Kathie Lingle's Work-Life Blog

Hot Off The Press! New Workplace Flexibility Tool

May 20, 2008 — It’s finally here, after an eight-month gestation. Workplace Flexibility: Innovation in Action is the first phase of a new flexibility implementation tool. This novel publication is designed to be highly actionable, even by non-experts. It contains both a powerful diagnostic device and prescriptive guidance. 

This physical booklet is the first pit stop along the way to what will become a Web-based flexibility roadmap. The notion of flexibility as a journey that can be mapped out and navigated by means of relevant landmarks and familiar signposts was envisioned by the highly creative and experienced group of university and private-industry flexibility experts who participated in the AWLP/Alfred P. Sloan Working Retreat on Workplace Flexibility in Utah last September.

Written primarily by Linda Roundtree, President of Roundtree Consulting, edited by Andrea Ozias here at WorldatWork, with contributions from just about everyone who attended the Retreat and lots more work-life experts who didn’t, this deceptively small-sized booklet is mighty.

Because we have entered an era where there is an abundance of existing resources for creating flexible workplaces, our intent is not to create new material, but to guide people strategists of all backgrounds to the most appropriate research, action steps, contacts, case studies, tools, policy samples and measurement approaches that match their organization’s needs and culture.

So, this resource represents a collaboration of the major institutions and lots of the experts in the work-life field, but we’re only beginning the journey. We need your involvement, too. This is a working draft, on its way to a Web incarnation that will become much more powerful, and could lead right to your door. So please contribute your flexible best – stories, toolkits, communication templates – whatever you’ve got that works. Together, we’re creating more flexible, healthier places to work everywhere, for everyone. 

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WorldatWork and its affiliate, Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP).