My Lawless Thursday.

?I got my haircut today.?

I just went and did it. I didn't sign out. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't put it on a calendar. I just walked out of my office and did it. It was anarchy. It was lawlessness. It was totally random.

It was glorious.?

As you might imagine, every day I speak with executives, VPs, and managers who are exploring this whole fractional work thing. They often come from "corporate" places where their motions and actions are, or were, closely watched. Places filled with political hierarchies and sideways looks. Places were you can see and feel the walls around you. Places where you don't just walk out the door and do whatever you want. Not without telling someone. And here they come, carrying all of that baggage, looking at fractional work from the outside with both hope and fear. Ours is a lawless, limitless, wall-less world, this fractional place. And until you are in it, it is understandably scary.

I am a huge fan of the Shawshank Redemption. One of my top 5 movies. There's a great scene were Red, played by Morgan Freeman, tells Andy, played by Tim Robbins, that after so many years in prison freedom has become scary.

"I don't think I can make it on the outside now Andy. I've been in here most of my life. Im an institutional man now."

I know you see where this is going.?

Am I about to compare our American corporate culture to prison? Tight walls. Lots of rules. People watching you all the time. Well I'm not going there. Partly because they are not similar at all, they just make for an easy comparison. (No one at the office is going to beat the shit out of you for your cornbread). And partly because it would make me depressed. Im the optimistic guy around these parts.

Rather than make prison comparisons, I prefer to talk about freedom.

You may have noticed the corporate walls that have been up for decades have begun to crumble as we "Return to work" post-Covid. It's just not the the way it was. To the relief of all we're returning to work how we want and where we want more than ever. Early on pessimists were shouting "Get back to work and do it the old way. Remote, flexible, fractional yadayadayada is scary and weird and won't work." But even they have silenced some, as those very things that were scary at first have proven their worth and then some for workers and businesses alike. For workers, it turns out that life balance, respect for your skills, remote and flexible are the very things that help you thrive. (Each are very much the norm of fractional work, by the way)?For corporations and businesses, it turns out letting go of the corporate grip mentality is not only far easier than squeezing tighter, it's more profitable. Kind of makes sense now that we have the time and space to see it, doesn't it?

And so here we are. Mid-reset.

A ton of change has come upon is in a hurry. The world has reset itself. Still is. No, we're not going back to the way it was. What do they say? Don't visit your past because there's nothing for you there? Something like that. And yet the future can be kind of scary. It's different. It's challenging. You have to learn a bunch of new stuff. If only life was easy. It's not. You know this of course. Anyway, keep looking forward, learning and tipping your toe into new waters. Yes, they are different. But one thing is certain.

You can get?your haircut whenever you damn well please.?

- John and Jason