Only Way To Fail

This week Garret plays golf in an empty cornfield, Darin defines mental vs. mental, Tyler leaves for a Zoo, and James forgets what a headline is again.  All of this and more as the team finishes up Quarterly planning, talks through what's next and shares the rocks they are taking on in Q4.

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Epic Golf experiences (good and bad)

00:03:36 - Show Start

00:03:55 - Follow-Ups

The “V” and “I” Thing

A business guys definition

A nerds definition

Conflict

What it ISN’T

What it IS

Unarguable Truths - How it helps in many areas

00:14:22 - The Headlines

Darin:

Awesome Sauce Plan update

How to get “bad” answers from James

How to get “less bad” answers from James

When it’s time to time track

Real time follow up - Morning Routines - Two parts

The mental and the mental

Building a product team (how long will James last on Darin’s product team)

Tyler

Engineering LTM update

Yahtzee “4”

No Process = No good results

Focusing on (and doing) C/I

PTO - Zoo Time!

Garret

Quarterly Planning

Creating Rock Teams and Launching Rocks

LT LTM

Todo’s Not Done (Garret’s Todos) = drain on IDS

Golf Trip

James - 3 “quick” points

Board Meeting Update

EO mini retreat

Warren Russell (creating an intentional life)

Social Dilemma - Watch It!

New Forum, All the Fear, How was James Accepted?

Company #2 is fighting fires

The “Broken Arrow” approach to fighting fires in our business 

00:43:09 - Topic 1 - Q4 Planning is over…Now what?

Real Time Rating (1 to 5), How was it and why?

Garret takes a deep breath and dives into Rocks

2 pages of issues = lots of opportunities

Tyler’s “little bit of fear and all the excitement”

Darin ponders continuing the momentum

Putting on the “Darin” hat

What are the key takeaways for next year?

01:08:47 - Topic 2 - Rocks - What are they and how do we feel about them

Creating deeper vision

Starting a financial department

Implementing EOS in the Product Department

Launching a new business unit (Enterprise Services)

Fear around affecting focus in other areas

L+M=A (Training the entire company)

DAT everyone on every core process

Inbound Marketing (make it a 5 out of 5)

Weak sauce, but doing what it takes

01:31:13 - End of Show (The Sing Out)

3 out of 5 (Does Darin sing us out?)

01:32:28 - After Show

Getting a free lunch

Our First Special - Quarterly Planning - Part 2.  After a hard three days, Garret skips out, James explains wet noodles and roller coasters, Darin renames the 90-day plan, and Tyler finds out that his kids are bad at playing sick.   All this and more as the team decompresses after three days of Quarterly Planning sessions. 

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Hardcore History

Common Sense

Couch Mode

Failed Harmony

00:03:20 - Show Start MEPS (MiPS for James again)

James explains wet noodles and roller coasters

00:07:25 - The Headlines

Darin

Awesome Sauce Plan (FKA 90 day plan) Check-in

What Darin applies with others and not himself

Know the right answer, know the right thing to do, know you need someone to tell you to do it

Tyler

Started the Day strong...faded quickly

1st Attempt at explaining the team building exercise

Kids playing sick

James

Death, all the points, death, all the things

Q4 Planning is hard when annual goals were unclear 9 months ago

00:28:10 - Q4 Planning - Content (The What)

Tyler guesses rock completion percent (he’s spot on)

Missed team buy-in on goals

We forgot to do the “V” thing on several rocks (Tyler explains with real time follow up)

The Gino Wickman Series

Rocket Fuel (Visionary / Integrator challenge accepted)

How to be a Great Boss (LMA)

What the Heck is EOS 

Get a Grip (fable version of Traction)

Does EOS fit in a 1 person department

If not, is there a different approach

Goals, Goals, Goals, and getting all the things written

2nd attempt at explaining the team building exercise - brought to you by Darin

00:41:29 - Q4 Planning - Context (The How)

Staying above the bar

Push-ups 

Irish / British / worst accent ever

When we call an audible

Why “homework” works for Tyler

Darin loves spreadsheets, not not spreadsheets

Small team dynamics in small(er) teams

3rd attempt at explaining team building exercise - brought to you by James

Loves the feedback (less silence = careful what you wish for)

01:00:15 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

Boris singing Rocky Raccoon….nope, just Darin again

01:02:33 - The After Show

What’s on tap for tomorrow (or next Friday) and all the workout talk

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

Our First Special - Quarterly Planning - Part 1.  Darin makes nerd noises, James is a HiPPO, Tyler forgets to show up, and Garret explains how to us all how many sides a triangle has (hint... 6?).   We go through a 20 Questions Organizational Check-In and a preview of the agenda for Planning next week.   Also - The end of an era???

