PCs, the internet and wireless technologies are promoting flex-time and spreading work time across the 24/7 spectrum. Companies and their employees who go with the flow of these realities will reap the benefits. However, this new world requires a higher level of trust on everyone's part, while allowing people to enjoy more freedom and be productive in new ways.

Freedom, expressed as time and place - where I want to be when I want to be there - has to do with:

1) flexible time to take care of other life chores as needed
2) experiencing more of the joys of family, friends and new challenges
3) the flexibility to work from virtually any place at any time
4) being connected to families and communities more than ever before.

We can have that flexibility now, because technology finally allows us to sever the tether from our offices, yet be productive and stay in touch with our teammates.

Knowledge workers are often thinking about their work challenges in the shower, on the freeway and, too often, when they should be listening to their mates or children. They have the potential to work around the clock. This is a far cry from the "leave it all at work when the whistle blows" mentality of the factory workers and, to a great extent, many of the white-collar workers of modern day bureaucracies.

The combination of this desire for freedom, the flexibility made possible by communications technologies and the "always on my mind" mental work calls for new organizational system design. The"always in your face" pyramidal hierarchies invented for factory work are simply outdated. The answer is to organize around the customer and hire smart, self-starting people. The challenges are finding the best ways to do that!