Launching a No-Office Experiment

The world of work spaces is getting revolutionized. Co-working is exploding everywhere, and it's never been easier for teams to be located in multiple locations, thanks to the power of virtual collaboration. But for most large companies, virtual working remains the exception. That's why it'll be so fascinating to see what Inc. Magazine will learn as it launches a one-month experiment to work without an office.

In a blog post a couple days ago, Inc.'s Max Chafkin announced the company's plan to learn the good, bad and ugly of the virtual work lifestyle -- the hard way. For one month, some staffers will work from home, and others from cafés. Everyone, though, will be learning the tricks of the trade with new applications and technology to ease the blow.

During the experiment, they'll be blogging about their experiences, and at the end of it all, they'll publish a piece about the month they spent scattered in different locations. As Chafkin points out, their experiment is particularly significant, given that the norm in the publishing industry remains having writers, editors and designers in the same place as they finalize a piece.

I'm curious to see what their learning curve looks like. The teams I've worked with have been largely virtual, ever since my first big project in college in which my friends and I launched a magazine from Tokyo, Cairo and Argentina. But I'm sure we probably sucked at it at first. I'm sure I probably still do. So far, though, the costs have (so far) largely outweighed the benefits. If a major publication can get to that tipping point in just a month, that's an experiment with some real meaning.

Personally, I think the shift toward increasing numbers of virtual workspaces is a natural evolution. Just as our "careers" and job responsibilities are shifting, so, too, are the spaces in which we work. I think this is good news for social entrepreneurs, who have never had better tools to keep together teams thousands of miles apart.

Will Inc.;'s experiment have some broader lessons for the workplace? I hope so. As workplaces continue to change, there's no shortage that entrepreneurs can learn from the magazine's experiment, as well.

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