In the 1950's, Actor James Garner starred in a Saturday night Western comedy series, about an itinerant gambler called 'Maverick". Some of the most memorable parts of the series were Maverick quoting his fictional "Daddy," for example: ""As Daddy once said, "A faint heart never filled a flush.""

The leadership in our society is becoming more "faint of heart", less and less willing to engage in activities which involve any degree of institutional or personal risk, no matter the potential reward.

I attended a July 8th public hearing of Congressman Tom Davis' Committee on Government Reform, where the subject was Telework, in particular the inability of the Federal Government to institute a meaningful telework program for Federal Employees. We in this area painfully aware of the impacts of government employee traffic on our local roads, the congestion during the long morning and evening rush hours, the pollution, the staggering costs of roads and other infrastructure. From the experience of commercial companies, we also becoming aware of the potential benefits of telework to our Federal Government in, for example, reduced real estate costs, increased worker productivity and employee satisfaction and retention.

Unfortunately, Federal workers are subjected to Draconian telework policies and 1980's technology to support their telework. For example, the Federal Telework Guidelines outline "duty hours" to be agreed upon between supervisor and telework. Only work during these "duty hours" is authorized, and any work done outside these hours can be cause for termination from the telework program. So, for example, you walk by your home computer at 10:00 pm, after the kids are in bed, and decide you'll spend a few minutes finishing up some work—wrong! Without your supervisors prior approval. The phone, fax, e-mail and access to your workplace files are the only supporting technologies for government telework. In contrast, current commercial telecommunications and computer technology has reached a point where workers can be highly interactive with others in remote locations. From the desktop PC at home or office, workers can see (video) and hear others as well as and share work documents using the public Internet.

In spite of clear mandates by Congressmen Tom Davis and Frank Wolf for Federal Agencies to take action on Telework the Agencies continue to "slow roll" Congress. Davis pointed out that less than 14% of the eligible Federal employees are teleworkers. Also in an attempt to spur action, Congressman Wolf as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and State, has threatening to withhold FY 2005 funds from agencies that continue to provide their employees only token telework programs.

When asked to comment on the major barriers to telework in the Federal Government, the Directors of the Federal entities responsible for Telework policy and implementation, OPM and GSA, pointed at the "attitudes of managers and supervisors" toward telework and the "long time" that is needed to institute a "cultural change", such as telework. To this end, OPM has conducted, what could be best described as "grief counseling" courses for Federal managers and supervisors, who are faced with the prospect of having to manage by employee results, rather attendance of subordinates surrounding the manager's office.

In contrast, there are no "faint hearts' in the leadership of Loudoun County publisher, Amendment One. Faced with the problem of publishing the award-winning Loudoun Magazine with a home-based editorial staff, which was spread out from Leesburg to Berryville, Brett Phillips CEO of Amendment had the courage, in spite of impending publishing deadlines, to commit to a "virtual office" telework environment. The beautiful Loudoun Magazine, Summer 2004 issue currently on the newsstands was produced by the home-based staff, utilizing a Swedish video PC software for "face-to-face" conferencing and an electronic whiteboard for developing and editing the text and layout. Amendment One did not spend years in developing telework policies, hold counseling session for its management and staff to prepare them for the cultural change. The leadership committed, adopted a new way of doing business, assumed significant financial risk and they won.

Well done, Brett Phillips and Amendment One.

Federal Government, please take notice.