What makes work and cities great in the coming years will look dramatically different than how “great” looked in the past 20 years. After all, technology has changed the way we can tackle complex urban issues, including traffic and communication.

I want to talk to you about Calgary as a model.

Calgary boasts the 2nd greatest number of head offices in Canada, next to Toronto, the highest per capita in the country. We have a disturbingly enormous issue with urban sprawl and (every economic developers dream) a booming population of young people. For context, did you know that in the past 10 years, the population of Calgary has grown by 30 per cent?

Calgary is set to take back its spot as the nation's leader in economic growth, with the city forecasted to become Canada's growth leader from 2011 to 2014. And a report by my organization, Calgary Economic Development, says the Calgary region can expect an unemployment rate of between 5.2 per cent and 6.2 per cent this year. The war for talent is back.

We are fortunate to have prosperity and we have spent money widening roads and adding lanes, expanding our Light Rail Transit system and other traditional infrastructure projects. And yet, in a recent study by the Toronto Board of Trade that examined traffic congestion in major North American and European cities, Calgary was one of the worst.

So sadly despite our efforts and investments in infrastructure our transportation issues are worsening instead getting better.

How is your city tackling the now global war for talent, the challenges associated with growth and environmental issues?

Let me introduce you to Calgary’s WORKshift program. Led by Calgary Economic Development, WORKshift is regional approach to promoting the practice of telework. It reminds us that work is something you DO not a place you GO. And it is establishing Canada’s first replicable model by which other regions can similarly adopt the practice.

WORKshift is not about companies sending their staff home to work in their bunny slippers five days a week. It’s about encouraging employees to work where and when they are most productive and efficient. Sitting in traffic for 63 minutes a day to get to and from work can, at the very least, be considered unproductive. This equates to 250 HOURS a year- just getting to and from work! Not cool.

WORKshift promotes, for example, that you work from home from 6am-9am and head into the office after the morning rush. Or that on Wednesday’s you work from your home office to avoid the disruption of the office. It’s about embracing the technology you already have (iPhone, BlackBerry, laptop) to avoid unnecessary commutes.

The models we see that work best are the part-time 1-2 day/ week arrangements, where employees get the best of the “heads down” time at home and the collaborative, social face-to-face time in the office.

So many knowledge workers spend their days in the cubicle jungle not speaking to anyone. Or better yet- how many of you have emailed the person sitting in the office next to you?

What is the greatest impediment to the growth of telework? It’s probably exactly what you’ve all caught yourselves thinking: HOW DO I KNOW

SOMEONE IS WORKING IF I CANT SEE THEM? This also roughly translates into 'I don’t trust my employees.'

Ask yourself: if your boss came to you tomorrow and asked you to take on a project team in a city on the other side of the country, would you say “No way! If I can’t physically be with them all the time to monitor them I couldn’t possible manage them”? I doubt it. And if you did, you probably wouldn’t be long for that job.

We are ALREADY managing virtual teams.

What you would be more likely to say is: “Yes, that would be grand. I’m going to fly there, get to know them, set project objectives and deliverables, and establish a standard for communication” We already know that we can manage by results rather than line of sight.

So … why can’t we bear the thought of “allowing” our trusted high-performers to work from home occasionally?

Daniel Pink’s NYT best seller Drive examines the recent research and science about human motivation.  Most of us have worked all of our careers in environments that were established under a set of assumptions that went something like this: “If I monitor you and bonus you, you will do great work”. 

The research tells us this: You give people with complex jobs autonomy, they perform BETTER.

You get better business outcomes. It's a fact.

And yet: When I meet with business leaders and suggest that 33% of Canadians would take a pay cut to have the option to telework and that they should integrate this into their business, they look at me like I am crazy.

As Dan Pink asserts, “There is a mismatch between what science knows and business does.” Do you agree?

If I haven’t yet convinced you of the validity of this approach, check out www.workshiftcalgary.com for details and resources.

Robyn M. Bews is the program manager for WORKshift.

WORKshift is an initiative of Calgary Economic Development to promote, educate and  accelerate the adoption of telework in the business community. The program message is: You don't have to go to work, to be at work.

Here's a great video from the WORKshift team on the history and benefits of telework in Calgary.

Over the next few days, we will be bringing more information on this important program, including video highlights of a recent WORKshift event featuring Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems.