steward the journey - a look at fg squared's 19 year journey to see what patterns emerge
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presented to UT Austin's Human Dimensions of Organization class in Nov 2013TRANSCRIPT
STEWARD THE JOURNEY
A look at FG SQUARED’s 19 year journey to see what patterns emerge
UT HDO Professional Seminar09 Nov 2013Hosted by Steve Golab
ABOUT FG SQUARED
• An Austin-based Jive Alliance Agency who also
owns and operates the GoLab Austin coworkspace.
• Here’s what we do really well
• Global enterprises trust us to tailor their Jive Software
communities.
• We also provide workspace for local creative
professionals, software developers, and journey-
oriented entrepreneurs.
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PERSPECTIVE & MEANING
What is stewardship, and why is it an
important skill for people?
STEWARDSHIP – CHOOSING SERVICE OVER SELF INTEREST
“Stewardship is the willingness to be accountable for the
well being of the larger organization by operating in
service, rather than in control, of those around us.
Stated simply, it is accountability without control or
compliance.”
- Peter Block
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE
“You look at where you’re going and where you are and it
never makes sense, but then you look back at where
you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge. And if you
project forward from that pattern, then sometimes you
can come up with something.”
- Robert Pirsig
JOURNEY
What journey are you on right now
and what meaning might you
uncover by reflecting on it?
PEEK INTO MY LIFE JOURNEY1973Born;
given 10% chance of survival
1991Move
to Austin(DJIA 2633)
1994FG2 was born
(DJIA 3754)
2000Married on a cliff
in Hawaii
(DJIA 11497)
2008 Daughter was born
(DJIA 13264)
2010 Golab Austin
was born
(DJIA 12217)
2013 Heart Attack
(DJIA 13104)
THE JOURNEY OF MY ROLE AS BUSINESS OWNER
1995Project Manager and Programmer
1998Client
Service and Finance
2001HR, Sales, and
Marketing
2004Chairman and CEO
2010 Community Steward
THE JOURNEY OF FG2 OWNERSHIP TEAM
1994Jason and Casey join
1995Steve, Fred, and Matt join
1995 Fred and Matt leave
1996Davin joins
2003Lin and Debbie
join
2004 Jason and
Casey leave
2006Davin leaves
2010Lin
leaves
Debbie and
Steve Remain
THE JOURNEY OF FG2 CORE TEAM
1995Steve joins
1997Jim
joins
1999Debbie,
Brad, and Culby join
2001Brad and
Culby leave
2004-2006Amy and Coskey
joinsBrad and
Culby return
20011 Coskey leaves
2012 Coskey returns
THE JOURNEY OF FG2 BUSINESS MODEL
1994Ecommerce
1995Tech
Consulting Firm
1996Multimedia
Services Firm
2000Integrated
Services Firm
2007Social
Business Agency
2012Jive
Alliance Agency
THE JOURNEY OF FG2 MARKETS
1994WWWUsers
1995Professional
Service Firms
1996B2B
Global 2000 and Startups
2003B2B
Global 2000
2008Social
Enterprise
2012 Jive Owners in
TexasEspecially
Global 2000
THE JOURNEY OF FG2 OFFERING
1994Computer and Hair Products
1995Myriad
of Services
1996Creative,
Technology, Strategy
2000Plan,
Design, Execute
2007 Legacy
+Social
2012JiveOnly
SMALL GROUP CONVERSATION
What themes emerge?
THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA
1994How will we
fund the Easy Beader
Prototype?
1995Can we make a
living doing what we love?
1996What are our
signature areas of
innovation?
1997How do we build long term client
relationships?
1998How do we
scale quickly?
THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA
1999 - 2000How can we
work less and play more?
2001Who stays and
who goes?
2002How do we manage the
transition going on in
our individual
lives?
2003 – 2004 How do we breathe new life into this company?
2005How do we stay alive when our
email server keeps
crashing?
THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA
2006Where can we find more inspiration?
2007What does social
mean for our clients?
2008Is this really happening
again?
2009 Who is going to
save us?
THE JOURNEY OF FG SQUARED’S MANTRA
2010Who is ready to reboot
the business?
2011What do we
want to create together?
2012When we say
no, what are we saying yes to?
2013How do we want
to grow together?
SMALL GROUP CONVERSATION
What themes emerge?
STEWARDSHIP IS THE CORE ACTION
“We are all on a journey, and in that journey we are trying to
express ourselves in the greatest, fullest expression of
ourselves. Stewardship involves being present to and helping
someone else, starting with yourself, to go and find that full
expression. There is a lot of work behind real stewardship. It
has to do with a lot of things about understanding where that
person or thing is on its journey and what they’re trying to
do. So it’s a lot of questions pulling it out.”
- Bijoy Goswami
THANK YOU