This Tuesday morning, Jeff hosted a game that was an equivalent to a surprise pop-quiz.
Topic: U.S.A

Jeff F: “A few weeks ago I noticed a woman intently studying colored note cards while riding the subway to work. I subsequently saw her a few more times over the following days, every time with note cards in hand. When she sat next to me one day, I looked at what she was studying and saw they were practice questions for taking the United States Citizenship exam. When I saw a couple of the questions such as “Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme court?” and “Who is the current Speaker of the House?”, I felt fairly certain that most Americans could not answer either of these questions, let alone additional questions from the test.

I devised a game show-style activity to demonstrate both our society’s lack of general knowledge regarding current affairs and hopefully to educate some people on our government. People work very hard to become citizens of our country and I think it’s important to occasionally take time to reflect on how good we have it here, even with all our flaws as a nation. ”

See if you can answer these questions:
How many representatives are there in Congress?
How many times may a Congressman be re-elected?

Michele: “Last Thursday morning, we learned whether or not Lawline team members can share interesting/silly facts about themselves at a moment’s notice) (definitely), and how well we all know each other (not so much). We each took two minutes to write our silly tidbit on an index card and then mixed up the cards and our fellow team members read the cards and attempted to guess to whom they belonged.

Trisha was able to figure out that it was Ann who liked to take late night walks across the Brooklyn Bridge, and Michael K knew right away that the only person who could have had a pet log growing up at to be Micah. Somehow every time the most unusual stories came up, we all automatically said it was Rob but no one guess his actually fact that he rode a roller coaster before he was even born. We also learned that Gamal is very well traveled, that Jeff F’s dad switched him to left handed from right handed on a bet, and that Jeff R stands on his head every morning.

Most importantly, we all had fun- which was a great way to start a very rainy, windy morning.”

‘Hello, I am pleased to make your acquaintance’

Yesterday morning, I had everyone learn to introduce themselves in Japanese.
When the video first played, some were a little hesitate because of the hiragana (Japanese writing) that was displayed.
Soon after, everyone were in greeting themselves and had fun.

There were two reasons I picked to teach a Japanese greeting for the presentation. One because it had to do with one of our core values, Actively Learning!
The other because I wanted to share how my first day in Japanese class in college was. When class started, my sensei(先生) immediately started writing hiragana. Even though I was first intimidate by the language and even contemplated dropping the class, I soon became very comfortable and got an A in the class!

Remember to be polite when introducing yourself in Japanese. Also, don’t be scared to learn something new!!

What better way to know someone better on a Friday morning by telling a lie?!

Gamal: “So it’s Friday, I wanted to liven up the environment and get the blood flowing with a great game of two truths and a lie.  It’s a great game where we find out fascinating things about one another. Also, we learn just what is in this person’s imagination that leads them to choose the thing about which they lie.”

Here are some examples of two truths and a lie that were told. Can you tell which ones are which?

Chris
I used to take a helicopter to work.
I’ve done a civil war re-enactment.
I never had nutella.

Steph
My fav color is green.
I’ve never been to a wedding.
I’ve had surgery on my hand.

A few months back, Lawline.com subscribed to the Jack Daly unlimited webinar package (you have to love those unlimited course deals). The seminars are about becoming a better sales person: creating referrals, being genuine, leading a team, what to say, when to say it, etc. For a while, the subscription to the courses went relatively unused…
Mid-month, Sean Barr was not where he wanted to be with his sales. When this happens, it is easy to be uncertain with what is happening or why there is a decrease. With someone as successful as Sean – it would be even easier to say it is just a slow start to the month, and things will pick up.

However, Sean didn’t take that attitude. When he wasn’t at the benchmark he had set for himself, he reached out to Frank to learn what more he could do. He knew he had the leads and that the sales were close, but wanted to learn how to get them on the line and close the deal. Frank led him to the Jack Daly webinars, and Sean took a course on the customer cycle and creating a referral network.
The unique thing about this one action was its spread: this specific webinar led to the rest of the team watching the same course – leading to multiple team meetings overviewing the diagrams from the course, a re-thinking of the sales process in general, plans for updates to the CRM system to integrate these ideas, and, ultimately, more success.

Wednesday morning started like a Pop Quiz!

Alex Trebeck has some new competition coming out of the Lawline Office. With the company growing and new employees starting every week, Lead Program Attorney Kyle Robinson, thought it would be a great idea to bring some trivia to our morning meetings. With questions ranging from the year Lawline started, to what is Dave’s middle name, everyone got involved. In the end, team “E” came away with the win but everyone now knows a little bit more about the company and what we are all about!

