied the way they were allowed to work: from home, on Macs, on Google Apps, in their pajamas, over IM, from Puerto Rico, in the middle of the night, from a coffee shop, on an iPad, using every cloud application imaginable, sans meetings, sans titles, sans IT policies. It was a mashup of awesomeness. Paradoxically, I was provided an outdated machine to work on, which lacked mobility, battery life or even a hint of coolness. I was chained to my landline phone and imprisoned by three paper thin partitions and the humiliating glass wall of my cubicle and met with daily battles to access the dreaded VPN. Cloud applications were publicly touted as the way of the future in technology, but privately dismissed as a security risk remedied only by licenced software deployed behind a firewall. Working from home was frowned upon and Instant Messaging, video conferencing and collaborative tools were used by few and almost in secret by the most junior staffers. And then there were the meetings…oh the meetings. To give credit, this agency was full of nurturing managers, who encouraged me to be myself, embraced my quirks and listened to my suggestions about new ways of working.

Even so, the disconnect between the way I worked, the way I wished I could work and the way the clients who I represented worked, made me feel grossly inauthentic, effected my morale and likely prevented me from performing to my greatest potential.

For me, it was more important to be given the opportunity to work authentically, in my own style, than it was to reveal my “authentic self” at work.

Fortunately, in the context of the New Workstyle, is seems almost as unlikely for a company to tell its staffers what they can and can’t eat for lunch as it is to tell them what tools they have to use to get their work done.

Choosing what to work on
In addition to choosing our workstyles, choosing what we want to work on is equally important in moving towards the authentic New Workstyle. At a macro-level, we see:

• people moving in between jobs at a more rapid rate, delivering results quickly and then moving on
• more ad hoc collaborations between people who simply like working together
• more interest-based business relationships, generated through common online connections
• people becoming increasingly specialized in areas of business they find more enjoyment in, rather than being a jack of all trades (and a master of none) and being able to more easily market those specializations

Within the enterprise, this is emerging as a trend inspired by Google’s 20% Time, which places value on people’s individual pursuits and recognizes their passions as a great source of ideas and insights for the business. Google’s mechanism for doing this is simple: all engineers are free to spend 20% of their time (around one day a week) on pet projects and personal pursuits rather than on company priorities.

(Gmail Labs show the value of encouraging authentic work practices to drive product development and value for the user)

The logic: the company is relentlessly rigorous and inventive when it comes to hiring the best people for their culture (which includes people with wildly diverse backgrounds and experiences) and its leaders are interested in bringing all of their ideas and insights and energies into play. They figure that those individuals will come up with all sorts of new product ideas and directions for the company that the management team couldn’t possibly figure out alone. And that’s turned out to be the case: 20% time has yielded important new products like Google News and Google Suggest.

While it may not be achievable to have everyone in a business working on what they like all the time, a definitive shift towards this aspirational goal is in progress, a la The New Workstyle.

Authenticity as a service
Chris Brogan recently blogged about the question of workplace authenticity, calling special attention to a key action step in authenticity – being helpful:

“There’s a lot that goes with true authenticity that isn’t helpful. Instead, the people we connect with would be much better served if we chose to be helpful instead. “Helpful” is a far more useful frame of reference than authentic… be honest with yourself and filter that into whatever it takes to be helpful to others. Present your most helpful side to the people who need it, and do so with as much genuine interest in other people’s success as you can possibly muster. ”

Steve Jobs resignation is a perfect example of this idea in action. From his resignation announcement:

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Because authenticity can easily be mistaken for “being who you are”, being honest, or taking a warts and all approach, it can often seem incongruent with business strategy, where it is prudent to put your best foot forward. The principle of helpfulness can be used as a guide towards the authentic path. Where we might question the best way to proceed authentically in a situation, a focus on how we can best serve those we’re working with keeps things simple.

Have you ever seen “trust” appear on a list of your company’s core values? Have you ever rolled your eyes with the crushing knowledge that if “trust” were really present in your office culture, you’d be working at home right now, setting your own hours, using your favorite software, apps, mobile device and choosing your work computer, PC or Mac?

The New Workstyle places value on results. This means impact > output. The question of how you get there, is left to the individual, opening up a world of choice and customization as the primary means to this end. So, if we’re leaving everyone to their own devices (pardon the pun) doesn’t this mean we have to trust everyone to figure out the best way to deliver results? Yes.

