Kathie Lingle

By Kathie Lingle
Director, Alliance for Work-Life Progress

Last month (September 16-18), AWLP hosted a Working Retreat on Workplace Flexibility, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. This small, invitation-only gathering of two dozen flexibility practitioners from higher education and private industry represents a new “think tank” format for AWLP and the work-life field. The objective was to open dialogue about the triumphs and challenges of flexibility between two sectors that haven’t had this kind of opportunity to directly share their practices, key learnings and concerns. The ultimate goal is to “blow out the boundaries” by encouraging otherwise siloed practitioners to brainstorm, collaborate in new ways and thus maximize the chances of achieving faster progress toward more flexible work environments for all.

Perhaps it was the dramatic ski-resort venue in Park City, Utah or the rarified atmosphere at 8300 feet, but something began to gel between these two ostensibly disparate groups by the second morning. A sampling of “ah-ha’s”:

- One corporate participant from the pharmaceutical industry was struck by how much she was learning about the background, mindset and affiliation of the PhD pharmacists that are such an important segment of her internal clientele

- Both groups came to the meeting assuming that the other had a much easier time of it, and both were surprised to learn otherwise

- Higher education and professional services practitioners learned that both of their career paths are mercilessly rigid; thus, some of their approaches might apply equally well across what on the surface look like irreconcilable differences

Be sure to learn more about the outcomes of this inaugural event and AWLP’s plans for future work-life retreats at the May Total Rewards Conference in Philadelphia, via the public AWLP website at http://www.awlp.org, or articles in workspan magazine over the coming months.