Working from the Casa

I work from home. And like anyone who works from home, I know its got its ups and downs. Ups: no traffic, no other people, no firm schedule. Downs: feeling of isolation, limited communication, and sometimes a little difficulty concentrating at the beginning. But that’s not to say that I am the only one, or even a tiny minority. Around 24 million today in the US work from home, that’s 16 per cent of total employment!

More shockingly, its has been proven over and over again, through research by companies such as British Telecommunications, that those individuals who work from home are 20% more productive than those who work from the office. That’s not to say that people should do it everyday. I am a firm believer that there should be a balance between working at home and going to the office. For one, it allows people to feel that they are included in the work place and connect with colleagues rather than just feeling like an contractor slaving away on projects in the silence of your home with no understanding of what the others in your company are doing. Secondly, it provides the necessary break from the monotony of always working in the same place. Thirdly, sometimes its completely unnecessary to take the train or stand in traffic for two hours everyday to get to the office. You could be spending that time with your family or even better, sleeping.

For this I would like to highlight an interesting new initiative here in Spain called El Dia de la Oficina en Casa (http://www.eldiadelaoficinaencasa.es/) or as I like to call it: Everyone should try working from home Day.  Its June 22. Go ahead and try it! You might just enjoy it!

Amazon, Tolstoy, and Open Innovation

There is a big reason why The Little Observer has been silent for so long. And that reason is Amazon. But let me explain.

Earlier this month, The Little Observer had the opportunity to attend a speech given by the father of open innovation, Henry Chesbrough. Yes, he discussed open innovation. But most important for The Little Observer was his idea that, in order to stay competitive, we need to see the product we are producing not simply as a product, but as a complete service. Chesbrough gave examples of old-school cell phones and compared them to a modern day smart phones (like the Windows Phone 7), which are no longer just phones but a service in and of themselves rather than being a product. Which most of us cant live without.

Now to get back on track: About a month and a half ago, the Little Observer used her Kindle as a cushion on the beach and most embarrassingly, she cracked the screen while sitting on it. Used to these types of mishaps, the Little Observer called Amazon customer service and explained that her beloved Kindle was not working. Not only did Amazon not ask any questions, but free of charge they agreed to send the Little Observer a new Kindle device to her address abroad. Joy and fireworks rang all around because just at that moment, the Little Observer was in the middle of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and could not wait to continue reading about that tragic love affair.

But not all was well in paradise. A month went by, the Little Observer watched her mailbox in vain. Again she used her Skype to call Amazon customer service. The woman was so apologetic, that not only was the Kindle sent out by International First Class courier but the Little Observers Amazon account was credited $50. Now that’s what I call service! No wonder Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the United States (with nearly 3 times the Internet sales revenue of runner-up Staples)! But bringing this back to Chesbrough, the Kindle is so successful not only because it is a revolutionary product changing the way we perceive books, but also because its Wi-Fi capabilities allow us to upload magazines, newspapers, and books directly onto it and has made it an indispensible part of our lives.

And so  Amazon is to blame for temporarily silencing the Little Observer by returning Anna Karenina, which is a book that consumes a persons entire free time, thoughts and passions. But the Little Observer has overcome its grasp and will continue thinking and speaking again! What else can we revolutionize… what other product can we turn into an indispensible service?

Visca el Barca!

 

                                              

All I have to say is that the professionalism of Pep Guardiola could not have contrasted more with the disgusting attitude of Mourinho. The Little Observer couldn’t help but notice that throughout the game Mourinho looked more and more like a disgusting little fish. Its uncertain why he would be smiling when his team no longer acts like a European football team but more like a second league US hockey team, but  that’s probably why the refs ultimately had to lock even him, the coach, up in a cage.

And so the citizens of Barcelona can sigh with relief after the horrors of last week and only hope for the best next week. Here’s to staying professional, keeping your cool, and always believing in your team. Let the horns blare and let all the pubs rejoice with song. Visca el Barca!

Simple Pleasures

After my last post, one well-meaning reader explained to me that I should write about things that I know, and stop trying to start revolutions. I couldn’t agree more. So this one is about living alone.