Let’s take working from home as an example. By 2016 around 43% of the US workforce is expected to be working from home, representing a massive shift away from the traditional cube farm and a vote of confidence in the results delivered by those working outside the office. What this also tells us, however, is that there’s still a large chunk of industry undecided about what the future of workplaces looks like and whether employees can really but trusted to manage themselves.

Case in point: Mindflash last month released an infographic asking the question “should you let your employees work from home?” which set off a heated comments debate on the FastCompany post.

What seemed to concern people most about Mindlflash’s visualisation was the supposition that you can’t trust everyone to work remotely.

Below are some comments, calling special attention to the role of trust in this conversation:

Trust is a key element of Gist’s 10 Characteristics of the New Workstyle. In our company, it means allowing the individual to work in the way that is most productive and efficient, whether it’s the tools they use, the information they share or where they work, day to day. Working from home has been a mainstay of trust in our company. Gist’s ‘Work From Home Thursdays’, has helped mitigate the scheduling hiccups for employees often created by the cable guy or the dentist. Thursday is the day when we can attend to our lives, while we’re working. The best way to describe our philosophy is giving each other freedom, with responsibility.

The challenge for many employers, of course, is in relinquishing control over productivity — or the perceived control they might have. In the Old Workstyle, employers fear employees are “wasting time” being “unproductive”, for which the old remedy was a cubicle farm of workers, seen to be working. Today, almost 70% of employers believe mobile workers are as productive as those working in the office, and those employers cite technology and communication as the biggest reason why.

No matter how you slice it, working from home all boils down to trust, which can be fostered or hindered by the tools available to the individual worker and the communication guidelines set by a team.

Here are some tips for building a culture of trust for your remote workforce:

1. Use Communication Tools:
If you manage or work remotely, communication must be consistent, purposeful, and predictable, but without the right tools this is nearly impossible. Keeping in mind that a worker is only as good as their tools, make sure your mobile workers are equipped with communication must-haves like:

• Skype: offers inexpensive or free calls, IM, video chat, and group chat
• Tungle: elegantly simple scheduling app for meetings
• Dropbox: user-friendly online service to store files (music, videos, documents)
• Google Docs: a free and easy way to share documents and make real-time collaboration quick and painless
• Yammer: enterprise social networking, collaboration and information sharing – like a virtual office, accessible on any device
• Evernote: note taking for everything, sharing and delegating

2. Demonstrate Mobile Reliability
By doing what you say you’ll do, whether it’s leading a call with a new client, sending a presentation by the agreed deadline, being online during set hours, or just making time for team check-in call, your mobile reliability shows respect for what your coworkers are doing both outside and in the office. Without it, they’ll stop asking for help, view you as unavailable and you’ll fall out of the loop. Trust is critically important in distance relationships of all kinds, and you build trust through actions that demonstrate reliability, integrity, and familiarity. Sending an email to tell your coworkers you’re going offline for the next hour and updating your IM status, can make a huge difference to the way people experience your reliability as a remote worker. If you can’t pass each other in the hall to offer a quick project update, you have to foster an environment of quick, casual and regular communication online, which demonstrates reliability and builds trust.

At Gist we use status updates religiously every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sent to the team via email before 10am, our reports follow the form:

- Status: Red, Yellow, Green – so we all know if someone needs help or is going to impact anyone else’s work
- Important info: urgent items
- Kudos: nice to recognize good work from someone
- Did: what I did
- Doing: what I’m doing
- Need help: where I need help

3. Create Mobile Worker Communications Guidelines
Managers should take the lead in this area. Mobile workers can suffer from what is known as a “trust gap” and feel the need to over-communicate, if the burden is on them to initiate communication.  Some mobile workers will end up making a lot of noise about what they’re working on or what they’ve accomplished if clear communications objectives and expectations are not set. At the same time, managers don’t want to convey that they are constantly “checking up” on an employee. Regular, informal communication sessions that are “neutral” in content ensure that no one feels pressured or forgotten, while remote communications guidelines can help mobile workers adjust to being trusted, while meeting expectations.

A huge part of the new workstyle is how enabled we all are these days with our smartphones, the applications available on them, and the increasing levels of computing power available in our hands.  Previously, we laid out 4 reasons why the new workstyle is mobile and wanted to extend that a bit further with this infographic.  Please enjoy and share!

Also, big thanks to the folks at Mashable for publishing it!

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This post was written by Robert Pease, former VP of Marketing at Gist and now marketing guy at RIM. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello – gist.com/robertpease. Be sure to check out my personal blog Reply To All or follow me on Twitter: @ReplyToAll.

