Catalyst Rules of the Office

My friend Ben Redmond sent these to me last week.  I know he probably (can you say "know" and "probably" in the same sentence?) read them on the Catalyst Blog but I am giving Ben credit for passing them along anyway.  I am of a fan of these office environment rules! Implement them if you dare.

1. If you have something exciting to announce, scream it or make a noise with an instrument. But just be loud if it is worthy of announcing.
2. Open Source policy on the drinks and snacks situation. Replenish the snack area as well as the drinks in the frig if you take something.
3. You are always open to a prank….. and you are always free to provide one….. but if you give out a prank, be ready to receive one in return. It’s like the Cold War nuclear policies between the US and USSR….
4. If you’re part of the Catalyst team long enough, you WILL have a nickname. Hover, The Body, Lager, etc.
5. Anyone has the freedom to speak into a project, design, layout, or idea. Anyone’s ideas can be criticized or built on.
6. Business attire is not allowed.
7. We ring bells CONSTANTLY to celebrate.
8. Your title can really be whatever you want it to be.
9. If at all possible, don’t schedule a meeting. We despise meetings, unless it is really needed and leads to action. Or is a collaborative project and requires multiple people speaking into it. But meeting just for meetings sake is lame.
10. Get it done. Always. Execution and the completion of projects is like a drug to us. We take great pride in moving the ball across the finish line.
11. We thrive on competition. None of us like to lose. Fun moments usually involve competition of some sort. Especially cornhole or relay races.
12. We actually like to be around each other. Novel concept I know, but it actually works.

Work and Prayer

"Merton once told me to quit trying so hard in prayer. He said: 'How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun.' A small green apple cannot ripen in the night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe, and juicy beside it's small green counterparts. Like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of the true self takes place in God's time. We must wait for God, we must be awake; we must trust in his hidden action within us."
- from Merton's Palace of Nowhere by James Finley.

A Parable

Once there was a kingdom with a King who owned many horses. A certain man worked hard every day from sun up until sun down carrying bags of food for the kings horses to eat. It was an important task as the horses were the Kings prize possession. He did this every day, pulling the heavy cart through the streets. Everyone thought he was a hard worker, and eventually he became the most famous horse food carrier in all of the land. Finally he died. And the next day someone else carried the food.