What's the right balance of structure?

Went from having too much structure (corporate job)

to too little

- no home, car, purpose, job, relationship, plan... (well the plan was to have no plan)

now searching for the right balance

daily: write, exercise, meditate, see a friend

(as of jan 09)

The Fake Stories We Make Up About Ourselves

Here are three examples of stories I made up about myself, which actually aren't true at all:

- I am shy

- I will be a serial software entrepreneur & CEO

- I'm not artistic

What about your stories?

"I'm going to be a ____"  (Managing Director, VP of ____, lawyer,

I'm unlucky

I don't know what I want to do with my life (what if you could figure this out?)

I don't know how to start a company (what if you did?)

I don't have the time or money to start one (what if it didn't take any money, and only a few hours per week to start one?)

3 Keys To A Successful Offsite

After you get the hell out of the office...a team at a kickoff needs three things:
1) A crystal clear vision of where they're going, and the vales to live by along the way
2) What are the few most important things to do to get there?
3) Build trust and relationships in the team to enable it to happen.

1) *** CRYSTAL CLEAR VISION AND VALUES ***
A team needs a clear vision and a set of committed values if they are to succeed - and especially if they're to succeed and enjoy the process of building the company! There's nothing more important to keeping everyone aligned, because when the vision and values are in place and people BUY IN to them (usually because they as a team helped co-create them), it creates an unconscious 'map' in the team around how to get to success.

- Example of a crystal clear vision: http://www.zingtrain.com/2010/01/zingermans-2020-vision/

2) *** FEW MOST IMPORTANT GOALS ***
"Goal clutter" makes it really easy to get distracted from what is truly important. Trying to do too many things scatters energy and means nothing gets done in ways that make a lasting impact. So early in the year, establish:

a) "If we can only accomplish 5 things this year as a company, what would they be?"
b) Then translate these goals to each individual: "If I can accomplish only 5 things this year to make the "Company's Big 5" happen, what would they be?

3) *** HAVE FUN BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS ***
Have some damn fun!! You need fun because if the team doesn't work well together or trust each other, it's going to be a painful ride, and also if you're not having fun in life or work, what's the point?

There are a couple of simple ways to do this:
a) In the working session times, break people into small teams of 2-4 people to come up with ideas and solutions.
b) Include some fun, active or team-building activities outside the working sessions. This can be as simple as a dinner, a hike, or outdoor or indoor games.

One of the silliest and most-fun things I ever did was string some crepe paper ribbon across a room, blow up a few balloons, and have people play "balloon volleyball"! Also, Improv warm-up games are EXCELLENT at getting the energy going and having some fun.

You can get as creative as you like, as with this "Treasure Map Hike"
http://pebblestorm.com/2009/11/09/reinventing-work-treasure-map-hike