The Work Design Collaborative (WDC) announced yesterday that it has received a grant from the Gaines Family Foundation to create a new industry and professional association, to be called the “Distributed Work Industry Association” (DWIA).

The new association will focus on developing industry standard productivity measurements, provide professional development programs for industry leaders, and seek to influence state and federal regulations that help or hinder the growth of distributed work.

The full story is available at the Future of Work blog (which is sponsored and maintained by Jim Ware and Charlie Grantham, co-founders and Executive Producers of the Work Design Collaborative).

I just want to add a couple of additional comments here about this effort. It's become very clear to many of us that there is a powerful business case for moving to distributed work models.

In our research for the Future of Work community we've become convinced that companies can reduce their cost of workforce support by 30% or more. That typically translates into at least 3-4 points of margin - which in turn can literally add millions of dollars to a company's market capitalization.

Yet to date there are only a very few living examples of companies that have moved aggressively (and succesfully) into distributed work, or adopted alternative workplace strategies. Anyone who pays attention knows about Sun Microsystems, IBM, ATT, Cigna, and a small number of other organizations. But it's always the same old Usual Suspects, and most CEO's just don't seem to "get it."

Is that because those of us who do understand the economics of distributed work aren't good communicators? Or is it because there are no generally accepted standard measurements for making that business case? Or maybe it's because there are too many laws discouraging home offices, and not enough legislation putting independent/remote/mobile workers on a level playing field with corporate employees.

Or is it perhaps that moving into a fully distributed work environment is a lot more complicated than the economists realize (think culture change, management resistance, inadequate business processes)? Or maybe it's even related to a lack of courageous leadership at the top - executives unwilling to incur the perceived risks of change, or who live in fear of the unknown.

Well, I think it's actually safe to say "All of the Above," in one form or another.

And recent conversations with our new friend Jerry Gaines and his colleague Toni Kistner, have convinced us that a major piece of the the puzzle is the lack of a "guiding force" - an effective forum where those of us who care and know something about distributed work can come together, share our ideas and experiences, build a stronger knowledge base, and actually begin to influence public opinion (read: lobby for legislative changes and publish new ideas and new data demonstrating how compellling - and right for the times - distributed work actually is.

Anyway, with Jerry's support we're launching a research and development effort over the next several months to define and actually launch a new Distributed Work Industry Association. We'll be conducting interviews with industry and thought leaders, examining successful examples of other industry associations, framing a charter, and designing an organizational structure for the new association.

We're also going to be actively seeking a core group of organizations who are ready to step up to fund the new association and take an active leadership role in making it successful.

We welcome - actually encourage - your ideas, your suggestions, and your good will as we build this new organization. Want to participate? Contact me at jim@thefutureofwork.net any time.