Did you know that roughly 20 % of the population of North America lives alone in both the rural and urban environment? 41 percent of households in Tokyo were comprised of only one person in 2000 and 46 million people currently live by themselves in Europe. Fifty percent of Moscow residents are living alone and in the Netherlands, there were 2.5 million single-person households in 2006, nearly 400,000 more than ten years earlier. That’s not to mention Manhattan where solos accounted for 48% of all households on the island in 2005!

                                        

Why are so many people living alone? We could just say that we’ve all become reclusive anti-social hobbits who like to hide in our own caves and snicker silently at one another through curtained windows.

Or we could look at the logical reasons: women becoming more financially independent, changing demographics of the family (less inter-generational cohabitation), diminished social pressure to have kids (or get married), women outliving their male partners, and the development of a new society: the virtual one. We no longer need to leave our homes to feel completely in tune with reality and society. We just need to turn on our computers, read the news, check our email, and log-on to whatever social network tickles our fancy. We can even virtually call our friend/significant other/family member/dog and have their pretty face appear on our screen.

                                        

Its arguable and completely subjective whether living alone is nice or not. But the Little Observer has realized that living alone allows you to enjoy simple pleasures that you really don’t stop to think about when someone is always there. Like eating the last delicious puffed pastry in the middle of the night… while wearing something that should have been discarded during the late 80s… blasting Madonna, or worse, Katy Perry… leaving things exactly where they should be even if it means in the middle of the room.. never losing anything.. and never having to explain to anyone why suddenly a Rimbaud poem is scrawled across the living room wall in bright acrylic paint.

Sources: http://www.nisnews.nl/public/031006_1.htm; http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005050.html; http://tochi.mlit.go.jp/h16hakusho/ch1_se3/setsu_1-3_eng.htm; http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-02-living-alone_x.htm

Technology + Revolution

Just when we thought America and Obama couldn’t possibly look worse… the media gets access to classified Guantanamo Bay files! It is not that the files said anything we didn’t already suspect, it was just that they brought it to the public sphere as the top story on the New York Times, The Guardian in the UK, and others around the world. The Little Observer is sickened nonetheless by the descriptions and in this situation, has no interest in repeating the details. You can read them for yourself.

                             

But what The Little Observer would like to highlight, is the use of technology to change the situation. Anyone who previously had their eyes closed, couldn’t possibly keep them closed after reading these reports (or even just about them). Perhaps there’s still not much we can do but just talk about it. Where are the Vietnam-era demonstrations? Where are the students taking to the streets? Are we really so tainted that we no longer know what to stand up for? Do we simply not care? Or is the overload of information rendering us helpless? Perhaps the next revolution will be through technology. Perhaps the revolution has already started. Perhaps this dissemination of information is the revolution: aiming to open the publics eyes, to force those in positions of power to own up to their actions, to take responsibility and to change their ways. They say that the Egyptian revolution would not have happened without the internet, without Facebook, and without people beginning to speak out online before the the actual revolts started on the streets. How much more needs to be exposed about the American government before we ourselves will not be able to handle it any longer?

Teamwork

Several weeks ago while walking the streets of Sitges on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I came upon a crowd of people gathering on the beach. I decided to wait and see what would happen. Although it took them over an hour to all come together on the beach, they only needed a mere 5 minutes to climb one on top of the other in order to create one of the tallest castells I have ever seen. Perhaps I have been thinking too much about productivity lately, but I couldn’t help but relate this to the way an organization works. Just as in an castell, an organization has specific groups working together to create something larger. Each level of the castell is equally as important as the other and, furthermore, the castell simply would not come together without any one of the “departments” or so we can call them. The strength and the endurance of those in the first level is just as necessary as the agility and speed of the little child on the top. The physical preparation of each person, their presence, and their individual contribution is obvious in a castell. Weakness is not tolerated and effort is rewarded through increased trust and responsibility. The castell can only be created because each person on the team can trust and, literally, lean on the others to accomplish his/her part of the project. We can learn a lot from the way a castell works, whether or not we can apply it to our organization is a different question. Building trust and gathering the right people takes time and effort, both from the top down and at an individual level. But in the opinion of the Little Observer, that effort is well worth it.