Each city has something that makes it unique and Seattle is no exception. Beyond coffee, music, and rain, we think the place we call home is great for startup companies and especially technology ones.  We believe this so much that we created the ‘Seattle Startup Recipe’ to highlight the key ingredients required to make a thriving startup scene and that make Seattle a special place.

Startups can’t happen without a few important ingredients, including innovative and inspired people living and working nearby each other; a community that values collaboration and cooperation; and a local government and population that support new businesses (large and small).

We’ve highlighted a few of the ingredients below. There are many other people and organizations to add to our list so please tell us who you would add in the comments!

Big Tech Companies: Microsoft, Expedia, and Amazon call the Seattle-area home and companies like Zynga, Salesforce.com, and Google have set up shop here too.  These companies support the community and bring smart people here from all over the world.

Angels: Geoff Entress, Andy Sack and Andy Liu are a few of the angel investors that provide early support to startups in the community.

Programs and resources: TechStars, TechCafe and Startup Weekend are a few of the programs in the area that provide a community to collaborate with other like minded individuals.

Local Press: We have local press that is dedicated to covering the startup community. TechFlash, GeekWire and Xconomy to name a few.

Venture Capital: Ignition Partners, Vulcan Capital and Madrona Venture Group are a few of the VCs that provide the capital to supercharge growth and success.

Service Providers: We’ve worked with several great service providers since we started and are always amazed at how capable and enjoyable to work with they all are. A few of those include Bill Bromfield of Fenwick & West, Mike Crill of Atlas Accelerator and Geir Hansen of Silicon Valley Bank.  Definitely check out Seattle 2.0 for a great list of service providers in the Seattle area.

Research Facilities: Last but not least we garnish this recipe with research organizations like the University of Washington and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  More smart people working to change the world!

So, who would you add?  What companies or organizations make the difference here in Seattle?  What does your Startup Recipe look like in your city or town?

Enjoy the image and please share it!

And if you like, Tweet This!

We’ve been talking about the new workstyle and how work is evolving now for several months including laying out the ten characteristics that define it and four reasons why it’s mobile.  We’ve gotten so much great feedback and interest on the topic that we decided to create an infographic that provides a snapshot of what the new workstyle is all about along with a few interesting data points that support it.

Enjoy the image and please share it!

We would love you to try out Gist here.

To find out exactly what Gist does, click here.

You can follow Gist on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed here or have the latest post delivered to your email inbox here.

This post was written by Robert Pease, former VP of Marketing at Gist and now marketing guy at RIM. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello – gist.com/robertpease. Be sure to check out my personal blog Reply To All or follow me on Twitter: @ReplyToAll.

We put forth the concept of the New Workstyle at the beginning of the year and the ten characteristics we described created quite a bit of debate and discussion.  We fundamentally believe that the way we work is transforming and that high performance organizations will embrace these changes to further empower employees, realize the benefits of new innovation, and outpace their competition.

The first characteristic we included was being “mobile” and that this meant “always on and aware.”  This does not mean being a workaholic and failing at balance in your life as some of the comments reflected.  It’s quite the contrary actually.  Being mobile and being enabled with tools to share, communicate, and collaborate regardless of location unlocks new approaches to work and life.

We see four things driving this mobile workstyle:

1.  App marketplaces – where people can search, download, and run applications on their own without the need for IT support or training.  The applications available span work related tasks like time reporting, sales pipelines, and project management to non-work ones like games and photo sharing.  The line between these two categories continues to blur as apps thought of for fun translate into new and innovative ways to market, sell and support.  Most importantly, the technical aptitude of anyone who uses a smartphone and makes app choices goes up with each new app and each new experience.

2.  ”Screening” – interacting with information through various devices be that a phone, tablet, or laptop connected to a wireless network and accessing a multitude of cloud-based applications and content regardless of location or device. You can easily create a document with Google Apps on one device, share it with others, and then access and edit it on any device connected to the Internet all with proper versioning and access controls built in.

3.  Multiple communication channels – seamlessly switching between an email, a phone call, a text message, and a Facebook wall post creates a new dynamic in communication and the ability to share and reach people in your network.  The choice between both synchronous and asynchronous channels depending on the need and urgency opens up a new and more efficient approach to communication.

4.  A true on/off switch – while it may seem counter-intuitive and requires an explicit choice on the part of the individual, being mobile and fully enabled creates more freedom to work when and where you need to most.  News, information, updates, and content are always there and available so having the discipline to structure when and how you use them is essential.

