The Borderless Workplace: The critical 4 capabilities for the new world of work

borderless learning
The
Borderless
Workplace
4 Terence Brake
The critical4 capabilities for the new world of work

Foreword Borderless working
e-book series
Borderless
Collaboration
Terence Brake
People working together across borders to create value
Cultural
Intelligence
Terence Brake
People building productive relationships in a world of difference
Digital
Fluency
Terence Brake
People making the best use of new borderless technologies
Matrix
Working
Terence Brake
People working ﬂexibly in complex environments
The Borderless Workplace series of e-books is
aimed at providing people at all organizational
levels with a map for navigating the changing
world of work.
The first e-book in the series – The Borderless
Workplace: The critical4 capabilities for the
new world of work presents an overview of
how globalization and digital technologies are
transforming where, when and how work gets
done.
The four remaining e-books are practical guides
to four people capabilities needed for achieving
high performance: Borderless Collaboration,
Cultural Intelligence, Digital Fluency, and Matrix
Working.
© 2013 Transnational Management Associates Ltd
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any license permitting limited
copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road,
London W1T 4LP, United Kingdom.
First Published in 2013
By Transnational Management Associates Ltd (TMA World)
180 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9HF, United Kingdom.

Contents
Personal note
The new era of work
Borderless thinking
The critical4 people capabilities
Wrap up
About TMA World
Main references
Borderless working at the ground level
The borderless challenge
A world without borders?
Thinking about thinking
The mindset challenge
Critical4 overview
Matrix Working
Borderless Collaboration
Digital Fluency
Cultural Intelligence
05
07
09
11
27
29
31
37
47
49
51
59
67
81
91
93
95

“
“
0605
Personal note
I am writing this e-book in a house
on Main Street in Waterford, Virginia.
Established in 1733, Waterford is now
largely residential, but was once a
center of commerce. As I look out my
study window, I imagine the noise and
bustle of millers, blacksmiths, furniture
makers, farmers, and shopkeepers. I
imagine shrieks and cries of children
playing in the yard of the one-room
schoolhouse. I imagine them sitting in
pin-drop silence listening to a teacher
who is the source of all knowledge.
I imagine the street and the tavern
buzzing with news and gossip.
If I had grown up in this village in
the 18th century, my work, social
and learning networks would have
been very limited – immediate family
members and small groups of friends
and neighbors. My work would have
been local, and I would have worked
with my colleagues in the same
physical space – a workshop, a mill, a
farm, a shop.
Where are my work, social, and
learning networks today? Not in the
village.
My social network is mostly online,
as are my sources of gossip, news,
and learning. I carry my worldwide
network of work colleagues, and 24/7
information resources, in my pocket or
in an over-the-shoulder bag.
The agrarian work life of the early
village gave way to the industrial age,
and that, in turn, is giving way to the
age of digital networks. My workplace
is my laptop screen.
Cisco has calculated that mobile
Internet devices (including laptops)
are on the verge of outnumbering the
people of earth, reaching 10 billion
by 2016. Already an estimated 1/3
of the world’s population is online.
As a consequence, where, when,
and how work gets done, and with
whom is flexible. Most of my work
colleagues are based in other parts of
the US, different countries in Europe,
or in Asia. Much of the time we work
together in virtual space, and very
occasionally we meet face-to-face. We
have different cultural backgrounds,
and operate from different time zones,
but we work as a borderless team.
The borderless workplace is not a
futuristic concept. It is the present
day reality for a rapidly growing
number of companies and individuals
worldwide.
In this context, the question posed by
management thinker, Gary Hamel, is
important to each of us as well as our
organizations.
…are we
changing as
fast as the
world around
us?

0807
The new era of work
. . . we have moved
decisively from what we
called ‘globalization’ into
a new era of global inter-
connectedness [Global 2.0],
where not just goods but
information and ideas flow
across borders constantly
and (for the most part)
freely as near universal
access to Internet-enabled
communications moves
closer to reality.
“
“
William J. Amelio, CEO Lenovo

Borderless working at the ground level
The new era of work
if they can meet for lunch. Given his
background in social media, David
has taken the initiative to explore the
use of crowdsourcing for developing
project solutions.
Walking to the office from the station,
her phone rings and she takes a call
from Istanbul, Turkey. Azmi, the HR
manager is worried about some local
issues with the new performance
management software.
This could be a long call, so she
decides to call him back from a coffee
shop that’s on her way. The issues are
troubling, and could have an impact
beyond Turkey. She is visiting the R&D
facility in Bangalore, India, next week,
and thinks it might be worthwhile
breaking up her return trip with a
visit to Azmi and some of his team.
However, before using her smartphone
to change flights, she posts a message
on the internal social media system to
see if anyone else has heard of other
local issues with the software.
While on the social media site, she
checks if anyone in the business has
responded to her request for ideas on
developing more effective collaboration
between her software developers and
the mobile European sales teams.
There is some good thinking, so she
decides to set up an online meeting in
which those ideas can be explored.
During the program manager feedback
session, she decides to find two
freelance software developers who
can help complete the XYZ project on
schedule. Before leaving the office,
she conducts a search on LinkedIn and
sets up four interviews on Skype for
the coming Wednesday and Thursday.
On the train back home, she accesses
a cultural information database and
starts reading about the business
cultures in India and Turkey. She has
never visited either country before,
and believes some background
research would be useful, e.g.
communication styles, negotiating
tips, and what to expect in meetings.
The scientific writer, William Gibson,
said that “The future is already here –
it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
Elizabeth’s day may seem somewhat
futuristic to some, but ‘business
as usual’ for others. If we really
wanted to be futuristic we would have
Elizabeth conjuring up workplaces
– complete with 3D avatars of her
colleagues – by touching an interactive
surface covered with ‘smart paint’.
That’s futuristic – for the moment!
One of the problems of writing about
the borderless workplace is that the
focus tends to be on the capabilities of
the technology, not on the capabilities
and needs of the people using the
technologies to get work done.
In this book, we look at the borderless
workplace challenge from the people
perspective. It is guided by the
question, “How can I help myself and
my organization be successful in this
new world of work?”
After an early morning teleconference
at home with the virtual team she
leads, Elizabeth is going into the
London hub for a feedback meeting
with one of her more experienced
program managers. She could do it
via Skype, but she prefers to have
such a meeting face-to-face.
Elizabeth knows that in a highly
competitive, rapidly changing, and
uncertain environment, the business
as a whole needs to be very agile, and
so does she in order to get the best
out of her diverse team members.
Elizabeth has four generations on her
team, as well as different national,
organizational, and functional cultures.
While having breakfast, she checks
emails on her tablet computer, sends
replies to the most urgent, and re-
prioritizes some tasks. Following the
teleconference with members of her
team, she realizes she forgot to ask
whether any of them were going into
the London hub today. On the train,
she checks the calendars of her virtual
team on her smartphone. She notices
David is going in and texts him to see
Elizabeth’s day
Business as usual?
1009

The new era of work
1211
The global
stage is in a
state of
perpetual
motion.
“
“
Kenichi Omae
Visualize a game of soccer at kickoff.
Two teams of 11 players are facing
each other on a field whose outer
boundaries are marked in white; a
line across the field marks the half-
way point. The players on each team
are distributed in their half of the field
depending on the position they play.
At each end of the field are goal posts,
and there are also white lines that
mark penalty areas. It all looks very
orderly.
The kickoff whistle is blown. Now
imagine the scene if all the white
boundary lines suddenly disappeared,
and other teams with an unlimited
number of players ran onto the field
to compete; also imagine the scene if
the goal posts were continually moving
and numerous referees joined in –
each one with a different set of rules.
The nature of change has changed.
You get the picture.
This is today’s business
environment.
Change
Past
Change
Present/Future

The new era of work
1413
Gone are the days when globalization
was simply multinationals from
advanced economies spreading their
power and influence across borders.
Companies from emerging markets
are wielding much more power. Think
of:
Lenovo (China) – now the world’s
largest maker of PCs
Tata (India) – a conglomerate with
a market capitalization of $90 billion
that earns 58 percent of its revenues
outside of India. The Reputation
Institute ranked Tata as the 11th most
reputable company in the world.
While Lenovo and Tata are becoming
well-known names, there are many
other emerging market companies
becoming ‘global challengers’. The
Boston Consulting Group issued a
study on 100 fast growing and fast
globalizing companies from emerging
markets [1]. The companies included
Alibaba (the largest e-commerce
company in China), Trina Solar
(the world’s 4th largest solar panel
manufacturer), Naspers (a South
African media giant). While China and
India dominated the list, there were
also companies from Egypt, Colombia,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Chile.
While the digital revolution and
globalization have been with us
for some time, how are businesses
doing in their response? According to
research conducted by Accenture and
the Economist Intelligence Unit:
Change has been driven by two
powerful and interdependent forces in
the business environment:
Digital technologies
Multi-polar globalization
New information can impact the
rest of the globe at the speed of the
Internet, and information is being
created 24/7. As Eric Schmidt of
Google said, “There is more content
being created in 48 hours today than
was created from the beginning of
time ‘til 2003!”
The digital age is not simply about
the transfer of information in its
many forms. As Don Tapscott,
author of Wikinomics says, “This is
not an information age. It’s an age
of networked intelligence.” This is
an age in which we have access to
the intelligence of not just a few,
but multitudes; an age that makes
mass collaboration possible. Such
collaboration radically alters our
capabilities to innovate, influence,
and get things done.
Multi-polar
globalization
Strikingly, only 11
percent of business
leaders surveyed believe
that their companies are
significantly advanced in
their strategic response
to the disruptive
business environment
brought about by the
intersection of the
multi-polar world and
developments in IT.
“
“