Recently, Lawline announced its scholarship program, in which employees would be reimbursed to a certain amount for learning related activities. In any change or movement, it always takes a leader to get the process started. Mike R. is that leader.

Immediately, Michael has taken advantage of office incentives by taking technical courses like PHP and learning more about AdWords. Type something that has to do with CLE into Google, and you’ll see Lawline there… that’s all Mike’s learning!

In addition the PHP class is an extension of what Mike has already taught himself with HTML. Truly, Mike has become one of the most versatile members of the organization through his never ending quest to learn.

Last, he has even taken it with him on the weekends. Michael not only motivates himself to learn and increase his knowledge and skills but he also motivates others. Currently he is tutoring students on Saturdays in Brooklyn.

Michael is always actively learning 7 days a week and continues to be a learning inspiration.

On this fine Monday morning, Patricia tossed a ball at her coworkers!

However there was a fun purpose behind it. On the ball were many random questions. Once a circle was formed, each person got a chance to toss the ball to a person in the circle. When someone catches the ball,  they must answer the question where ever their right thumb lands on. The point to this exercise was to get to know more about each other. For example, we learned how some would ward off zombies, what someone’s favorite childhood smell was, and what one person strongly believed in. The answers were unique and interesting.

Getting to know more about our great team members was an awesome and fun start to this week.

We recently went to an event hosted by NY Enterprise Report where John King, the author of Tribal Leadership spoke about the importance of forming triads and eventually tribes in your organization.  Below is our main take away from the event.

The strongest point of his argument was how powerful a group of 3 is, and how important it is to focus on the trio when building relationships and working towards a goal. We really liked the two applications of this point both in business and in every day life.

In a work environment, getting a third person involved or an outside opinion can raise ideas that two might never have thought of in the first place.  Adding another mind has such an incredible benefit. While most people know this, meetings are generally conducted in twos. If you focus on building tight groups of 3, and then working on putting the groups of 3 to work completing tasks, they will work more efficiently and be drastically more successful.

Outside of work, the emphasis is to be the connector between worlds. If you introduce people you build your status with each of them and you support their relationship. This is something that can lead to many more relationships in general. The key here is to introduce people as often as possible, because you never know when something might come of the relationship and everyone benefits from the connection.

The talk was a ton of fun and hearing everyone’s different thoughts is a great way to preserve and enhance the ideas that were raised. One of the coolest parts of the talks is when he said these are just tools, take them and make them work for you.

Often, we isolate the traits and personality of entrepreneurship solely to those who launch start and run a business on their own. However, I firmly believe that intrapreneurship is the top quality a person can have. A company of intrapraneurs is one in which each employee seeks the creative aspects to grow and expand their responsibilities and their departments within the company through creative thought and extra, but deliberate, effort.

In his book, The Intelligent Entrepreneur, author Bill Murphy Jr. follows three Harvard Business Students in their paths in entrepreneurship. When I began reading, I was unfamiliar with the book completely, and the way in which Murphy ties the three students together and follows them reads more like a novel than anything. Each student was amongst the class of 1998, and the book follows the through to their 10th anniversary. What did they accomplish? You’ll have to check it out.

Murphy states are the 10 rules of successful entrepreneurship (and, in my mind, intrapraneurship as well). One that stood out to me is to focus on innovation and scale.

Creativity ties right in with Lawline. How we can grow our roles and departments, make our site more scalable, expand into new industries, and take the what starts as legal education and grow it into a never-ending pursuit of knowledge amongst lawyers and professionals amongst a number of markets that cannot be limited is the thought that continues to drive me.

When you have some time, check out the other nine rules here. You are sure to get something you can apply and that hits home with you.

Sean, Corey, Micah, and Ann with a great view of the game!

Last night the Lawline staff took off for the Yankees v. Devil Rays game at Yankee Stadium to enjoy an evening of hot dogs, pizza, drinks, fresh cut grass and great company.

Check out some of the pictures from the game last night below! Anyone know who won, by the way.

Thanks for a great night everyone!

MK and Ken pose for the camera.

Sal, Gamal, and Mike looking good as always

C’mon. Though his modesty may always seek to have someone else under the spotlight – we have to give props where props are due. The President of Lawline, David Schnurman…Who actively learns more than he does?

