Working across time zones can be a challenge for international and global teams. But as my daughter (aged about 12 at the time) said when I explained what they were  “well they are not going to go away, so you better just get on with it”

In my book Speed Lead one of the chapters covers our core principles of working across time zones

1. Be aware - invest in a time zone clock for your computer or wall
2. Avoid time zones where you can - organize locally of perform the team work activities at overlap times.
3. It’s always local time in this time zone – do it locally
4. Take all the time in the world - take the benefit of having 24/7 resources across time zones
5. It’s a relay race not a rowing team – focus on the handovers from one time zone to another. Minimize work that requires simultaneous global working.
6. Win back your home and holiday time
7. Share the pain – rotate the time of inconvenient calls.

On point 1 - be aware of time zones I use the following web tools from timeanddate.com

• A personal world clock that I can set to show the time zones in the cities I work with most often
• A time zones calendar to plan the best time for calls across time zones

I hope you find these time zone tools useful. What are your best / worst examples of working across time zones?

Oct 24 2008