The borderless challenge: Realities
The new era of work
1615
Competition: Multi-polar globalization means competition is coming from here, there,
and everywhere. This means there is a continuous need to be proactive, responsive,
and agile. We experience rapid changes in the marketplace requiring continuous
adaptation in strategy, decision-making, and action. It is increasingly more difficult to
plan for change often leaving us feeling disoriented, overwhelmed and unprepared.
Complexity: Diverse – yet often interconnected and conflicting - business models,
management systems, legal and regulatory systems, customers, suppliers,
stakeholders, geographies, employees, and socio-political systems make up a complex
business environment. Often, complex problems cannot be managed with existing
knowledge and know-how; they require collaborative solutions and innovation.
Connectivity: Information technologies have long been used to create efficiencies
and productivity. Advanced virtual communication and collaboration technologies are
going further by enabling business transformations. The ‘connected’, ‘networked’,
‘matrixed’, ‘latticed’, and ‘borderless’ enterprise are names for organizational forms
enabled by the digital revolution.
Cultures: Being more digitally connected doesn’t mean we are more culturally or
psychologically connected. In a world of virtual and face-to-face interactions across
borders we often experience difficulty in understanding what is happening or in
identifying what is significant. There is an increased chance for misreading situations
because the reality might be interpreted in more than one way.
Competition
Complexity
Connectivity
Cultures
Agile
Innovative
Tech smart
Adaptable
Matrix working
Borderless collaboration
Digital fluency
Environmental forces Realities Organizational Capabilities People Capabilities
These are some of the specific business realities triggered by the powerful
environmental forces.

The new era of work
1817
The borderless challenge: Organizational Capabilities
The new era of work
Agile: The ability of an organization to change rapidly in response to changes in the
environment, e.g. the emergence of new competitors, disruptive technologies, and
sudden changes in market conditions.
Based on research by both McKinsey and The Economist Intelligence Unit, 90 percent
of executives rank organizational agility as critical to business success [3]. Research
at MIT shows that agile firms grow revenue 37 percent faster and generate 30 percent
higher profits than non-agile companies. [4]

Innovative: The willingness and ability of networks of people and teams to innovate
their way through complex problems, by working together across internal and
external boundaries.

The story of Procter & Gamble (P&G) is telling [5]. In early 2000, the company’s
share price had fallen nearly 50 percent, resulting in the loss of $85 billion in market
capitalization. Despite huge spending on R&D, only 35 percent of new products
reached their financial objectives. The new CEO, A.G. Lafley, was confident that
collaboration was the key to the company’s future value. He wanted to make P&G
the company that “collaborates inside and out, better than any company in the
world.” A study showed that P&G’s most profitable innovations came from internal
collaborations across business units or from external collaboration with researchers on
the outside. Twenty cross-functional ‘communities of practice’ were established within
P&G, and Lafley determined that 50 percent of P&G’s products, ideas and technologies
would be developed externally.
By 2008, P&G had improved its R&D productivity by 60 percent, and more than
doubled its innovation success rate.
Technologies facilitate collaborative innovation, but they are by no means sufficient.
As Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat said, “. . . collaboration is a culture, not a set of
tools.”
Competition
Complexity
Connectivity
Cultures
Agile
Innovative
Tech smart
Adaptable
Matrix working
Digital fluency
Four organizational capabilities stand out as being of highest priority at this time

The new era of work
Tech Smart: The traditional view has always associated information technology
with efficiency and productivity. That is certainly a valid perspective. Work networks
(based on social media technologies) will become a common feature in organizations
seeking greater agility, and according to McKinsey, “…by fully implementing social
technologies, companies have an opportunity to raise the productivity of interaction
workers – high-skill knowledge workers, including managers and professionals – by 20
to 25 percent.” That includes:
25-30% productivity improvement in reading and answering e-mail
30-35% productivity improvement in search and gathering information
25-35% productivity improvement in communicating and collaborating internally [6]
Productivity is only part of the story. According to IBM:
“The view that technology is primarily a driver of efficiency is outdated; CEOs now
see technology as an enabler of collaboration and relationships – those essential
connections that fuel creativity and innovation.” [7]
Adaptable: The ability of people in an organization to handle the uncertainties
and ambiguities that are inevitable when vertical, horizontal, regional, national,
professional, functional, and linguistic boundaries are crossed.
Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit points to cultural and language
differences as being particularly challenging:
“The single most common challenge, selected by 56% of executives polled, relates to
the misunderstandings that emerge as a result of cultural and language differences
from teams operating globally.”
The borderless challenge: Organizational Capabilities
Competition
Complexity
Connectivity
Cultures
Agile
Innovative
Tech smart
Adaptable
Matrix working
Digital fluency
Four organizational capabilities stand out as being of highest priority at this timeFour organizational capabilities stand out as being of highest priority at this time
2019

The new era of work
2221
The new era of work
The borderless challenge: People Capabilities
Competition
Complexity
Connectivity
Cultures
Agile
Innovative
Tech smart
Adaptable
Matrix working
Digital fluency
Based on these critical organizational capabilities, four specific capabilities emerge
for people development – The Critical4
Matrix Working
People with the thinking and behavioral
agility to produce high levels of
performance in complex environments.
Digital Fluency
People with the ability to make the most
effective use of new communications
and collaboration technologies.
People with the mindsets and skills
to work together across borders to
innovate and create value.
People with the adaptability to
bridge and leverage differences
between individuals and groups.

The new era of work
The borderless challenge: Summary
Competition
Complexity
Connectivity
Cultures
Agile
Innovative
Tech smart
Adaptable
Matrix working
Digital fluency
Organizations that can acquire these capabilities stand to benefit in a number of ways:
Faster responsiveness in pursuing growth opportunities and managing risks
Increased organizational cohesion and integration
Deeper and more value-added collaborations with customers and other stakeholders
Faster and better quality decision making through increased sharing of knowledge, skills, and experience
Faster workplace learning and application of best practices
More efficient and effective face-to-face and virtual project collaborations across the organization
Increased innovation through the cross-pollination of diverse perspectives and styles
Increased productivity through more seamless cross-border communication
2423

Key messages
The new era of work
2625
Connectivity of people on a
global scale; and multiple
Cultures needing to
communicate and work
together.
Faced with these realities,
businesses must actively
work on capabilities for the
organization as a whole, and
capabilities for people in the
organization.
The borderless organizational
capabilities are: Agile;
Innovative; Tech smart; and
Adaptable.
The borderless people
capabilities are: Matrix
Working; Borderless
Collaboration; Digital Fluency;
and Cultural Intelligence (The
Critical4)
The borderless work ‘place’ is
often just a screen and an ear
piece
Borderless working is
about working with anyone,
anywhere, at any time and
from any device – across a city,
a country, or across continents
Managing in a borderless
workplace is more about
orchestrating people and
resources rather than
establishing command and
control
Organizational and personal
agility are critical to success
The nature of change has
changed
Two forces have been
transforming the business
environment and driving the
borderless workplace: Digital
Technologies and Multi-Polar
Globalization
These two forces have put the
spotlight on four realities for
businesses to contend with:
Competition from everywhere;
Complexity in the environment
and inside the organization;

2827
Borderless thinking
Organizations that
remove the artificial
boundaries around how,
where, and when work
gets done are those that
are winning in today’s
marketplace. They are
more flexible, more
efficient, and better
able to respond to rapid
change.
“
“
Fiona Laird, Co-Lead, ‘Agile Working’ program,
Unilever

A world without borders?
Borderless thinking
3029
…despite the
steady falling
away of many
boundaries in
society, government
and commerce, the
global workforce
still finds itself
encumbered
by numerous
impediments that
inhibit the ability
of organizations
to quickly respond
to emerging
opportunity.
“
“
Working Beyond Borders. IBM, 2010
businesses efficiently. In conditions
of rapid change and increased
complexity, many borders have
become obstructions to effectiveness.
New technologies like social media
are making an assault on traditional
borders. Just think of the borders
being tested by the generation,
processing, and mobility of
information.
Company – Customers
Products - Services
Functional Silos – Multifunctional
Virtual Teams
Work Place – Home Place
National Borders – Digital
Communities
In reality the workplace isn’t
borderless, but we must – for the sake
of responsiveness, innovation and
overall competitiveness - think and act
as if it is or can be.
Do we live and work in a world
without borders? The answer is, “No,
we don’t.” In the past, we relied
heavily on up, down, and across
organizational borders to run our