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Garret Aspires to become the 4th nerd

Nothing beats a great google doc

00:01:16 - Follow-Ups

Yahtzee - it's a dice game (or is it?)

“LT” - what does it mean?

James is a “HiPPO”

What the heck is the “Drama Triangle”

“V” / “I” - They aren’t just letters

00:05:50 - The Headlines

Darin

Yahtzee “4” LTM

No EOS around People

Are 90 day plans a secret?

Darin believes, “Geno” maybe believes, we’re doing EOS somewhat correctly...possibly

Garret

No LTM = Lost Garret

Garret doesn’t “do things” anymore

Commitment 8 - Living Your Zone of Genius

James (all the headlines)

Unexpected, impromptu clarity break (follow up next week)

Vision Documents - what we still need James goes introspective on company finances (Topic 0.1 of the episode)

A search for the “Win for All” (Commitment 14)

00:29:11 - Organizational Checkup - Live

20 Questions

How do we rank Infoplus in EOS (Vision, Traction, Data, Issues, Processes, People)

The EOS Checkup Form

Our Infoplus Results going into Q4 2020

00:56:10 - Prep for Quarterly Planning

What does the Agenda entail

Goals for our quarterly planning

Fear of failing at the department level

Fear of departments not aligning with company

01:07:20 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

Darin goes “sitcom” genre

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

This week Darin gets us all stuck in a corner, we talk about getting a new pet swan, Garret drinks too much cheap beer, and Tyler writes a blog.  All this and more as we work through the struggles of repeatedly learning how to execute vision throughout the company.  We also spend a lot of time patting ourselves on the back for a perfect management Yahtzee game.

00:00:00 - Pre Show

The Standing Desk Debate (between Darin and Darin)

James “Hulk lifts” his desk

Who’s this guy starting the show?

00:02:02 - Follow-Ups

DevOps 

The Infoplus Definition

The “Literal Darin” breakdown

Is Garret still in College?

“To Me” vs “By Me”

Black Swan Event

Garret makes up a definition

Darin makes up an origin

James saves us all with “the google”

00:08:09 - The Headlines

Darin:

Darin has a revelation on “his” 90 day plan

Camden? Scissors? What the...what?

Darin’s recurring “Meta” problem

Rounded Wobbly Standing Boards

Tyler:

Missed a great Engineering LTM

Launched Blog 1 - Part 1

Garret:

Indoctrinating new employees

Natty Light = Dragging Ass

James:

How / Why / When to build internal financial organizations?

WHAT? People are scared of meetings with James, Darin, and maybe Garret?

Falling off his “day hack” wagon and wearing a wig

00:26:28 - Core Value Corner

“Focus on Client Success” can lead you down unexpected paths

00:28:15 - Topic 1 - WOW! LTM = Yahtzee 5

James doesn’t believe it (even though he was there)

Quick segue: breaking from 1 to 3 to 9 to 30 to 90 employees

Back on Topic: We want bad news, not (just) solutions

Garret

Energy + Play + IDS = 5/5

Tyler

Came in low, left high...energy

Loves the Yahtzee 5

Darin

He led the meeting, but who gets the credit?

Context vs Content

00:42:24 - Topic 2 - Executing Vision in the Company

Tyler

Eye opening moment - is he even directly impacted by this?

Tyler’s in the trees, Darin’s above the trees, and James is in the clouds

Can Career Plans help

Garret

Ties directly to his role in the company

More Garret doesn’t mean more Garret?

