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Play

Geir Isene 99 Comments

Had a meeting today with an interesting person. We talked business, life and philosophy. He presented an angle to “Fuck it” that changed my view on letting go – a view that is more direct, active and productive. Play is more positive. While “Fuck it” has great merit, Play is easier to adopt.

You can tell a person to “let go” of the negative emotions he creates. He can perhaps do that. Or perhaps he will struggle to figure out how. You can guide him, coach him, train him to just “give a fuck” and “chillax”. But it may take a while with some serious guidance.

Telling him to play more in life is easier to grasp, easier to do. Play is doing fun stuff that is unserious and not demand results or consequences. Ask the person what “play” is to him. Then encourage him to do more of that in his life. Voilá.

soccer

Xtreme

Geir Isene 11 Comments

“It really is extreme. Extreme people with extreme skills, doing stuff people wouldn’t think possible.” Adrian was half proud, half nervous as he walked through the doors of the most mythical company in town – aptly called Xtreme. Unpretentious, an almost anonymous location. But inside, a nerd’s heaven.

Xtreme

The interview was nothing like he had imagined. And very far from any interview he had experienced before. He was to pitch right in on a project for a week. And then his team mates were to decide if they wanted to let him on board. He had to impress them, ha had to be extreme. “Impress people like Claes, Florian, Maria and Michael. Damn, I have to be on top of my game here, cuz those guys are freakin legends in the open source world.” But so was Adrian. He had run several projects that has gotten good traction on Github, and that was precisely why Florian had asked him to come and show off his awesome. But Adrian was never the bragging, arrogant type. Shy and humble, submerged in an intense interest for developing the next coolest thing – he so wanted to work with these guys.

Getting on board meant to actually own an equal piece of the company and share the responsibilities, decisions, salary, perks and work with everybody else at Xtreme. And it meant getting to work with the top notch developers in the world, doing stuff that really matters. No wonder Adrian was tense.

But the week went surprisingly well. His team mates were including and helpful and he got plenty of opportunity to show his skill set. He worked on a technically challenging and interesting project that would prove extremely valuable for a customer building rescue helicopters.

He got to see the organization up close. Or rather, the lack thereof. Without any executives or hierarchy, the company was light, quick and ultra-dynamic. “But how do you make important decisions, like moving the company to new premises?” he had asked. “It’s like in this village called Endesh in North Tanzania“, Florian replied, “they get together and decide.” “All of them?” “Yeah all of them. All of us.”

“But don’t you need executives?” Adrian looked somewhat puzzled. “Why?” Florian inquired. “What would you need an executive for? Do you need to be told what to do? Or what not to do? Or do you need someone else to motivate you to do your best? Because if you need those things, we don’t need you.” Adrian got the drift and answered “Well, I sure haven’t needed any of that to get me this far. The bosses I’ve had have more often than not been in my way, deciding on stuff they really don’t know and without the hands-on knowledge required to make the right choices. All while they think they know best.” Florian smiled. “Then we’re on the same page here. There is no set process, formal way or exact procedure for what we do. We have the best guys in our field, we get shit done, learn, and get even more shit done. It’s a continual evolution.“

Facts or inspiration

Geir Isene 12 Comments

David wondered how he could best present the strategy to the board. Did they want pure facts or did they want inspiration?

While some of the board members were science types and driven by facts and figures, others were people-oriented and motivated by emotions.

If he were to be succinct and sum everything up as terse as possible, he knew of no better way than using a HyperList. If he were to relate the strategy with inspiration and emotion, the best way was to tell an old fashion story. He could sum everything up in half a page using a HyperList. Or he could write a short story a couple of pages long that took them on an inspirational journey. The story would describe how the company would be when the strategy was fulfilled using a fictional character to relay the points.

He decided to give them a choice by summing up the two forms in a simple HyperList:

OR: 
    Pure facts = HyperList
        The most succinct presentation of data
    Inspiration = Short story
        Words painting pictures and inviting emotions

And then he wrote this story.

Coaching and mental training – a summary of my approach

Geir Isene 16 Comments

With the inspiration and help from Brendan Martin, I have written an article that sums up my approach as a coach and mental trainer. It could serve as the seed for an upcoming book that we write together on this topic.

I would like to thank the many hundred subjects that I have had the honor of helping – including the many young people that was struggling in life. A special thanks goes to Tiril Eckhoff who has been an excellent subject and effective measuring stick for what this approach can do.

The article is available as a free pdf (download or read on Scribd).

It is written as a primer to people I coach and as inspiration to those with a purpose of helping others.

The games of life

Geir Isene 28 Comments

What defines a game?

Purpose.

Purpose explains a game. It delimits a game. It makes the game.

A game is anything defined by at least one purpose – a computer game, a game of chess, watching a movie, a project or job, a relationship, family – even life itself. Different participants in a game have different purposes. While the sum of the purposes defines a common game, each person ha his own version of that game – defined by his purpose(s).

So when we talk about the importance of being able “to let go“, what are we letting go of? When a person is stuck in loss of girlfriend or enraged by loosing his job, he needs to be able to say “fuck it” and let it go. But what is “it”? The now ex-girlfriend? The job he had? No. The ex-girlfriend represented a game. The job was another game. Both had a defining purpose, and that is what he needs to let go of.

To enjoy the games we play, it is important to manufacture purposes, to give life to the games in order to reap the benefits – experiences and emotions. It is equally important to be able to stop creating a purpose – to let it go. Freedom is achieved by the ability to create and not create purposes, to go into and out of games freely.

Pride, ego and “having to be right” makes it harder to letting go and to create new purposes.

In order to get the full benefits of a game, one has to give value to that purpose. The more valuable a purpose is, the more serious the stakes are, the more benefits can be harvested. Self suggestion becomes an integral part. But one can get to the point where a game gets too real and becomes overwhelming. That’s when you pull out the tool called “fuck it”. Even when you die. But until that time you might as well get maximum enjoyment out of the games of life.

Picture taken from my balcony with Sony Xperia Z3

Picture taken from my balcony with Sony Xperia Z3

Give more than you take

Geir Isene 35 Comments

Today I was looking at what makes my life work well. The results I create come from the actions I do. My actions come from my decisions. And my decisions come from my attitudes, my values. So, I started looking at my values in life, and though they count dozens, there would be one central, major value that I can consider core. I came to this:

“Give more than you take”

I could add, “Take lots, but give even more”.

That sums it up for me.

“The stupidity of project management”

Geir Isene 127 Comments

Brendan and I are writing a book on Project Management. While we have plenty of experience in both large and small projects and have lots to contribute through a book, I wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to get input from the very intelligent readers of this blog.

So; what would you like to read in a book titled, “The stupidity of Project Management”?

Try this

Geir Isene 47 Comments

Go to a random shopping mall, café or public place. Approach a random person and ask if you can buy him a cup of coffee and if he has an hour to spare. Tell the person you will invest the next hour trying to help him – in any way you can – with no strings attached. You will not need to know the person’s name or contact information. You ask nothing in return. Nothing at all.

If the person agrees, commence with helping the person during that one hour. Figure out something you can help him with and do whatever that will be of benefit. When the hour is up, you’re done.

If you have done a really good job, the person will ask if you can help him more. Then you say, “Yes I ca,n help you another hour – but only if you help 5 other people just like I have now helped you. Five people, one hour each. When you have done that, you can get back to me. Here’s my contact information.“.

If the person returns after helping five random people, give the person another hour of honest help. You will often find that the person will benefit more from helping others than you will be able to help him.

If you do this with at least a dozen people, I would very much like to hear how you did.

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