Borderless thinking
3231
Borders? I
have never
seen one. But
I have heard
they exist in
the minds of
some people.
“
“
Thor Heyerdahl
The room was separated into two
halves by an aisle way – about 8
feet wide. Before beginning my
presentation, I asked the members
of the audience to shake hands with
people sitting next to them. As I
suspected, not one person on the end
of the rows (those sat next to the
aisle) crossed over that 8 foot gap to
shake hands with their more ‘distant’
neighbor. The physical effort to cross
that ‘border’ wouldn’t have been at all
difficult for the great majority of the
audience, but the psychological effort
was daunting.
Borders – real or imagined – influence
how we think and behave.
If we are to be successful in the new
workplace, we must pay attention to
how our minds are influencing our
perceptions of borders, and of our
ability to cross them.
We all have habits of mind, and it is
important that we develop greater
awareness of what habits shape our
typical understandings of the world,
our judgments of others, and of the
The invisible borderline strategies we use for solving problems
(in psychology this is known as
metacognition). We would be engaged
in metacognitive thinking if in The
Invisible Borderline illustration, we
asked ourselves questions like, “What
assumptions am I making about ‘next
to me’?” “What thought process
is constraining me from getting up
from my chair and walking across the
aisle?”
Let’s look at another example.
Roland has been collaborating on a
multicultural virtual team for a few
weeks and is increasingly frustrated
with some of the other members.
Roland knows he needs to spend more
time getting to know his colleagues,
but he also realizes he needs to get to
know himself better. After one virtual
meeting he decides to spend some
time reflecting on what his responses
to others can tell him about his own
way of thinking and decision making.
He realizes that the problem solving
styles of some of his colleagues cause
him to judge their information and
ideas more negatively than others.
For example, when first discussing
a problem, one of his colleagues
always wants to explore the context
of the problem in great detail. Roland
wants to get to the point much faster,
identify a solution, and move to action
quickly. Reflecting on the meeting,
Roland becomes aware that his own
approach could have caused the team
to miss some vital information. With
this awareness, Roland decides to
monitor his thinking more consciously,
to suspend assumptions, and to see
through others’ eyes more often.
By thinking about his own thinking,
Roland is developing a more
borderless mindset.

33
Borderless thinking
34
In a VUCA world, complex (not just
complicated) challenges are common
and collaboration is the only effective
way forward. No one has all the
answers or all the information, or even
the one true definition of the problem.
Opening up our thinking to self-
examination and self-monitoring is
extremely important. Why? Ours is
a world of complex problems that
do not respect traditional borders or
ingrained habits of mind.
We are faced with a business
environment with features that often
leave us feeling bewildered. One
useful framework used to describe
this kind of environment is VUCA.
What does this strange sounding
acronym mean?
VUCA is a framework that helps
describe our 21st century world
- from battlefields to business
environments. It stands for Volatility,
Uncertainty, Complexity, and
Ambiguity. It comes from military
vocabulary developed at the U.S.
Army War College, and has been in
use since the late 1990s. To some
observers VUCA is the ‘new normal’.
Complicated vs. complex problems
Volatility
V
Uncertainty
U
Complexity
C
Ambiguity
A
Fast change without a clear
predictable trend or pattern.
Frequently disruptive changes;
past is not a predictor of the
future.
Multiple, interdependent causes.
Little clarity about what is ‘real’
or ‘true’.

35
Borderless thinking
36
What is common to the complicated
set of problems is that specialist
expertise can be applied, and that
there is a high degree of certainty of
the outcome at different times. The
answer or solution will be true or false.
With complex problems – like
raising a child – the fact that you
have done it once is no guarantee
of future success. You have to be
responsive to the individual child,
and the changed circumstances.
With complex problems, mindfulness
of the ‘here and now’ specifics,
and adaptability are critical; there
is always incomplete information,
changeable and contradictory needs
and requirements, and a tangled knot
of interdependencies. Experimentation
and innovation are required, and the
solution (at least for now) is only
better, neutral, or worse.
Complicated and complex thinking
are neither right nor wrong. They are
appropriate responses to different
types of problems. A great deal
of business education focuses on
solving complicated problems (which
we need), but in the VUCA and
borderless world described, more
and more problems will be of the
complex type. Taking a complicated
(part by part) approach to a complex
problem often makes things worse
because the problem resides in the
interrelationships between the parts.
Again, the challenge for us is to think
about our ingrained habits of thinking,
and to challenge ourselves to fit the
thinking to the problem and not the
problem to the thinking.
Complicated Complex
The problem is easily definable
Existing know-how is adequate; you
can solve with the application of a
blueprint, an algorithm, a formula, or
procedures
The context is stable, and outcome is
predictable. You can plan for change
Only parts of the problem might be
definable, other parts are not
Existing know-how is inadequate;
the context is unstable and outcomes
unpredictable
There is a need for constant
adaptation, improvisation and
experimentation
Unplanned change is the norm
Here are some examples of the different types of problem:
Complicated Complex
Putting a man on the moon
Brain surgery
Identifying the most profitable
customers
Forecasting sales
Raising a child
Increasing the morale in Human
Resources
Increasing creativity and
collaboration across the business
Leveraging diversity within the
business
What’s the difference between complicated and complex?

Borderless thinking
37
Our thinking habits are part of
something larger – our fundamental
orientation to the world. The success
of each one of us in a borderless world
depends not just on our knowledge
and skills – important as they are
– but on our mindset. What is a
mindset?
An established pattern of assumptions,
attitudes, and emotions that
consistently influence how we interpret
and respond to situations.
There are basically two types of
mindset: Open and Closed.
Open: A borderless mindset that is
always looking to expand, take in new
possibilities and learn. It favors ‘both/
and’ thinking, and flexibility. With an
open mindset there are numerous
ways to achieve a goal.
Closed: A limiting mindset that puts
up barriers to new possibilities and
learning. It favors ‘either/or’ thinking,
and takes a relatively fixed view of
how things should be done.
We should think about these mindsets
as being on extreme ends of a
Organizations will
become leaner, and
people know they
need to become more
productive... They need
to stay current and
interpret changes in
corporate strategy so
that they can continue
to position themselves
as a vital contributor
to the organization.
They know they must
try to stand out as
individuals, because
currently there
are plenty of other
very able people
throughout the world
doing what they do
just as well.
“
“
The Global Talent Index Report, 2011
[10]
38
spectrum. Most of us will have an
open mindset about some things, and
be closed about others, although – in
general – we may tend to favor one
type over another. Self-awareness
and adaptability beat the mindset
challenge.

39
Mindsets are very powerful, but they
have been learned, so they can be
unlearned.
Mindset change does not always
mean a complete transformation of
assumptions, beliefs, etc. Sometimes
it means more of a shift in thinking
and doing rather than wholesale
change. It does always involve a
change in doing; unless a shift
in thinking results in a change in
behavior, the mindset change has not
gone deep enough.
How can you change a mindset? Here
are some tips given from a virtual
team leader (VTL) to a team member
(TM).
Mindset change
Borderless thinking
VTL: While we’re on this call, I
wanted to talk through some feedback
I’ve been receiving. Some of your
colleagues think that you don’t really
have an open mindset about working
virtually. What do you think about
that?
TM: I can understand why they might
say that
VTL: Tell me more
TM: Well, I could give you a whole
list of reasons. For example, I think
you just can’t build good relationships
working virtually, and virtual
communication is just inferior to
communicating face-to-face.
VTL: OK. Anything else?
TM: I think results are of a lower
standard, and virtual team members
are less committed and accountable.
VTL: That’s quite a list. Have these
views surfaced just by working with
your current colleagues?
TM: No, no. Experiences over time,
even at my previous company. And
40
I’ve spoken to a lot of others here who
feel the same way.
VTL: I think it’s important that you
take some time to reflect on your
mindset about virtual working. If
you don’t, it could really hurt your
progress in the company.
TM: I suppose that’s true. What do
you suggest?
VTL: First, you need to really explore
why you feel the way you do? Who
did you talk to? Did their negativity
come from their own lack of skills in
this area? Do you feel you have a lack
of virtual working skills, and that is
affecting your attitudes?
TM: I can see that might have
something to do with it.
VTL: Ask yourself if all of your
virtual working experiences have
been negative? If not, what did you
or others do differently on those
occasions? What can you learn from
them?
TM: OK. That makes sense.