The ultimate game of “Telephone”

Darin

Darin still believes he discovered the concept of middle management (trapezoid of blank)

What’s failing - Who we are? Where are we going? Both?

James

Does 3 things at the company

Feels like 1 and 3 could be failing

How we do things is prescribed, what we do is creative

00:53:56 - End of Show (The Sing Out)

Darin introduces (creates?) a new (unknown) genre?

00:55:18 - The After Show

“David” discusses “Dave’s” money management philosophy

No such thing as good debt

Live like no one else to live like no one else

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

This week we learn about FUD and Todos; Darin finds a magical mirror and becomes slightly self-reflective. Garret Hearts all the James Charms; We get into Employee Compensation, Core Values, Right People, and the Lens we use to make decisions. Then close out with some great questions and Long Answers around 15COCL, Families, and a non-answer about our listeners (hint, Meta EOS).

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Garret talks about why he loves terrible beer.

Tyler attempts to outdrink Tyrion Lannister.

Darin plans his new career as a Desk Assembly Guy (DAG?).

00:02:13 - Follow-Ups

Getting into Todos, Pebbles, Rocks, and 7 Days.

MQLs and Garret using the word Lead 17 times in 45 seconds. 

FUD and how to play with Head Trash.

What is NPS, and how to do hard customer maths?.

Very Slowly Spelling M-R-R and A-R-R.

Revenue equals The "Money" coming into your company.

What is a KanBan? 

00:07:08 - The Headlines

Darin only talks about himself for 5 minutes.

Engineers Learning how to redefine Good, Bad, Okay, and "Really Bad".

Not taking things personally while James is making people better than they want to be. 

Garret explains how to read a book next to his pool (he has many books, stacks of books, many leather-bound volumes) 

How To Be A Great Boss

Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work 

Vectors Vectors Vectors (EO and Business, Self, and Others)

00:27:41 - Employee Compensation

Right People / Right Seats / Pay Them Competitively.

How Employees Make More Money.

Knowing what you need to accomplish to move up, even if it feels like a lot, really helps with the mindset and setting expectations.

Darin throws down a line - "I have nothing additional to add here. No passion about it, no involvement in it for the company."

00:47:53 - Core Values Corner

From EOS - part of the vision component - defines who you are, what you believe in

The key aspect of culture - whether you define them or not, they exist.

How "Focus on our Clients' Success" does not mean anything they want

What are NOT core values? Not the Bullshit ones. What they ARE - Polarizing

Why are so many companies too terrible at this? 

00:73:53 - Questions and Long Answers?

The Segue

Happy Robot T-shirts

A conversation about what is meta

James Not Answering Questions (going meta instead)

How some of us handle 15cocl and our shifting views on RR along with families and friends that don't subscribe. 

Accept It == Try To Change It == Leave It == By Me Life 

Tyler helps us understand how to eat a mountain with a sprint spoon.

Are "Tim" and "Ari" real people, or just imaginary (like Dan Carlin's "Ben")?

What about "listener Brandy?" how real is she, really?

00:92:10 - End of Show (The Sing Out)

Send the show to a friend, share it on your social sites, or leave us a rating or review - we appreciate all of that and can use your help to build this community."

New Blogs - We've published a few new blogs there this week - about fitness for the guy what hates fitness, and some good LTM / bad LTM guides

"And now I'd like to sing us out".

00:94:56 - The After Show

A thoughtful interview about a watching of DS9

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

Things start out weird and then get more weirder (again). Darin brings back D&D while timing tomatoes, James discovers that we are no longer just part of the pack, The team swipes left on our CEO (or is it right?), and we talk about bootstraps that cost a buck-o-five.

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Giga Giga Track Track

0:00:45 - Show Start

00:01:00 - Follow Ups (It’s All Darin, All the Time)

Points (Dungeons and Dragons / Role Playing Games)

Even More Italian Tomatoes (for real this time)

00:06:37 - The Headlines

Darin is back from vacation and falling off horses again

Tyler explores the age old question “Why don’t people like us?”

