One of the things many of us like about ArcStone is the flexible work environment. Flexible means (at least to me) a recognition that to be most productive and effective you need to have a sensible work / life balance. Sometimes people will be more productive at night, want to work in the early morning, need to take a half-day with little warning, take a two-hour lunch to fit in a work out, etc.

This “flexibility” has been an ongoing experiment. Despite my best intentions and knowing that it benefits everyone from employee to customer – it still occasionally annoys me.

As a manager I frequently need to have short status / update conversations with my fellow ArcStonians. The flexible work schedule sometimes gets in my way and forces me/us to be slower to respond than I would like. I think this is a common feeling for those in management roles over here.

A couple of days ago my frustration level hit a peak and I sent a long, whiney email to the entire office, ranting about needing better communication and consistency so that we can work together more efficiently.

I asked for feedback and help from people and yea, verily yea, I got it.

Over the last few days I’ve been able to reflect, collect, and review the responses from my coworkers. I’ve compiled a partial list below and thought I’d share our efforts with the world. Hopefully they will be of use…

(more…)

Remember the tired, worn adage – “If everyone went and jumped off a cliff would you do it?” Well…. to do what we can to try to stem the flow of the impending tidal wave of global eco-disaster, ArcStone’s officially going green.

Not that we weren’t green before, it’s just that our past policy was implicit and somewhat lazy. It’s past time to make it explicit and clear to everyone who works here or comes in contact with us.

So please forgive me for jumping on the green hybrid bandwagon, but it’s truly too important to remain complacent and do nothing. Imagine if every business did this. With enough critical mass, I’m sure we’d make an impact.

It starts with one household and one business at a time. As Lisa (my bride) so eloquently put it yesterday, “Action creates clarity.” We’ll clearly see results only if we act and adjust accordingly.

It’s time to act now – here’s the public unveiling of ArcStone’s First Greenification Agenda…

(I’ve written this in mostly general terms so others can copy and paste and use it themselves – ArcStone is following these guidelines and we will adjust as required and get feedback.)

1. Buy REC Offsets – Determine the amount of energy used within the last year. Here’s a calculator that can be applied for business (most seem to be for households). ArcStone generates approximately 103,000 pounds of CO2 per year. So we purchased RECs – Renewable Energy Credit) to offset our usage. View our certificate.
2. Consciously Consume – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

   Reduce
   – No paper plates, plastic forks, wax paper cups, etc.
   – Buy in bulk when applicable.
   – Favor local products with less packaging purchased from green suppliers.
   – Print only when necessary.

   Reuse
   – Sell and/or donate old office equipment.
   – Reuse draft paper printed on one side – set-up a station for this by each printer.

   Recycle
   – Black personal cans for trash – green for recyclables.
   – If there’s no recycling pick-up where you are – sponsor it (ArcStone is doing it for our building – good PR).
   – Dispose of waste / electronics properly.

3. Conserve Electricity / Gas – Use common sense. Turn on lights only as needed. Plug everything into power strips and turn off power strips when leaving the office. Program the adjustable thermostat, if you don’t have one, install one.
4. Encourage Sensible Commuting – Allow employees to telecommute as sensible. We typically allow non-support staff to telecommute two – three days a week. Encourage car pooling, mass transit, and muscle power alternatives for the work commute – at ArcStone green commuters (at least 3 / 5 day per week green commuting average) get earth day off and other special treats.
5. Meet Virtually with Clients / Vendors when Possible – Subscribe to an online virtual meeting platform and learn it well. We currently use – Adobe’s Acrobat Connect Pro which doesn’t require a software download for meeting guests. We like it.
6. Use Good Cleaning Supplies – Don’t buy cleaners with nasty chemicals – there’s really no reason for it. I like to ahere to the rule – if you can’t pronounce it, don’t buy it.

I consider this a draft of a living document – please feel free to comment and make suggestions….

I had the pleasure of hearing a talk by Jillian Perez recently. The subject was “thinking wrong”, a thought process that forces the mind out of cookie-cutter style problem solving and unlocks your creative potential.

Surprising, Innovative, And Down Right Brilliant Solutions
Although Jillian discussed thinking wrong mostly in the terms of graphic design, the techniques can be applied to many situations. Most projects tackled at work or home will require a problem solving thought process. When this process is gone about the “wrong” way, it can yield surprising, innovative, and down right brilliant solutions.

Keep reading for more insight on thinking wrong and my personal take on thinking wrong techniques.

(more…)

OK – this is a little off topic, but I’ve been having a lot of very vivid dreams lately.

Last night I dreamt that I was praying with Mark Johnson (Mark works with me as part of the executive management team at ArcStone and is the managing partner in charge of our association CRMs AMO and CMO).

In the dream we were saying the prayer together in the morning before we started work.

When I got up, I wrote down the prayer. It has a ring of authenticity (being made of dream stuff and all), and I like it – so I thought I’d share it here….

“Geek Industry Insights” is my series of posts exploring the inner workings of a technology company. I will discuss the unique culture, politics, and challenges that permeate the industry.

In this installment we will explore the lighter side of ArcStone’s company culture, and how humor can bring a boost of morale and productivity when it’s needed most.

(more…)

I just started reading a new book: “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a reluctant Businessman” by Yvon Chouinard, The founder of Patagonia.

The book is great. The concentration of the books content is the philosophy that Yvon holds and used for the development of his company. I could talk about the book and the specifics but you should just read the book. What’s most interesting to me is the idea of the philosophy and how he has put it into action.

There are a million seminars and books out there that give you the top 8 rules and the 5 most effective techniques to achieve “X”. The sad thing is most people take the seminar or read the book and then use what they learned once or twice, if at all, and then move on to the next popular thing. (I’m all for education and continuous learning, but this seems like waste of resources.) They never take the time to think about develop the foundation that they need (the beliefs, values, and ideals) so they can espouse the ideas through actions. Yvon’s admitted overwhelming management technique is “management by absence”. What I interpret from this is that day in and day out while he was out actually using and testing the equipment Patagonia creates he spent plenty of time thinking about and his ideas and building the foundation he needed to live and apply his philosophy in action.

The next time you read a current business or management book or attend a seminar, I challenge you to ask yourself afterward, “What foundation do I need to build to be able to apply this in action day in and day out?” Spend some time thinking about it over a few weeks before you dive into something else. Pick the three most important things that struck you as you read the book and let that be a filter that you use to view your world through. I find that this helps me build a foundation for which to apply and integrate new things into my daily behavior and actions.

Additional information:
You can purchase the book from Amazon or you can read an excerpt of the book at Outside Magazine’s website

Are you guilty of writing florid, lengthy emails in your work life? It might be time to meditate on the five-sentences-or-less philosophy espoused in the signatures of some people’s emails. I’m not sure I can totally jump on this bandwagon, but maybe that’s just my love of my own words getting in the way.

The website appropriately details the philosophy in five sentences (not including the footer).

If you’re a believer, add it to your sig: http://five.sentenc.es/