What do you think?  Are there other drivers of the mobile workstyle?  How has your work evolved as you have become more mobile?

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This post was written by Robert Pease, former VP of Marketing at Gist and now marketing guy at RIM. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello – gist.com/robertpease. Be sure to check out my personal blog Reply To All or follow me on Twitter: @ReplyToAll.

Over the past month or so, we have been focusing on how work is evolving into something we are calling the New Workstyle.  Before our fast moving, interconnected, mobile, on-line world appeared, many of us who have been around for a few years had first job experiences pretty much devoid of technology. These formative work experiences define us and our approach to work.

Over on my personal blog, I have been publishing these stories after sharing my own and asking for others.  The response has been great so I am moving this series over to the Gist blog to share these stories and hopefully receive a few more.

We wanted to ask all our Gist fans to share their first job story with us.  Tell us about the first job you ever had, what you did, and what you learned from that experience that you apply to your job today.  Send it to me via email with a picture and we’ll post it here.

Here are some first job stories from friends and fans of Gist that include fast food, farming, a paper route, and even working on a cargo ship:

Gary Palgon

Dave Fauth

Michael Barry

And here are first job stories from a few of us here at Gist covering textile mills, detasseling corn, and kitchen duty:

Robert Pease, Vice President of Marketing

Greg Meyer, Customer Experience Manager

Shane Mac, Marketing Manager

Do you have one you’d like to share?  Send it to me with a picture and we’ll post it here!

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We would love you to try out Gist here.

To find out exactly what Gist does, click here.

You can follow Gist on Twitter here or join us on our Facebook fan page here.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed here or have the latest post delivered to your email inbox here.

This post was written by Robert Pease, Vice President of Marketing at Gist. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello at robert@gist.com.

Here at Gist, we have embraced the phrase “connected people change history” as core to our mission and vision.  We believe that technologies are more accessible than ever to the individual and that the more connected we become, the more we are able to do amazing things.  Over the past couple years, we have talked to many smart people, learned a great deal from user feedback, examined how we work as a team, and looked forward to where we believe things are headed in the future leading us to the notion of  the “new workstyle.”

So, what is the “New Workstyle?”

The New Workstyle blends the latest technologies and tools with our daily activities allowing us to accomplish more in both personal and professional endeavors, accelerate ideas of our own, and lead more productive lives.

Unlike workflow which is defined by scripted and static process for everyone to follow, workstyle is unique to the individual who calls upon information, technology, and connections as needed.

This definition along with our understanding of it will evolve as the pace of innovation accelerates and individual “style” is applied to work.  Jason Fried’s great presentation at a TEDx event about “why work doesn’t happen at work” is an exclamation point on our concept.

We believe there are 10 characteristics of the New Workstyle:

1.  Mobile – always on and aware.

2.  Connected via hi-speed/broadband access – connected by a seriously big pipe.  No dial up in the new workstyle.

3. Self-sufficient - have their own equipment which is often superior to what is provided by their employer or used in lieu of (computers, mobile device, printers, software, etc.). Demonstrate resiliency in their ability to navigate and thrive in an increasingly ambiguous workplace (and world).

4.  Virtual – location independent with minimal impact on contribution.  In fact, productivity is higher as the lines between work time and personal time blur along with designated work and personal locations.

5.  Broad personal and professional on-line networks – meaningful connections across social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn that are not just collected and counted but leveraged and often engaged around questions or for advice.

6.  Productive – not obsessed with productivity per se but owns the concept and applies it every day focusing on outcomes and accomplishments versus activities.  Is always looking for tools and methods to improve an already productive daily pace.

7.  Off-line driven – an important dimension of the new workstyle is both a consciousness and focus on off-line, person-to-person interactions facilitated by on-line tools and forums.

8.  Balances work and personal lives –  knits both work priorities and commitments with personal pursuits throughout the day (and night) combining flexibility with increased overall productivity and contribution to both.

9.  Gives back – thinks beyond themselves to causes, community, or others less fortunate and uses their connections and resources to make significant contributions.

10.  Intellectually curious – constantly seeks out new and betters ways to work by experimenting with new tools, listening to others, and critically examining the things they do and why they do them.

What do you think?  Are there additional characteristics to the New Workstyle that we are missing?  How would you describe your workstyle?  Leave a comment below or send us an email and we’ll post your thoughts here on the Gist blog.

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This post was written by Robert Pease, Vice President of Marketing at Gist. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, feedback, or if you just want to say hello at robert@gist.com.