TAO Podcast (Mobile Work Tip) – Remote PC Access

Phil talks about accessing your home or office PC remotely using an online service called GoToMyPC. This allows you to use any web browser to securely access all documents, email, and programs on your remote computer as though you were sitting in front of it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:35 — 2.4MB)

TAO Podcast (Mobile Work Tip) – Free Conference Calls

In this Mobile Work Tip Phil talks about using free conference call services for real-time brainstorming with people you don’t get to see face to face.

**get more tips like these in our free Mobile Work Tipbook.**

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:06 — 1.9MB)

Travel Delays Highlight the Need for Virtual Team Strategies

Flights delayed for hours by Northeast storms – CNN.com 02/22/2008

We’ve been seeing headlines like this all winter, and we see them EVERY winter; even cavemen knew it was going to snow in winter. But the difficulties imposed on business travel have gone beyond the inevitability of weather delays (which aren’t even always weather events according to CNN 5 Things Airlines Won’t Tell You About Weather Delays), they are compounded by a floundering U.S. Airline industry. Consider this report from the AP wire released earlier this month:

2007 Airline Delays 2nd Worst EverFeb 6, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A quarter of domestic flights failed to arrive on time in 2007 — the industry’s second poorest performance on record — and analysts say it is likely to get worse. More than 26 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived late or were canceled last year as rising passenger demand and an industry preference for smaller planes intensified congestion in the skies and on runways. The air-travel logjam, reported Tuesday by the Department of Transportation, comes as a growing number of air traffic controllers near retirement age — a trend the controllers’ union says will magnify the problem.

Pile on top of all this lost time and frustration the rising cost of travel and it seems pretty clear that something, somewhere has to give. Putting into place some simple virtual office and virtual team strategies can not only serve as a business continuity plan when you or one of your people is stuck on the tarmac in the snow, they can also increase your organization’s communication and collaboration abilities while decreasing the amount of required travel every day.

Let’s face it, at least the cavemen adapted the way they worked to deal with the changes in their environment – it’s called evolution people. Isn’t it time we came in out of the cold?

To explore some of the premiere tools and services related to virtual teamwork download a FREE copy of The Anywhere Office Toolbox. We have been playing in this sandbox a long time and the Toolbox details the service providers we believe are the best in their respective businesses. Most of them offer free trials and special discounts.

TAO Podcast (Mobile Work Tip) – Communication Guidelines

Here’s a new installment of The Anywhere Office podcast: Mobile Work Tips. Phil offers up some best practices for remote work and virtual teams in 2 minute, digestible tips. This first one deals with setting communication guidelines. You can find a collection of tips like these relating to virtual teams, home offices, laptops, email, and palm pilots in our free Mobile Work Tipbook and we’ll be posting more to the podcast moving forward. Let us know what you think, or if there are any topics that you’d like to hear more about.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:11 — 2.0MB)

Virtual Collaboration and Brainstorming – Use the right tools

I recently stumbled on a great article on Read-Write-Web about the “Work From Home” Generation.

They give a good overview of the pros and cons. While I agree with almost all of it, the first issue they raise as a negative is “Brainstorming is difficult”. While I agree initially it can be more challenging while you adapt to collaborating with others virtually, like anything it becomes much easier with practice. A large part of successfully brainstorming and collaboration with others across distance is choosing and “thoughtfully applying” the right technology. This is something we often talk about and stress in our workshops and books. Read more

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