VTL: To be honest, you also need to
ask yourself what you might have
contributed to making them such
negative experiences. Did your
mindset doom the virtual work from
the beginning?
TM: Ha ha. Maybe. I hadn’t thought
about that.
VTL: What you really need to do right
now is give yourself a very strong
reason for changing.
TM: Well, wanting to get ahead in my
career is pretty strong! I appreciate
your honest feedback? What else can I
do?
VTL: Think about what parts of your
existing mindset are most unhelpful
to you? Target something specific
so that you don’t feel overwhelmed
by changes you need to make. You
might identify one specific assumption,
attitude, or emotion that if adjusted by
just 10 percent could have a positive
ripple effect.
TM: I can’t believe I’ve let things get
so bad.
41
Borderless thinking
42
VTL: Don’t go there. Making negative
judgments about yourself is wasted
energy. What matters now is what you
do with the feedback. Be objective.
When you look at your mindset don’t
say, “That part is good and that’s bad.”
Say something like, “That part really
doesn’t work for me, but that part
does.”
TM: I like that. It helps me think of
my attitudes as choices I’m making,
and not as personality flaws.
VTL: We don’t want you thinking that
way (laughs). Something else you can
do is to look at colleagues you think
are pretty good at working virtually.
What assumptions, attitudes and
behaviors seem to work for them?
TM: Great, thanks. Any final
thoughts?
VTL: A simple exercise one of my
German colleagues taught me is to
think of myself standing on a 1-10
scale drawn on the floor. Let’s say
that number 1 on the scale is your
current mindset, and that number 10
is where you’d like it to be. Imagine
taking one step forward, and saying to
yourself, “What is one thing I’m doing
differently at this point? What is the
one thing that has enabled me to take
a step up the scale?” You can repeat
that process until you feel you are
where you want to be.
TM: What a great idea. I’m going to
do that as soon as we finish this call.
VTL: Super…let’s talk again soon.

43
Borderless thinking
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about
yourself?
I collaborate well across company boundaries
I freely share my knowledge and ideas with others
I work very effectively with others through
technology
I work well with people who have very different
perspectives and styles
I am very open to learning from anyone, anywhere
Reflecting on your mindset
44
Did you rate any of the statements 3 or below? If you did, you should be asking
questions of yourself and, possibly, others. For example:
What experiences in my life and work have caused me to be less open?
Have I let those experiences have too much influence over me?
What are the likely consequences at work if I don’t become more open?
What can I do now to increase my openness?
Strongly Disagree
1
Disagree
2
Neutral
3
Agree
4
Strongly agree
5

45
Key messages
Borderless thinking
46
There are two basic types of
mindset – open and closed
An open mindset is becoming
as critical as knowledge and
skills
Mindsets are learned, and can
be unlearned
A mindset change results
in changes in behavior; if it
doesn’t, the mindset change
hasn’t been deep enough
Borderless working doesn’t
mean there are no borders to
be crossed. It means having
a mindset in which finding
the best solution, achieving
a shared goal, and finding
common ground for making
progress have a far higher
priority than egos, personal
agendas or territory
The world isn’t really
borderless, but we must think
and act as if it is
Borders are obstructing our
effectiveness
New technologies are making
many borders irrelevant
Borders influence how we think
and behave
Metacognition is our ability to
monitor and manage our own
thinking
In a volatile, uncertain,
complex, and ambiguous
world we will be faced with
more complex (rather than
complicated problems)
No one has all the answers
or even the true definition
of the problem; we have to
collaborate to find the best
way forward
We must fit our thinking to the
problem, and not the problem
to our thinking
Our thinking habits are part of
our overall orientation to the
world – our mindset

47
It stands to reason that
being continually adaptive
in response to the ever-
changing marketplace
requires three things: more
autonomy on the part of
the individual, greater
global collaboration among
virtual team members,
and a vast proliferation of
project-based work.
“
“
Tanya Clemons, Pfizer
4The Critical4 capabilities
48

49
The Critical4 people capabilities
support companies in bringing about
the organizational capabilities needed
for competitiveness in our knowledge-
based and technology-enabled
borderless economy.
New communication and collaboration
technologies – along with multi-
polar globalization – have unleashed
a competitive storm. In response,
companies have been seeking ways
to optimize their distributed talent
by flattening hierarchies, fostering
collaboration, promoting agile
working, and enabling company-wide
networking.
Telepresence, webconferencing, wikis,
blogs, microblogging, social media,
VoIP, texting, instant messaging and
many other tools are creating new
multidimensional and non-linear
pathways along which knowledge and
skills can flow and work get done.
The real workplace revolution is
not in the technologies themselves,
but in the massive creative and
productive potential available in the
interconnections.
Critical4 review
The Critical4 capabilities
The critical4 people capabilities should be seen in the context of this new world of work. Here
are the critical4 with a reminder of the organizational capabilities they support.
50
Agile
People with the thinking and behavioral agility to produce high levels of performance in
complex environments.
Innovative
Developing people with the mindsets and skills to work together across borders to
innovate and create value.
Tech smart
People with the ability to make the most effective use of new communications and
collaboration technologies
Adaptable
People with the adaptability to bridge and leverage differences between individuals and
groups
Matrix Working
Digital Fluency
The Critical4 are interdependent capabilities; each one is supportive of the others. For
example, the mindsets and skills for Borderless collaboration are supportive of working in a
complex environment, working in virtual teams, and working with cultural differences. Each
one contributes to achieving the benefits of interconnectedness in a borderless world.

51
Matrix Working
Two basic principles for
global working
Fit
‘One size fits all’ thinking is inadequate
in a multi-polar world. A borderless
organization must try to capture the
economic benefits of standardization,
while also adapting to market
diversity.
At the core of any borderless
organization is a dilemma that
can be summed up in two words:
Convergence – Divergence. Where
does it benefit the organization and
its customers to have sameness (e.g.
corporate values and standards, core
processes) and where does it benefit
the organization and its customers to
have difference (e.g. in adaptability
to local differences, among people on
innovation teams). This is a complex
problem so there is no ‘one true
answer’, only ongoing experimentation
and adaptability.
Always be asking the question: “Is this
solution the best ‘fit’ for generating
optimum results for stakeholders – the
customer, the business, the investor,
employees, and the community?”
52
Western culture has spent
decades drawing lines and
boxes around interconnected
phenomena. We’ve chunked the
world into pieces rather than
explored its webby nature. Think
of all the lines and boundaries
that exist: organizational charts,
job descriptions, nation states,
ethnic identities… This is now
a huge problem, because our
safety and future depend on
whether each of us can step
outside the boxes and participate
intelligently in a complex world of
interconnections.
“
“
Margaret J. Wheatley
Flow
In order to achieve solutions that
produce optimum results in a fast-
changing environment, it is vital that
resources (e.g. ideas, information,
knowledge, and skills) can flow
seamlessly to where they can add the
most value at any point in time.
Another dilemma at the core of
borderless organizations is between
Fixed and Fluid. When does it
benefit the organization and its
customers to establish fixed structures
and processes to manage the
flow of resources (e.g. people and
knowledge)? Or, alternatively, when
does it benefit the organization to
have fluid structures and processes for
the flow of resources?
Talent – from a fixed perspective – has
value within borders. This has helped
deepen expertise within functions, for
example, but has restricted the value
of that expertise to the organization.
On the relatively fixed side, knowledge
management systems have aimed
to capture, codify, and distribute
knowledge in relatively formal
ways. These systems are useful
when conditions are stable, but in an
environment of rapid and disruptive
change, needs and opportunities are
always in flux. Web 2.0 technologies
– like blogging, microblogging, and
social media - are enabling more
spontaneous and organic flows of
resources. The focus shifts from
systems to connections; connections
up, down, and across organizations
as well as with other stakeholders like
customers, partners, and suppliers.
Before moving on, it is important to
stress that neither Convergence
or Divergence, or Fixed and Fluid
are right or wrong solutions. Agile
organizations need flexible people who
can navigate between extremes.
Those working globally should
consider their decisions and actions in
the context of two principles: Fit and
Flow.

53
Matrix Working skills
Given the borderless working principles of Fit and Flow, what general skills need
to be developed in our people?
Change Management: The ability to anticipate and adjust to changes in our
fast-paced environment.
Communication: The ability to create shared understandings across borders
(e.g. national, organizational, professional, functional).
Conflict Management & Negotiation: The ability to build bridges between
cross-border colleagues and/or other stakeholders.
Information, Media, and Technology Skills: The ability to use the right
communications and collaboration tools efficiently and effectively.
Leadership: The ability to take on leadership roles in a matrix without formal
authority.
Networking: The ability to develop a broad network of connections whose
knowledge and skills can help accomplish goals.
54
Polarity Thinking: The ability to navigate between opposites and apply ‘both/
and’ thinking.
Relationship Management: The ability to develop and maintain strong,
trusting relationships across borders.
Resourcefulness: The ability to improvise solutions in complex situations
where existing knowledge and know-how won’t work.
Self-Management: The ability to regulate oneself (e.g. emotions, thinking,
and behaviors) in a complex, fluid, and diverse organizational structure.

