Flexibility has evolved.

When people first started working flexibly, it simply meant working a different schedule or telecommuting. But we now know that flexibility is a whole new way of working and thinking. And it is also essential for the most competitive organizations to attract, and keep, the most talented and ambitious contributors.

It takes different shapes.

Flexibility is all about finding new ways to achieve success in an increasingly complex world, including:

• More choice in when you work – to adapt the hours you work to fit you or how many (fulltime or less-than-fulltime) hours you would like to work.
• More choice in where you work – the option to work from places other than the office all or some of the time – occasionally or on a regular basis.
• More autonomy about how you work – you figure out the best way to get your job done.
• The ability to customize your own career path – to take time out or slow the pace (to take 10 years instead of 7 to earn partner, for example) without jeopardizing your reentry or growth).
• An organizational culture and climate that considers flexibility the new 'normal' and beneficial for the organization and doesn't penalize people who work flexibly.

For more examples of flexibility, see "Types of Flexibility". See also "What Does It Look Like?" Glossary and "Success Stories".

What it really means.

Whatever it's form, flexibility offers the promise of more time and energy and the chance to pursue what's most important to you -- in every aspect of your life. Whether that is to write your best software, learn photography, raise a resilient child, lead a United Way campaign, exercise more… or all of the above. Because ultimately, flexibility offers you a certain kind of freedom.