When he has downtime or is commuting, you won’t find Dave snoozing on a stranger on the train. Dave would rather pick up a book (or Kindle) and learn when others would rather rest. Not only that, he shares every book he reads with everyone at Lawline. Because of this, the morning huddles are inspirational as Dave gives inspiring presentations on what he learns. For example, just recently he gave everyone a book called “The Success Principles” so they could further better themselves.  The purpose of this book is to increase personal confidence, handle daily challenges and provide the necessary tools to accomplish goals. What a great guy to share this!

Knowledge is power and Dave wants everyone to have that. He believes it so passionately that he passes this on to his company and has instilled it in the culture as well. Employees have access to Kindles, books, documentaries, and a full database of CLE topics for free because of him. He always asks questions and seeks to learn across all departments and encourages others to learn other departments.  Whether it is marketing, sales, customer service or accreditation, he knows it. If he doesn’t, he will ask and learn. Dave avoids using any quantitative statements such as “I’ll try” and says “I will” and follows through.

Lawline grows as David’s learning grows – a great motivator because his learning never stops. That is why Lawline is the great company is it today and will continue its upward path.

Dave also actively teaches us all. Here are some examples from right here on the culture blog:

• Success Principles
• Thought Management
• The Lawline TV Series!

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.

Recently Michael Kim set out on vacation to celebrate a good friend’s bachelor’s party in Las Vegas. Normally, when taking a vacation, especially to Vegas, it is rare to find someone willing to work for the company. Not MK. Instead of hitting the slots, Michael hopped into a van and headed over to Zappos’ headquarters to find out how to better integrate our Core Values into our company culture.

During his visit, Michael was able to interact with different employees to see how Zappos built a company around the culture.  Making sure that everyone from Lawline would be able to gain from his amazing experience, Michael made for us a MK Slice Production original. The video showed his journey from the plane flight over, to interviews with his car driver, and finally the tour of the headquarters.

There was not one point in the video where a smile was missed. Michael brought with him questions asked from people in the Lawline office to see how exactly each employee feels about their every day experiences at Zappos. The common theme was that everyone loved coming to work and enjoyed being part of a company built on culture.

Michael started his presentation by asking around the room where people would buy their shoes? Most said in a store nearby. After the presentation, we were all able to see how creating a culture in a company can turn a big box industry into an online enterprise “Delivering WOW Through Service.”

With Discovery Channel’s Shark Week upon us, Lawline wanted to give everyone our favorite Shark Clip. Shark Week is just one of the many ways in which Lawline employees are Actively Learning! (Core Value #1)

Shark Week

Actively learning is different than passively learning. Learning actively takes going out seeking knowledge, and going above and beyond the call of duty to seek solutions and attain knowledge. Patricia Tedesco is always actively learning during the workday and continues long into the evening hours.

At Lawline, her happy attitude and unflappable patience is apparent, and as a result, she is continually learning new ways to communicate our product to customers. She delights our customers on the phone every day, routinely getting complimentary feedback for her kind and patient attention.

In the evenings, she pursues learning by participating in a rigorous paralegal certification program. In fact, she has told us that watching Lawline’s CLE programs has helped her better understand her paralegal course work.

In support of furthering her legal education, Lawline has assisted Patricia in obtaining a paralegal internship with Zalman, Schnurman & Miner. In the fall, she will be working at both companies; of course the best part for us is that both companies are in the same location.

Patricia is an example of the kind of engaged learning that each employee strives for here at Lawline. Congratulations Patricia and thank you for everything you do!
Actively learning is different than passively learning. Learning actively takes going out seeking knowledge, and going above and beyond the call of duty to seek solutions and attain knowledge. Patricia Tedesco is always actively learning during the workday and continues long into the evening hours.

At Lawline, her happy attitude and unflappable patience is apparent, and as a result, she is continually learning new ways to communicate our product to customers. She delights our customers on the phone every day, routinely getting complimentary feedback for her kind and patient attention.

In the evenings, she pursues learning by participating in a rigorous paralegal certification program. In fact, she has told us that watching Lawline’s CLE programs has helped her better understand her paralegal course work.

In support of furthering her legal education, Lawline has assisted Patricia in obtaining a paralegal internship with Zalman, Schnurman & Miner. In the fall, she will be working at both companies; of course the best part for us is that both companies are in the same location.

Patricia is an example of the kind of engaged learning that each employee strives for here at Lawline. Congratulations Patricia and thank you for everything you do!