55
Matrix working skills: the interview
Ron: Monica, thank you for sitting
down with me today. As I mentioned
on the phone, I’m writing a piece
for the company blog on working in
a matrix organization. I’m hoping
you might give me some insights.
What lessons can you share with the
readers? What helps you succeed?
Monica: One of the first things I
learned is to expect a mess and work
with it. Matrices weren’t created to
make our lives a misery, but for a
legitimate business reason - to help
us be more responsive to customers;
to serve them better. I used to plead
for an old-fashioned hierarchy, but I
learned to adapt.
Ron: How did you do that?
Monica: I came to understand that
I needed to take more personal
accountability for my own success.
The only person I can control is me,
and if things weren’t working out, I
had to stand up and let people know.
That would involve me in making sure
my managers knew I was faced with
conflicting priorities, or that my role
and responsibilities were not clear
enough.
Ron: Do they always have answers?
Monica: No. That can be frustrating,
but working in a complex organization
with fuzzy boundaries means constant
change and the need to be adaptable.
If I can’t be adaptable, I should find
another job.
Ron: So would you say that you have
had to become more of a manager?
Monica: In today’s organizations, I
think we all have to be much more
engaged with managing; perhaps
managing ourselves most of all. In the
old hierarchies, I think there were a lot
of parent-child relationships, with the
manager being the parent. Today, I
think it has to be adult-to-adult.
Ron: Interesting. What else?
Monica: You’ve always got to be
alert to what is going on around you,
and you’ve got to try and anticipate
changes even though you can’t
predict.
Ron: Good point.
Monica: Something else I’ve learned
56
is that you have got to network and
collaborate. I have very few solutions
to my problems, so I’ve learned to be
very open and listen to others. I also
try to look at the big picture, and to
align myself with the vision, values,
and strategies of the company. They
help when I need to make decisions on
my own.
Ron: I imagine you also have to be
very creative when there is no clear
answer.
Monica: I think I’ve given up on
finding answers. All any of us can
do in this kind of environment is
to experiment with ideas and keep
testing them. I don’t waste time
looking for permanent solutions.
Ron: Any other advice?
Monica: Always try to communicate
with your colleagues – wherever
they are in the world - in very clear
and precise language. Always
remember that your goal is shared
understanding.
Ron: Any last words?
Monica: Develop not only your skills,
but also your resilience. It can be
tough working across time zones and
cultures, and in different reporting
relationships. But it’s never boring!

57
Key messages
Matrix Working
58
Those working in a borderless environment must consider their
work in relation to two principles: Fit and Flow
The Fit principle involves striking the right balance between
standardization and adaptation
The Flow principle involves finding the right balance between
fixed and fluid structures and processes for distributing
resources (e.g. people and knowledge)
Matrix working requires more personal accountability
You need to anticipate changes even though you can’t predict
Networking and collaboration are essential
Don’t waste time looking for permanent solutions
Develop not only your skills, but also your resilience

59
Collaboration
is the number-
one trait CEOs
are seeking
in their
employees,
with 75 percent
of CEOs calling
it critical.
“
“
Leading Through Connections, IBM,
2012 [11]
What do we mean when we talk about
‘collaboration’? And how does it differ
from words with a family resemblance
like ‘cooperation’, ‘coordination’, and
even ‘teamwork’. Let me start with a
broad definition of collaboration:
People with different skills and
perspectives co-creating ‘something’
that none of the individual members
could have created alone.
The ‘something’ could be anything
from new understandings about a
problem or solution, a new process or
product or event. As Michael Schrage
says in his book Shared Minds: “…
there is nothing routine about it.
Something is there that wasn’t there
before.”
So how does this differ from related
terms?
What is collaboration?
60
Cooperation: Is about saying and
doing things that make working
with others an agreeable and
constructive experience. A group
can be cooperative, however, while
only producing a routine outcome.
Cooperation can simply be compliance.
Coordination: Is about all the
parts of a system working together
efficiently – each part knows what
to do, when to do it, in what order,
and where the output needs to go
next. It’s about efficient and effective
relationships between the parts, but
like cooperation it may not produce
anything that wasn’t there before.
Teamwork: Is about working
together to achieve a shared purpose,
but teamwork itself doesn’t necessarily
reach the level of ‘collaboration’.
Some teams might be geared toward
achieving relatively routine, non-
surprising outcomes. You want
the team to comply with policies,
procedures and processes rather than
collaborate and create.
With the emergence of
transformational digital technologies,
‘collaboration’ is being reinvented.
Large numbers of people can work
independently on the same project
through social collaboration tools like
wikis. Wikipedia is the most famous
example of mass collaboration or
crowdsourcing. Companies like Giant
Hydra and Tongal use this idea to
bring problems (from anyone) and
people (from everywhere) together
in fluid and temporary collaborative
networks. Suddenly, the talent pool for
organizations becomes borderless.
The composer, Tod Machover, is
going further. He has invited the
inhabitants of Toronto to compose a
symphony with him. “I think of it as
massive collaboration. Crowdsourcing
is a one-way ask for something very
specific. Collaboration is something
that goes back and forth, and turns
into something truly open…I want
something to be created that I couldn’t
have done by myself, and for everyone
else to feel that way too.” [12]

61
I work with groups of smart people
who often can’t collaborate. Why is
it so difficult? There are, of course,
multiple reasons, some of which have
to do with individual egos, mindsets,
skills, and behaviors.
What I find most often is not a lack
of good intentions or goodwill, or a
surfeit of anti-collaboration behaviors,
but a lack of awareness and respect
for the causes of collaborative pain.
Smart people believe that it should
be relatively easy for them to come
together and solve problems (after
all they are smart), but often their
expectations are dashed.
A study by Bain & Company (October,
2012) of a connected company found
that “Many people and teams around
the world…collaborate physically and
virtually on nearly everything they
do. Instead of increasing productivity,
the volume of information and
collaboration was adding to
complexity; critical decision-making
was slowing to a crawl, trapped in an
endless cycle of data collection and
The Borderless
Collaboration challenge
debate. An invitation to collaborate
has blurred the distinction between
participative and consensus styles
of decision making and risks turning
every decision into a referendum.”
[13]
This isn’t a condemnation of
collaboration and connectivity, but it is
a warning that we need to pay much
more attention to the purpose and
practice of collaboration.
Greater realism and awareness can
empower people to collaborate by
raising the level of risk alertness in the
group.
Chris Huxman and Siv Vangen
developed the concept of
collaborative inertia, and they see
it as happening when, “the output
from a collaborative arrangement
is negligible, the rate of output is
extremely slow, or stories of pain and
hard grind are integral to successes
achieved.” [14]
62
What are some of the risks we need to
pay attention to?
Overly idealistic views that see
collaboration as always desirable
Differences in organizational
cultures, processes, tools, and
policies represented in the group
Conflicting interests and goals
Likelihood that benefits will only
be realized in the long-term
Likely complexity of
collaboration structures
and processes
Likelihood of political
maneuvering, game playing
Differences in professional
languages, practices, and
cultures
Differences in fluency of the
group’s working language
Tensions and conflicts already
existing between members (the
burden of the past); lack of
trust; competition for scarce
resources
Sharp differences in power and
authority levels
Pronounced skill level differences
in using technology
Too little understanding and
connection with key
stakeholders, sponsors
Poor likelihood of maintaining
group continuity
Collaboration fatigue among
members
There will always be unknown risks
and uncertainties, but with a greater
awareness and respect for possible
risks, a group can be more proactive
and vigilant.

63
Borderless Collaboration: the meeting
For some ideas on how to collaborate
well, let’s sit in a meeting of
a multifunctional new product
development group.
Ben: Thanks for coming everyone.
Julie, we’re sorry you couldn’t make
it, but at least we have you here
on the telepresence system. You’re
looking well.
Julie: Thanks, Ben. Apart from the
weather, everything is going well over
here in London.
Ben: At the first meeting we agreed
that collaborating on this new product
was the best strategy and that there
is shared agreement on what we are
looking to achieve. The potential for
the product is global, and the return
on our collaboration could be very
significant for the company in this
tough economy. Some of us have
worked well together before which
should help a lot, but I don’t think
we can rely on just liking each other.
I thought we should spend some
time thinking through how we want
to work together over the next 18
months or so. Any thoughts?
Desmond: One of the best things we
did on another collaboration project I
was involved with – after we agreed
on our goals - was to get a sense of
the overall process we would work
through. Let me put the steps we
came up with on the whiteboard.
Ben: Excellent.
Desmond: Here are the five steps:
Engage: Come together around a
shared problem or interest
Exchange: Swap information/ideas to
define the what, why, where, when,
and how
Evolve: Work together to craft an
outcome most likely to produce a
return
Employ: Apply the outcome in the real
world
Evaluate: Measure you success
Huyla: Thanks. I applied a similar
process in Turkey. One of the insights
we had was that evaluation needed to
be built in from the beginning and not
left to the end. We needed to evaluate
the process of our collaboration as
well as our progress on accomplishing
objectives. The collaboration progress
discussions really helped us make
course corrections on how efficiently
64
and effectively we were working
together.
Sam: I really like what you’re saying,
Huyla. On one project we brought in
an external facilitator who could help
us ask the tough questions. Conflicts
were being avoided, and people were
withholding information that could
benefit the collaboration. It was
messy!
Ben: Desmond, Sam and Huyla could
you work together before our next
meeting and make a proposal on what
might be a good collaboration process
for us. Any other ideas from anyone?
Jaks: I remember a collaboration –
that went on for some time - we hired
a consultant for a couple of days and
he told us we could be more efficient
if we developed some collaboration
patterns.
Ella: What are they?
Jaks: Well, in any collaboration there
are problems that recur repeatedly
and a collaboration pattern is a
reusable methodology or set of
behaviors or activities that people use
to solve these problems.
Ella: Can you give me some examples.
Jaks: Sure. We might agree on a
methodology for how we’ll elicit ideas
from everyone or how we’ll make
decisions.
Wyatt: Some we found useful were
how we would set priorities and handle
disagreements.
Ben: Morgan, Wren and Yuan Yuan,
we haven’t heard from you yet.
Anything, you want to add?
Morgan: I’ve got a few things I need
to take care of before I can get fully
involved, but when I do I’d like to
lay down some guidelines on our
evaluation metrics strategy.
Yuan Yuan: I can work with Morgan
on that.
Wren: I’ll work with Jaks, Wyatt, and
Ella on thinking about collaboration
patterns. It seems to me that we could
be productive very quickly if we could
identify some primary patterns we
need, like how we’ll make decisions.
Ben: Thanks, everyone!