Career Plans and 90 Day Plans

Paying Customers Pay / Non-Paying Customers are…??? The search for a name for them

00:18:00 - James “highjacks” The Headlines with an unofficial Topic 1

Power Dynamics

Three Minds Blown

James’ pseudo scientific scale (i.e. James makes stuff up with a CEO voice)

00:45:00 - Topic 1 (maybe topic 2?) - The Tabloid Test

7 Signs your CEO isn’t “going” for it

We all grade James Scores range from “intentionally bad” to “I can’t imagine any better”

01:07:07 - Questions and Long Answers?

Listener Brandy is back (and is still James’ wife)

Todo’s - How many chances do you get and how do you help get them done? Tears are possible.

Random Listener 1

How do I take responsibility and change things when I’m not the CEO?

Random Listener 2

Bootstrapping a company. What is it?

$1.00 In → $1.05 Out

01:21:45 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

When things are almost TOO EPIC.

This week's song is…. just listen

01:23:16 - The After Show

Picture James in biker shorts (and possibly a new bike)

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

Garret defines what a vacation is, Darin forgets how to take a vacation and spends his entire time eating Italian tomatoes, Tyler doesn’t talk about Scrum for twenty minutes and James waxes on about drinking cold cups of coffee during WWII.  All this plus more while the team recovers from injuries earned by choosing to hit their collective heads against walls as a new form of management. This week’s show is simply a beautiful hot mess.  Welcome to the world of scaling a fast-growing high tech startup…

00:00:00 Pre Show

• “Jazz Hands” energy transfer

00:02:20 - Follow Ups

• “AWS” 

00:09:34 - The Headlines 

• Darin avoids squirrels

00:18:45 - Hitting The Wall

• V1 → V2 → V3

00:32:59 - The Coffee

• Can you imagine cold coffee being as good as or better than hot coffee?

00:34:45 - Tyler Not Talking About Scrum 

• Is Tyler passionate about Scrum?

00:43:05 - Questions and Long Answers?

• How to do an exceptional vacation (Garret)

00:52:10 - End of the Show (The Sign Out)

• Doing the dishes creates the magic

00:53:30 - The After Show

• Scratching itches with the Pomodoro technique

• Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

A Plumber walks into a Programmers House, Follow the Followups, Head over to the Headlines, and then dig into the ideas of a 16th Commitment (Fitness), the idea of an Annual Learning Calendar, and then our 9th Commit (Play) - Fostering Creativity in the Workplace - Having Creative Play Time. Bonus - More singing and then cheese boxes!

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Darin’s plumbing adventures - “How One Might Buy A New Sink”

00:01:22 - Show Start

3 nerds and a business guy

00:01:35 - The Follow Ups

Acronym 1 - What the heck is “IDS”

Quads - (No Zone vs Win for All / Energy vs Exhaustion)

Acronym 2 - “OKR” what is it and where did James find it?

Listener Brandi’s feedback from E02 (may or may not be James’ wife)

Acronym 3 - “EO” - Not a cult, just sharing experiences

00:24:00 - The Headlines

Darin’s vacation update

Team forgets about Garret pt.1 - (it was lavender not lilac)

Ari (Director Internal Ops) keeps Tyler on track

Tyler launches his blog career

James experiences “joy from within” for the first time

Junior members of leadership challenge James directly (how does he feel?)

00:34:45 - Topic 1 - A 16th Commitment (Fitness) and an Annual Learning Calendar

James tells us what it is and how it works?

16th Commitment Wellness Challenge (physical and mental wellbeing)

James crushes a Peloton bike

Tyler’s stuck in 2005 fitness technology (when iPod compatible was a selling feature)

Darin “rounds up” his goals and pees more

00:49:20 - Topic 2 - 9th Commitment (Life of Play)

Play, Improv, Laughter - Rest, Renewal, Rhythm

Tyler’s a “troll”

What’s Darin’s new website about?

“The other 20%”

James gives birth?!

