Commencement is today

Actually, it’s every day. We talk about graduation as if it’s the end of some journey, but it’s the beginning of one. The chance to see the world differently, to contribute, to understand.

I hope you’ll get a chance to check out what my friends at Akimbo are doing. They’re persistently, consistently and generously showing up to create learning cohorts that actually cause real and long-lasting change. (They’re hiring.)

The altMBA has already demonstrated its impact. More than five years, 70 countries and 5,000 graduates so far. The First Priority Deadline for applications is today, June 1st, for altMBA’s October 2021 session

Bernadette Jiwa’s Story Skills Workshop is back for its seventh session. You’ll discover that while reading one of her bestselling books will open your eyes, it’s the work done with others that’s remarkable. People are often surprised by the mutual support and feedback that they can find online. It begins tomorrow.

If you’re on your own and feeling the stress between freelancing and entrepreneurship, it may be that you’re actually a bootstrapper. Bootstrapping is a different way to look at your work, the chance to build an organization of some scale without going to a bank or finding a rich aunt to back your project. The Bootstrapper’s Workshop is back for its sixth session. You can enroll today and it begins on the 15th of June.

Also open for enrollment today is Alex DiPalma’s breakthrough podcasting workshop. The ninth session begins in about six weeks. Check out the details here.

Make something that matters. It’s easier when we do it together.

June 1, 2021

Meeting nullification

Here are two policies it might be fun to try for a week:

Meeting abstention: Anyone invited to an internal meeting has the power to opt-out. “Send me the summary, please.” If someone abstains, they give up their ability to have a say in the meeting, but most meetings these days don’t actually give people a platform to have a say. And then that person can leave the Zoom room and get back to whatever it is they were doing that was actually productive.

Meeting nullification: If anyone in an internal meeting announces that the meeting is a pointless waste of time, it’s over. The meeting organizer is obligated to send everyone the memo that they probably should have sent in the first place.

If you discover that you’re calling meetings where people abstain, or worse, call for nullification, perhaps you should be more careful about which meetings you call and who you invite.

Does your organization have the guts to try this out? Do you, as an attendee, care enough to abstain?

The fact that even discussing this idea is stressful helps us understand status roles and power.