Highlights

Members of the New Ways of Working Network will join in developing a scenario of what business might be like if dramatic hikes in oil prices became permanent, and how work systems (workplace, work practices, technology) would need to change as a result.

At this tertulia, we will: (1) revise the scenario as needed, and then (2) brainstorm some of the responses/changes in the work system that will be needed to adapt if the scenario were to occur.

This event will be entirely virtual. Watch the newsletter for updates.

Date: September 24, 2009
Time: 9am – noon, PDT

NewWOW is pleased to announce our newest member organization: The Business Innovation Consulting Group (BICG). BICG is a global strategic consulting company with headquarters in Madrid and offices in Barcelona, Stuttgart, and Buenos Aires.
Their services cover a range of disciplines and industries. Principal offerings include New Ways of Working, Urban Development and Urban Clusters.

Symposium 7, planned for June 7 through 10, 2009, will address Change Management for New Ways of Working. This theme follows the result of our 2008 Alternative Workplace Benchmark Study, which found that the top two barriers concerned change management: "Manager Concerns," and "Organizational Change." An overview of the topic will be followed by a series of discussion groups on aspects such as: types of changes required, change management strategies and tactics, and measuring success.

The theme of our January 2009 symposium was Generation Y and the Workplace. It featured an in-progress report from the OXYGENZ research team of Maria Puyabaraud of Johnson Controls, Jay Brand and Sally Augustin of Haworth, and Simon Russell of IDEA. The OXYGENZ research seeks to understand how important the workplace is to attracting, recruiting and retaining Generational Y workers. The team created an engaging online survey which visually creates their ideal workplace and provides an original way to reach this group. Go to www.oxygenz.com to take the survey.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has joined NewWOW. GSA's representative to NewWOW is Kevin Powell, Director of Research, Office of Applied Science, GSA, Public Buildings Service.

Kevin’s group, the Office of Applied Science, currently has 20 Active Projects in three key research areas:

• Adopt sustainability practices and high performance building strategies
  
• Improve workplace effectiveness
  
• Optimize building delivery, energy efficiency and operations.

NewWOW commissioned a research paper, Intercultural Collaboration in Global Teams by Professors Pamela Hinds and Catherine Cramton. This paper was presented at the 5th NewWOW Symposium, held July 13-16 2008 in San Jose, CA.
The authors describe the challenges and opportunities in intercultural collaboration and the impact of culture on best practices for globally distributed work teams.

NewWOW’s fifth symposium was held July 13 through July 16, 2008 in San Jose, California. We explored the impact of culture on best practices for distributed work groups. Our keynoter was Professor Pamela Hinds of Stanford University, who also wrote a research paper on the subject for the Symposium. Her research helped us understand how culture could affect perception and acceptance of distributed work practices, and by implication, whether different work practices would be needed when distant teams included people from different cultures.

SMART Technologies Inc. and Haworth have both announced their commitment to be sponsors of the New Ways of Working Network for a second year. Haworth has also expressed a desire to host at least three tertulia in Haworth showrooms around North America. We're grateful for their continued support and look forward to working closely with both companies again this year.