It may seem trivial, but the term smartworking or agile working has been abused a lot lately and it assumes that workers understand that smartworking doesn’t just mean teleworking from home, but a whole series of arrangements that implies, from the point of view of the tools used, the use of collaborative software that make the internal communications within the group lean and effective and are integrated with all the functions of office automation and repository of the documentation produced.
In short, a real paradigm shift that, as we will see, involves not only the workers and the tools used but also the organization starting from the role of the manager.
Team management
From the organizational perspective, and this is perhaps the most important aspect of smartworking, there must be already a well-functioning working team and a leader who is less and less a manager and more and more a coordinator, a coach who knows very well the dynamics of relationship within the group and the knowledge owners of the various issues to be developed and is therefore able to delegate responsibilities taking care also to give credit to all the people who participate in the success of the various activities.
Smart manager
We could say that the manager traditionally understood as the head of the hierarchy to which everyone must report is a role who must disappear in favour of the smartmanager if we really want smartworking to be not only teleworking a little less efficient than traditional work done in the office, but a tool of added value.
In a smartworking team the traditional position of the manager is a loser at the start.
It certainly helps that the team leader is the first to know perfectly how to use the collaborative tools that the group decides to use in order to keep control over the work and the results without forcing the group members to produce particular formats and reports for their exclusive use in order to monitor the work progress.
Responsibilities
The manager retains overall deontological responsibility for the work produced by the group, while responsibility for the various activities is distributed to group members.
The large organizations that will be able to train and coach their employees, starting with managers who will have to become a little less manager and a little more coach of the group, will be the ones that will produce the best results and will become more competitive even after the end of the current emergency.
Yes, because smartworking might be the way to put together the best resources wherever they are. I remember once we were customizing a software in Europe, while the development team was in the States. Every late afternoon at closure of business, we were able to send all issues and punch lists to the development team which was starting its work day while our team in Europe was sleeping and the day after we could start our day with all the solutions proposed ready to be tested.
Results
It is already proven by the facts that companies that already know how to use real smartworking are those that produce the best results.
A big company that was extremely well prepared for the lock down was Amazon, for example, where even before the COVID19 emergency, workers could choose to work in the office or work from outside in smartworking and in any case all the employees were already prepared, equipped and trained to do so.
From home?
Moreover, smartworking means also that everyone can work where they like and not only from home because they are forced to stay there as it happens in these days of real terror. Working in smartworking from home implies, among other things, a solid discipline in the management of working hours and time dedicated to rest, otherwise you end up having a confused day without defined boundaries in which you work without being interrupted during the time planned for work, and you rest and have fun once you have finished working hours in order to avoid the burnout.
