Using Technology to make Work/Life a Reality

In today’s always “on” world, how do we balance work, family and personal life?

Around six months ago I had an interesting lunch with two other CEO’s. While we are all of a similar age, we each have completely different backgrounds, outside interests and businesses. I run a professional services firm concentrating in IT managed care for small businesses, another ran a hedge fund, and the third was in the building industry. The topics we discussed initially focused on business, and we discovered, probably to no one’s surprise, that despite the differences in our businesses, the majority of our challenges were the same. However, around 15 minutes into the conversation, the conversation took what I considered to be a surprising turn, and the rest of the lunch focused on an issue we all shared: in today’s always “on” world, how did we balance work, family and personal?

Over the past several years I’ve attended a program for Entrepreneurs up at MIT. Aside from professors and various area experts, each year several ultra-successful businesspeople come to speak with us. They range from the founders of major public companies to professional CEO’s whose names grace the headlines of the business pages. In asking them about their success, almost to an individual they start with their families. One entrepreneur worth more than $1 billion told us that he considered himself to be a success because his children in their 30s still want to spend time with him. Another spoke of his lack of relationship with his adult children because he gave so much time to his career, and how much he regretted that time.

A few years ago, when our first child was 18 months old, my wife and I made the choice to move out of Manhattan. This was a tough decision, made even more difficult because we settled on the Princeton area, which means that we have a commute of approximately 1½ hours door-to-door. As the CEO of a growing business, whose days often start before 7AM and end after 10PM, I wondered what kind of toll the commute would take on our growing family. Thankfully, because of our commitment to family, and the freedom offered by technology that did not exist even five years ago, the move has had very little impact.

I want to share some examples of how I and others use technology to achieve well-balanced lives in an “always on” world.

Recently my daughter was in a play at her school. It started at 2PM, not a particularly convenient time. I had a conference call at 1PM, and a dinner in New York City at 6PM. Thanks to technology my entire day was productive. I began that morning with several meetings, all done remotely, with no impact to the quality of the meetings. The 1PM meeting I took from my car, in the parking lot of my daughters school.

I’ve used a Tablet PC for years. Thanks to built-in wireless and Verizon’s new high speed Rev A services, it’s almost always connected to the Internet. On that tablet I use a program called OneNote to take all of my notes, keep track of responsibilities, and integrate with Outlook to manage my day. Because of OneNote I have no paper to deal with. Everything is on my tablet PC, available to me on or off-line and safely synchronized with my server.

I also run a program called Groove, which allows me to create shared workspaces with my colleagues, clients, vendors or partners. Within Groove we are able to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, agendas, calendar, to-do lists, project plans, images, and many other tools. The really nice thing about Groove is that it makes all of this available to you whether you are connected, or on a plane. You can work on a shared document at 30,000 feet, land, and it will automatically synchronize the workspace with the other people you are working with. Their changes additions, synchronize in the background and are available for you to work on at your convenience. It cuts down on email and attachments, and provides a secure way to share information inside and outside your organization.

Rounding out the tools I use are WebEx, a Voice over IP Soft Phone that runs on my tablet, emulating my desktop phone and making my number completely mobile, and Outlook configured to work both on and offline.

That meeting I needed to take from my car? I doubt anyone could tell I wasn’t sitting at my desk. I was connected to the Internet, Bluetooth headset in my ear, webcam at the ready, viewing the same documents they were viewing via WebEx, and able to access any information that I need to for the meeting.

The result? At 2pm I was in the theatre. As I walked in the smile on my daughters face as she saw me made anything else I’d accomplished that day pale in comparison. And I made my dinner in the city, productive the entire way.

And it is not just me. Recently one of our clients began using a tablet PC, working the way I do. He’s now cut down on the paperwork he has to bring on his frequent travels, increased his efficiency, and created time to spend with his family. A good friend of mine, a successful executive at a major public company, whose office is in San Jose lives in Honolulu and goes into the office around once a month. I’ve been on calls with him where you cannot tell if he’s in his office, or sitting at the beachside café by his house, surfboard by his side.

None of this would have been possible just a few short years ago. All of it is available today, making our lives and businesses better.