65
Key messages
66
Collaboration is the co-creation of something that individuals
could not have created alone
It differs in kind from cooperation, coordination, and teamwork
(although teamwork can produce collaborative output)
With digital technologies like social media collaboration is being
reinvented, e.g. crowdsourcing
Collaboration should not become a universal solution for every
problem
We need to develop greater awareness of the risks and
uncertainties of collaboration
We can increase the productivity of our collaborations through
identifying shared processes and patterns

67
Digital Fluency
Collaboration
is the number-
one trait CEOs
are seeking
in their
employees,
with 75 percent
of CEOs calling
it critical.
“
“
Leading Through Connections, IBM,
2012 [11]
A great many of us are now
information/knowledge workers, and
our workplace is a screen – computer
or otherwise.
The critical importance of digital
fluency is highlighted by the rapid
adoption of two types of virtual
working:
Remote working: Working individually
from anywhere, at any time, from any
device.
Virtual teaming: Collaborating over
distances via technologies.
According to Forrester Research
(August, 2012) – the population of
information workers will grow from
600m in 2012 to 865m in 2016. A
Reuters poll (January, 2012), says
about 1 in 5 workers around the
globe, particularly in the Middle East,
Latin America, and Asia, telecommute
frequently, and nearly 10 percent work
from home every day.
The borderless work revolution has
been made possible by the exponential
growth in digital collaboration
What is digital fluency?
68
tools, such as: wikis, blogs, social
networking, web conferencing, and
groupware.
Those who have grown up with digital
consumer technologies like iPods,
smartphones, and iPads – the Digital
Natives – are becoming more and
more influential in the workplace.
Their impact will be felt in many ways.
In their book Future Work, Alison
Maitland and Peter Thomson make the
point that:
There have been a number of studies
showing that those who work from
home tend to be more productive. A
recent study by Stanford University
reported the results of a working from
home (WFH) experiment in CTrip - a
16,000 employee, NASDAQ-listed
Chinese travel agency. Call center
employees who volunteered were
randomly assigned to work from home
or in the office for 9 months. Home
working led to a 13% performance
increase, of which about 9% was from
working more minutes per shift (fewer
breaks and sick-days) and 4% from
more calls per minute (attributed
to a quieter working environment).
Home workers also reported improved
work satisfaction, resulting in a
reduction of staff turnover. [17]
The main digital fluency challenge
is not learning technical skills
for exchanging information, but
using each one to build productive
relationships when remote working
and virtual teaming.
They [Generation Y] have
grown up with the means
to connect with their peers
anytime, anywhere, and
they expect to be able to
work this way too. Young
knowledge workers are as
likely to want to work while
munching on a sandwich
over their laptop in a
wireless-enabled café as
behind a desk in a traditional
office.
“
“

69
Digital Fluency
Remote workers – for the most
part - should be free to decide how
they can be most productive. Paying
attention to certain underlying
principles, however, can make a huge
difference to the quality of the remote
experience and the output. The
principles are the:
PRIME principles for
remote working
70
Focus on connecting, not just
making connections
New communication and collaboration
technologies give us the capability
to connect electronically and build
informal networks with huge numbers
of other people. The number of
electronic connections we make,
however, is basically meaningless.
Reality Principle: Determine what’s real from what’s imagined
Working remotely we have many gaps in our knowledge of others. What is going
on in their lives? What makes them feel comfortable or stressed? What is their
working environment like? Our brains don’t like these gaps and they fill them with
assumptions and stories.
Reality principle
Inclusion principle
Momentum principle
Easy Principle
People principle
People principle Reality principle
To apply this principle:
Think quality, not quantity of
connections
Everyone needs to feel some sense
of connection and engagement with
you. In a world of digital connection,
personal relationships still rule.
Give, don’t just take
Good networks are built on mutual
give and take - reciprocity. If we
continually take, take, take, our
network will quickly be resistant to our
demands.
Beware the stories you tell
yourself about others
Your real colleague might not be the
person you imagine online. If you
have only been communicating by
email, you may have even mistaken
someone’s gender (especially when
working across cultures).
Understand that you might be the
problem
What the research tells us is that
when problems arise in virtual work,
we tend to attribute the blame to the
dispositions and personalities of our
distant colleagues rather than the
challenges of virtual working.

Keep assumptions of similarity in
check
We should assume differences
until our similarities are clearly
demonstrated. There can be no
inclusion without fully recognizing and
respecting differences.
Understand the preferences of
others
We cannot assume similarity in how
people like to work. We can wait
for preferences to emerge, but it
is usually more productive to have
constructive conversations.
71
Digital Fluency
Communicate to bridge differences
Working face-to-face with people, we
typically make some adaptations to be
inclusive. In virtual space we don’t feel
the same urgency to adapt because the
differences tend to be less obvious and,
therefore, we assume similarity.
72
Make life easy for yourself and others
Working at a distance can be difficult and frustrating. For example, misspelled and
ungrammatical emails, unclear and imprecise messages, too much information,
too little information, lack of responsiveness, and lengthy virtual meetings with no
interaction.
Inclusion principle
Minimize uncertainty
Unclear purpose, fuzzy roles and
responsibilities and vague performance
measures – all of these faults are
likely to create chaos in virtual
work where opportunities to gain
clarification are far fewer.
Deal with conflict sooner rather
than later
Given that we work across distances,
we might be tempted to suppress
or ignore conflict. We have to bring
virtual conflict to the surface where
it can be dealt with constructively.
Unrecognized virtual conflict often
becomes uncontrollable if not dealt
with.
Keep the energy flowing
Those who work remotely might lose
some of the distractions of an office
environment, but they can also lose
the energy and motivation of working
closely with others. There are multiple
reasons why remote workers can feel
demotivated, but two of the most
common are increased uncertainty and
unmanaged conflict.
Momentum principle Easy Principle
Take responsibility for
communication
There is no communication without
shared understanding between
the sender and the receiver. Many
times the receiver is made to work
too hard to find with any accuracy
what is being said or written. This is
not the receiver’s fault; the sender
must always take responsibility for a
message being interpreted correctly.
Help others connect the dots
There can be a real problem
with a lack of shared contextual
understanding in the virtual
workplace. Everyone is likely to be
working on a small piece of a larger
project, and we cannot assume that
our virtual colleagues know what we
know.

73
Digital Fluency
“My other remote colleagues used to be so helpful, but now I can’t get
anything out of them. I’m lucky if they respond to my emails or my
phone messages. I suppose everyone is very busy, but so am I!”
Select the best choice from the following:
a) Easy Principle: Help others connect the dots
b) People Principle: Give, don’t just take
c) Inclusion Principle: Keep assumptions of similarity in check
d) Reality Principle: Beware the stories you tell yourself about others
“I know we’ve had some differences in the past, but today he really
attacked me on the phone. I thought the issues we had were all in the
past. I don’t know where his anger suddenly came from. I hadn’t done
anything on the call to upset him.”
a) Momentum Principle: Minimize uncertainty
b) People Principle: Think quality, not quantity of connections
c) Inclusion Principle: Understand the preferences of others
d) Momentum Principle: Deal with conflict sooner rather than later
“I’m tired. I tell people what I want in my e-mails, but they keep coming
back with question after question. I studied English in college so I know
it’s not my writing. They are obviously not reading my e-mails carefully
enough.”
a) Easy Principle: Take responsibility for communication
d) Momentum Principle: Minimize uncertainty
74
PRIME Principles: What Advice Would You Give?
“I really like my virtual colleagues, I really do. We have so much in
common. At least I thought so until today. What she said in that email
was so unlike her. We haven’t worked together very long, but I’ve
always felt we shared so much and trusted each other.”
a) Easy Principle: Minimize uncertainty
b) Inclusion Principle: Keep assumptions of similarity in check
c) Easy Principle: Help people connect the dots
d) Inclusion Principle: Understand the preferences of others
“I can’t say I really enjoy working with my remote colleagues. They are
always so slow in getting back to me, and I really don’t think they listen.
It’s so frustrating.”
a) Easy Principle: Help people connect the dots
d) Reality Principle: Understand that you might be the problem
1
2
3
4
5
Best answers: 1 b, 2 d, 3 a, 4 b, 5 d

