REVIEW: Ali Greene and Tamara Sanderson — Remote Works (BOOK):
Ali Greene and Tamara Sanderson pull no punches while keeping things cool in their new book, straightforwardly titled Remote Works: Managing for Freedom, Flexibility, and Focus. As the title suggests, Greene and Sanderson are advocating for an embrace of the increasing digitization of the workplace — whilst acknowledging the challenges along the way and how to navigate them with a sense of pragmatism, and some good-humored class to boot. “Our biggest fear was that the promise of remote work would be taken away for future generations of knowledge workers due to failed experimentation before most people even got to experience the true benefits: Seemingly simple benefits like creating our workdays around our natural energy peaks and valleys, and enjoying the freedom of choice in our schedule and locations,” Greene and Sanderson write. “Bigger benefits too.
RELATED URL: https://www.remoteworksbook.com/about-us
Because of remote work, we found our partners, developed meaningful relationships, learned from other cultures, improved our health, and had the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest people from around the world. We’ve spent time teaching people on the fundamental questions you should be asking if you are committed to exploring remote options for your team. Many of those questions are woven throughout these pages. We found that once you start questioning, there is no stopping. With remote work, you open the doors to redefine work-life balance, success, and so much more!”
They also aptly write, “Fundamentally, remote work puts a magnifying glass on all aspects of an organization: the good, the bad, and the ugly. We believe the bad and the ugly are merely areas to improve and problems to solve. While we don’t claim to have all the answers, we do believe in you — a competent, capable, and creative human being. That’s why Remote Works leans on reflection questions, expert interviews, group activities, and stories so that you can cocreate the best remote work life for yourself and your team — along with us, chapter by chapter. No special software needed.
No complex reorganizational plan required…The roles and responsibilities of a traditional manager are spread across multiple personas in remote, creating a network effect. Rather than going to one manager for all your work needs, you’ll build relationships with multiple people, creating a deep sense of connection in a virtual environment. For example, you might go to one manager for professional development and another for feedback on a project. Ultimately, everyone has multiple managers and becomes some type of manager persona.”
By making things presentationaly so straightforward, Greene and Sanderson make things considerably easier in terms of considering any potential ramifications related to the digitization of the workplace. Much of this could be considerably overwhelming if taken to the extreme. But there’s something reassuring about the way Greene and Sanderson write. They don’t string you around with any flowery BS, nor make things too overwhelming in terms of articulation. They’re straight-shooters, and I commend that.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Works-Managing-Freedom-Flexibility/dp/1523003316
“Sure, there had been hype around digital nomadism and beachfront coworking hubs on Instagram…But the real mass movement to remote working happened in 2020 when COVID-19 turned the world upside down. Knowledge workers and their organizations were slingshot into the future with little preparation and lots of panic…We’ll remember the early 2020s as the years we survived by adapting to remote work.”
Colin Jordan