CEO and CTO guilt - what and why

00:59:34 - Questions and Long Answers

What is MEPS

Quick Demonstration by the team

Team forgets Garret pt.2 (proving only Garret can “do the maths”)

What is a meeting segue

Sharing and building trust

Quick Demonstration by the team

Things take an unexpected, unfiltered and serious turn

Darin saves the day by giving James “approval”

01:10:25 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

We’re halfway to an OWTF soundtrack (keep an eye on the swag store)

01:11:30 - The After Show

Darin tells the origins of his 3D Printing love (and giggling in a closet)

Additional Links or follow up items (AWS, STRAVA)

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott

This week, all the great followups, a hard look at our ongoing conversations as a company about BLM, LGBTQ, Racism, and Exploring the Opposite.  Followed up by why employee Career Planning is the most important thing a company can focus on for long term success, questions, sing-out, and bubble hockey.

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Margaritas and Coffee

Mushrooms and Micro-dosing

00:03:02 - Show Start

3 nerds and a business guy

00:03:15 - The Follow Ups

The only way to Glossary - The post where we’ll keep track of all these words and acronyms

LTM - Level Ten Meeting

Shifting

FA Chart (AKA Accountability Chart)

D&E - Delegate and Elevate (part of it the process from EOS Worldwide)

The Gestalt Mindset - We’re here to share our journey - not give you advice.

00:19:26 - The Headlines

Darin - Rocks off track, future for onboarding, and a break for myself

Garret - Vacation from James’s vacation and kicking off a CTO improvement plan

Tyler - Magic from the engineering LTM

James - Magic from another LTM, keeping committed to physical health, and he loves being back in the LTM’s (even if we don’t love having him back)

00:31:22 - Exploring the Opposite

Commitment 10: Opposite of my Story

An ongoing discussion in all-team slack about racism, LGBT, cultures, languages, driven by our employees, not our leadership team

We are all individuals of privilege - can we at least create a space for these conversations to take place, for us to learn?

Pride in our pride shirts and committing to reading to learn more

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Between the World and Me

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

'Bear Our Pain': The Plea For More Black Mental Health Workers

Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America

Can a genderless language change the way we think?

Exposing myself as coming from a background where diversity wasn’t embraced.

00:47:11 - The Most Important Thing For Success

Our recipe for keeping employees healthy & happy is Career Plans

Skills and responsibilities

Career plans are required; “outside offers” are toxic; we create true win-for-alls

01:09:19 - Questions and Long Answers

Does a podcast have core values?

01:16:51 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

No more like buttons - but leave us a rating‽

Darin gets his weekly adrenaline rush by singing us out

01:19:33 - The After Show

Tyler explores the world of Bubble Hockey (or is that the Hockey Bubble?)

Where the company is today (Infoplus Story of Right Now), Pandemic checkin - how have we all adjusted with our teams and the company to the new world since we have all been WFH since March, follow-ups, headlines, and a trip to the ER for sugar. 

00:00:00 - Pre Show

Random chatter on all the things

Biased reviews

Squeaky chairs and amateur microphone handling

00:02:02 - Show Start

3 nerds and a business guy

00:02:29 - Follow-ups

What the hell were all those words and acronyms we used last week?

MEPS

EOS

Traction (alternate link to amazon store)

15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership (alternate link to amazon store)

00:16:42 - This Weeks Headlines

Darin - LTM’s, IDS, and a guy named Joel

Garret - How to max out a corporate card from vacation

Tyler - Software engineering and automated testing (for the “nerds” in the audience)

James - What is a ZOG (Zone of Genius?) and 31 days of vacation coming to an end

00:29:27 - Where Are We Right Now (The company as of today)

Excitement, Valley of Death, Wiggles of False Hope, Traction

Scaling via strategic fundamental change, not effort

4 Engineers won’t carry us forever

“Single hats only” and respecting the “product sphere”

If James doesn’t want Infoplus to be a “startup unicorn” then why does Infoplus exist.

00:45:39 - Pandemic checkin

How have we all adjusted with our teams and the company to the new world since we have all been WFH since March

“Drinky Hour”

Engineers in Heaven

Infoplus Mom is losing weight

The good side of life slowing down

00:59:00 - Q and A

James left the questions blank

00:59:34 - End of the Show (The Sing Out)

“Smash that like button” is still hanging on

Darin sings us out with an encore that leaves you wondering how he was ever kicked out of choir

01:02:23 - The After Show

“Mr. Richardson... your oxygen levels could not be any higher.”