Where Does Inspiration Come From in the Virtual Workplace?
In the digital world you are alone with who and what you are, more so than in the f2f office. You are alone with your mind and your thoughts. You need to be able to think, manage and inspire yourself. This is nothing new; humans have been doing it for an eternity. It wasn’t until the transformation of the agrarian age into the industrialized age that we went from creative jobs to thoughtless rote jobs that lacked spontaneity. On the farm things were done creatively in a self-reliant, self-inspired atmosphere. Even in the age of hunter-gatherers, humans had to be flexible and inventive.
Intrinsic inspiration leads to independence and autonomy. Independence and autonomy in turn lead to success. Steve Covey in the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” talks about the need to go from being dependent to independent, and then to a state of interdependence. This is very true in the digital world. The theme of collaboration surfaces time and time again when discussing e-learning and workshifting, but before you can collaborate on a global level you have to be able to act independently or with autonomy. This requires a sense of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and self-governance (18).
You need to take charge of your thinking. In doing so, your responses will provoke positive emotions and vice versa. In other words you need to stay focused and be intrinsically inspired. If you are going to “think outside the box” then your box needs to be open at the top. The term “Think out of the box” implies doing something differently, expanding beyond what is normal and pushing your limits. Your perspective is your box and it is unrealistic to ask people to all of a sudden think outside of the box. You have the ability to learn anything you set your mind to, and when you learn, you get a bigger box. No, no one will give you a bigger box, you must create it yourself. The box is your mind. It is your thought processes and any limitations you create for yourself. Knowledge and awareness are contents of your box. Are you managing the contents? Is it effective and productive? #VirtualWork #PJEffect #RemoteWork