75
Digital Fluency
76
Virtual Teaming:
Working with others on
a shared goal across
distances via technology
Virtual teams have become the
way organizations undertake
projects. In the past, teams tended
to be collocated because of the
interdependencies in project work.
Teams can now operate over
distances, and bring together the best
people for the job no matter where
they are located.
Virtual teams have challenges
like isolation of team members,
fragmentation of effort, and confusion,
but as three researchers reported in
the MIT Sloan Management Review
(July, 2009), “our research shows that
virtual teams can outperform their
collocated counterparts when they are
set up and managed in the right way.”
[18] What is the right way?
Two types of processes are required:
Task-related processes and socio-
emotional processes.
The processes that drive the
accomplishment of tasks are
most important (e.g. task-related
communication and coordination),
but they need strong support from
the socio-emotional processes that
increase cohesion on the team (e.g.
page). Teams could use the Six Cs as
a tool to have structured discussions
on how they were performing as a
collaborative team.
The teams relied heavily on
teleconferences which was a mistake.
The Japanese were more comfortable
reading English (official team
language) than listening. The
teleconference conversations often left
the Japanese confused; the Japanese
avoided asking questions for fear
of losing credibility in front of their
colleagues.
More attention needed to be given
to technologies that focused on the
written word and document sharing,
e.g. e-mail, document libraries.
informal communication, conflict
resolution). Co-located teams with
high levels of these processes were
still outperformed by virtual teams.
Does it make a difference if team
members are across the hallway, on
different floors, in different buildings
at the same site, or on different
continents? Not necessarily. If robust
task and socio-emotional processes
are in place, the degree of distance
doesn’t hurt the collaboration,
but as the researchers say, “Don’t
underestimate the significance of small
distances.” People working together
over small distances tend to assume
that virtual collaboration won’t be
challenging. Wrong!
Some years ago, I worked with a
number of under-performing European
– US – Japanese virtual teams. Based
on my research, I found the problems
resulted from confusion due to the lack
of a shared collaboration framework
and poor use of technology. Working
with them, I developed a framework
that focused on six collaboration
zones. These zones needed ongoing
team performance reviews. I called
these zones the Six Cs (see next
We’ve got virtual
teams all over the world,
and I’m willing to bet
there are many in which
no team member has
ever even met another
team member. It’s really
easy to turn everybody
into a voice on the phone
and a line on a screen,
and we don’t want that.
“
Rebecca Ranninger, Chief Human
Resources Officer, Symantec
“

77
Digital Fluency
The Six Cs It is the responsibility of the team
leader to create the conditions needed
for high levels of performance in each
of the Six Cs. It is the responsibility
of team members to ensure that their
individual participation contributes to
high performance in each of the Six
Cs.
Too many teams – either co-located
or virtual – lack a mutually agreed
framework for their teamwork.
Performance measures are often
created for project deliverables, but
not for the quality of the teamwork
itself – which, of course, is critical to
achieving the deliverables.
78
Reflecting on Your Virtual Teamwork
Spend some time thinking about your experiences on virtual teams.
In which of the Six Cs did the teams tend to do well, and in which
did they tend to do poorly?
What do you think the reasons were?
What role did the good or poor use of technology play in team
outcomes?
Could the poor performance have been avoided?
What was your contribution to both the high and low areas of
performance?
What might you do differently on your next virtual team?
1
2
3
4
5
6
Cooperation
Convergence
Coordination
Capability
Communication
Developing supportive relationships
across geographies, time zones and
cultures
Maintaining a clear purpose, direction,
and shared set of priorities across
distances
Sharing processes, routines, tools,
standards, and structure
Leveraging the knowledge, skills, and
experiences on the team
Creating shared understandings
across the team
Developing an inclusive virtual
workplace for all

79
Key messages
Digital Fluency
80
Two major types of virtual working are remote working and
virtual teaming:
Not using the right technology for the right job with the right
people and in the right way can cause great damage to working
over distances
Applying five principles (PRIME) can make a huge impact on the
quality of the remote work experience:
People Principle: Focus on connecting, not just making
connections
Reality Principle: Determine what’s real from what’s
imagined
Inclusion Principle: Communicate to bridge differences
Momentum Principle: Keep the energy flowing
Easy Principle: Make life easy for yourself and others
Virtual teamwork effectiveness requires team leaders
and members to actively engage in developing Six Cs of
collaboration
Cooperation Capability
Convergence Communication
Coordination Cultural Intelligence

81
There are
truths on this
side of the
Pyrenees,
which are
falsehoods on
the other.
“
“
Blaise Pascal
Culture is the set of values, beliefs,
and behaviors that define the way of
life of a group.
Family, friends, schools, the media,
and religious institutions are just a
few of the influences that shape our
orientations to what is ‘normal’ - in
relationships, communication, time,
power, problem solving, making
decisions, sharing information…and so
on.
Learning to work and collaborate with
people from other cultures is a vital
skill in the borderless workplace. You
don’t have to interact with people from
other countries to experience cultural
differences. Diversity within countries
(and within organizations) can be
just as exhilarating and challenging.
Different professional cultures (e.g.
R&D, Marketing, HR, Sales, and
Finance) can also create barriers to
collaboration. At the same time, the
place where differences intersect is the
most likely location for creativity and
innovation.
Culture
82
Cultures have different layers. On the surface are the tangible differences that you
can hear, touch, taste, and see. Below that are less obvious orientations; here is a
sample of four:
Meaning is stated directly.
Say what you mean, and
mean what you say.
Explicit
communication
Meaning often has to be
inferred from what is said
and not said, and from
body language.
Implicit
communication
Value placed on
punctuality, meeting
deadlines. Time is money.
Tight use of time
Things will happen
when the time is
right. Rushing leads to
mistakes.
Loose use of time
Analytical, step-by-step
process toward a solution.
Linear thinking
Focus on exploring and
integrating perspectives
in a relatively
unstructured way.
Circular thinking
Emphasis on data
and concrete experiences.
Facts
Emphasis on reasoning,
concepts, and logic.
Thinking

83
84
There is no right or wrong way in
the above orientations, just different
cultural expectations. Anyone
working across cultures – either
virtually or face-to-face – must learn
to become culturally self-aware,
recognize differences, understand
their potential impact on working
together, identify the best way to
manage the differences, and practice
self-management. The latter means
recognizing your own ‘emotional
triggers’ (e.g. someone who doesn’t
get to the point), managing your
typical response (e.g. a tendency
to communicate impatience, even
anger), and demonstrating a more
considered and constructive reaction.
There are a number of ways we can
work with cultural differences. For
example:
Adapt – We can make adjustments in
our behaviors, e.g. switching from an
explicit style of communication to one
that is more implicit.
Blend – We can create a cultural mix
to gain the benefits of our different
approaches, e.g. having the first half
of a meeting operating in a Circular
way while moving into a more Linear
approach for the second half.
Co-Create – We can work at
developing a shared culture, e.g. a
team culture
Divide – We can do things our own
way; our differences don’t significantly
impact our working together.
Enforce – We have no choice, e.g.
company policy mandates a specific
behavior.
In working across cultures, we must avoid stereotypical thinking. A stereotype is
a relatively fixed perception of a group, e.g. the [nationality] are always late for
meetings. The problem with a stereotypical statement like this is that it doesn’t
allow room for individual variation. Is every [nationality] late for meetings? No.
While acknowledging that there are statistical tendencies in any group, you must pay
attention to how the individuals you are working with think and behave.
In a borderless workplace making cultural adaptations can be a daily occurrence.
What does it involve?
Making relatively small and often temporary changes in behavior; it is not about
changing your cultural identity or undergoing radical personality change
Continuous learning. People and cultures are complex, and every cultural
interaction has unique characteristics. The learning from one interaction cannot
be applied rigidly to another.
The Cultural ADAPT Cycle is one
way to look at the overall process.
Culture
An
alyze De
cide
Apply
Process
Tune

85
86
A senior marketing manager from
New York – Sophie – is going to pay
her first visit to her counterpart in
France - Alphonse. Sophie has done
some background research on French
business culture, and is going to
apply the ADAPT Cycle.
Analyze
Based on her research, Sophie recognizes
there could be significant differences
between herself and Alphonse, but she
knows she must not make the mistake of
thinking that Alphonse will be ‘typically
French’. He is an individual, not a
generalization, no matter how useful that
generalization might be as a preparation
tool. What she notices from her research
is that the following might be potential
challenges:
Explicit Communication (Sophie) vs.
Implicit Communication (Alphonse?)
Tight (Sophie) vs. Loose Use of Time
(Alphonse?)
Linear (Sophie) vs. Circular Problem
Solving (Alphonse?)
Facts (Sophie) vs. Thinking Cognitive
Style (Alphonse?)
Cognitive Style: She has gathered lots
of data about the problem, but decides
not to push it too hard at the beginning
of the meeting. She will present a sound
argument first. She will mention that she
has brought some data, but wait until the
timing feels right before presenting it.
Decide
Based on her preparation, Sophie decides
the following adaptations could be
appropriate:
Communication: She will soften her
communication style and become less
explicit. She will make suggestions rather
than give instructions.
Time: She decides to show up for
the meeting on time, but not take
it personally if Alphonse shows up a
little late. She also decides not to look
frustrated if the meeting is interrupted by
others, or if it runs over time. She builds
some extra time in her schedule before
her next meeting.
Problem Solving: She decides to be very
patient in the meeting and not drive
toward a solution too quickly. She wants
to give Alphonse time to explore the
problem in depth and not feel rushed into
a decision.
The ADAPT cycle in
action
An
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Process
Tune
An
alyze De
cide
Apply
Process
Tune

87
88
Apply
When she first meets Alphonse she
decides to start slowly. She has done her
preparation, but knows that what matters
is what she learns about Alphonse in real
time, and how she adapts in real time.
Before she left the US, she suggested
to Alphonse that they meet for lunch
before the meeting; that would give her
time in a relaxed atmosphere to gain
some insights about him. This helped
a great deal because she learned that
Alphonse had been an engineer before
becoming a marketing manager, and
that he had worked for three years in
the United States. She realizes that her
planned adaptations might not be totally
appropriate. She needs to listen and
learn; if she doesn’t she could easily
impose a misleading ‘French’ stereotype
on him.
Process
Communication: By letting Alphonse take
the lead, Sophie learns that Alphonse
is as explicit as most of her American
colleagues. She sees no need for
adaptations.
Time: The meeting is interrupted several
times by phone calls, but Sophie has
prepared herself for this. The meeting
also runs over the allotted time, but
again she is prepared, and doesn’t
allow herself to show any sign of
impatience. She uses the time during
the interruptions to gather her thoughts,
and reflect on the meeting so far and her
performance.
Problem Solving: Sophie was prepared
for a more circular approach to problem
solving than her own, but she was
surprised initially by his very linear
approach (probably the influence of being
an engineer). He suggested a process of
five clear steps, although his approach
to discussing the steps was wide-ranging
Tune
Sophie had been flexible, and she left the
meeting feeling she had accomplished
what she came to do – begin a productive
working relationship with Alphonse. She
had slowed down her normal pace of
interaction, and by doing so had allowed
herself to listen and watch carefully
for signals that she was adapting
appropriately.
She would reflect more on the meeting,
but didn’t feel the need for major
adjustments. The relationship was off to
a good start.
If Sophie experiences further differences
in Alphonse’s behavior, she will return to
the Analyze step and cycle through the
process again.
and sometimes tangential which was
more of what she had expected. She
decided to match his style and ‘go with
the flow’, but occasionally she guided the
discussion back to what she considered to
be the main topic. At one point his body
language suggested that she had been
too assertive in trying to bring closure
to a discussion, but she recognized this
quickly and asked a question to open up
the discussion again.
Cognitive Style: Her prepared strategy
for holding off on introducing data was
the best one. It became clear very
quickly that Alphonse wanted to engage
in a logical, well-thought out argument
in the meeting. From the energy and
enthusiasm he put into the debate,
it became clear to her that Alphonse
wanted to be persuaded about the
robustness of the idea, and not just the
validity of the data sample.
An
alyze De
cide
Apply
Process
Tune
An
alyze De
cide
Apply
Process
Tune
An
alyze De
cide
Apply
Process
Tune

89
Key messages
90
Culture is a set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that define the
way of life of a group
You don’t have to interact with people from other countries to
experience cultural differences
On the surface of culture are tangible differences that you can
hear, touch, taste and see
Beneath the surface are more intangible differences like
preferences for explicit or implicit communication
Stereotypes ignore individual variations in a cultural group
Several ways we can work with cultural differences are: Adapt,
Blend, Co-Create, Divide, and Enforce
Adapting to cultural differences is a process:
Analyze
Decide
Apply
Process
Tune

My first experiences in the borderless
workplace were in face-to-face
meetings during seminars and
workshops I delivered in countries
like India, Japan, Vietnam, S. Korea,
Norway, Poland, and France...over 30
countries in all. Globalization was the
hot topic at that time which for the
participants meant planting company
flags around the world.
The audiences in those training
sessions were mostly small groups of
managers who spent a considerable
amount of time at 30,000 feet. We
were all frequent-flier warriors with
passports packed with visas and
immigration stamps.
Along came 9/11 - and advanced
digital communications and
collaboration technologies - and the
dynamic changed. Not only were
small groups of managers crossing
borders, but thousands of others
were confronting the realities of
a world with diminishing border
lines: competition from everywhere,
complex problems, new networked
organizational structures, and
increased cross-cultural interactions.
These new realities challenged
organizations to develop far greater
agility in trying to lead and respond
to fast, unpredictable, and ambiguous
changes in the environment. To
not only survive - but thrive -
organizations needed to look harder at
how they could bring diverse minds,
skills and experiences together to
collaborate on finding solutions and
creating new value. The new digital
tools enabled virtual collaboration
across internal and external
boundaries, but technology alone
was not enough. People needed to
develop higher levels of adaptability as
they began interacting with unfamiliar
cultural styles, and increased
organizational complexity.
It is in this context that the Critical4
people capabilities came into clear
focus:
Matrix Working: People with the
thinking and behavioral agility to
produce high levels of performance in
a complex environments.
Borderless Collaboration: People
with the mindsets and skills to work
together across borders to innovate
and create value
Digital Fluency: People with the
ability to make the most effective
use of new communications and
collaboration technologies
Cultural Intelligence: developing
people with the adaptability to bridge
and leverage differences between
individuals and groups.
I get excited by the borderless
workplace. It presents us with a
huge opportunity for creating a more
fulfilling, innovative, and prosperous
world . . . for everyone.
Terence Brake
9291
Wrap up

borderless learning
We help people work better together in today’s
borderless workplace.

We understand the challenges of managing
change in a global and virtual world.

We know the skillsets your people need to make
the most of the opportunities.

And we have the experts, the solutions, and the
technology to develop your talent: across teams,
across cultures, across the world.
The Critical 4 Curriculum
The Critical 4 Curriculum develops
leadership in Matrix Working,
Borderless Collaboration, Digital
Fluency, and Cultural Intelligence.

Find out which solutions will transform
the performance of your people at
tmaworld.com.

Learning on demand
We have the technology and global
facilitator network to bring the
training to you, wherever you are.
You tell us how you’d prefer to learn
and we’ll make it happen through a
flexible combination of: workshops,
virtual classrooms, e-learning, mobile
learning, apps, forums and online
tools, all coordinated through the TMA
World Learning Portal.
9493
About TMA World
enquiries@tmaworld.com
Get in touch
Return on investment by design
Organizations can only measure the
benefit of any learning initiative if it
is designed with a clear ROI in mind.
It’s not an optional ‘nice to have’. With
TMA World’s Learning Paths, ROI is
measurable from the very start right
through to applying the new skillset in
the workplace.
www.tmaworld.com

95
Main references
96
1. Introducing the 2013 BCG Global
Challengers, January 15, 2013.
2. From global connection to global
orchestration: Future business
models for high performance where
technology and the multi-polar
world meet.
3. Organizational agility: How
business can survive and thrive
in turbulent times. Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2009.
4. Race to success: Speed and
agility are keys to winning the
future.
Forbes, February 29, 2012
5. The Collaboration Imperative.
Ivey Business Journal, Jan/Feb,
2012
6. The social economy: Unlocking
value and productivity through
social technologies. McKinsey Global
Institute, July 2012
7. Leading through connections:
Insights from the IBM Global:
Insights from the Chief Executive
Officer Study, 2012
8. Managing virtual teams: Taking a
more strategic approach. Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2009
9. Working beyond borders:
Insights from the IBM Global
Human Resource Officer Study,
2010
10. The Global Talent Index
Report: The Outlook to 2015. The
Economist Intelligence Unit, 2011.
11. Leading through connections
(see number 7)
12. The orchestra as mass
collaboration. The Guardian,
November 12, 2012
13. Your company is connected
– but can it make and execute
good decisions? Bain & Company,
October 9, 2012
14. Managing to collaborate: The
theory and practice of collaborative
advantage. Chris Huxham and Siv
Vangen, Oxford: Routledge, 2005
15. Home office life and its
discontents. The New York Times,
January 3, 2008
16. Future Work: How businesses
can adapt and thrive in the new
world of work. Alison Maitland and
Peter Thomson, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2011
17. Does working from home work?
Evidence from a Chinese Study,
Stanford University, 2013
18. How to manage virtual teams.
MIT Sloan Management Review,
July 2009

© 2013 Transnational Management Associates Ltd
TMA World
180 Piccadilly
London
W1J 9HF
www.tmaworld.com
borderless learning
enquiries@tmaworld.com
Borderless working
e-book series
Borderless
Collaboration
Terence Brake
People working together across borders to create value
Cultural
Intelligence
Terence Brake
People building productive relationships in a world of difference
Digital
Fluency
Terence Brake
People making the best use of new borderless technologies
Matrix
Working
Terence Brake
People working ﬂexibly in complex environments

The Borderless Workplace: The critical 4 capabilities for the new world of work

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