I suppose it's not a true day off when you take conference calls and do email throughout the day, but I'm okay with that. Because I cleared off the rest of my meetings and rescheduled them for other times during the week, so I could spend this day with my girls. Yippee! Instant three day weekend.
And yet when asked my daughters what they wanted to do today, they gave me the last answer I ever would have expected. They wanted to visit my office. Candidly, I had zero desire to drive into Boston on my day off, just to have them visit the place I spend the majority of my waking hours. And yet, I understood my kids' draw to the place. They view it like Disney World where you think and get paid. Seriously.
Picasso once said "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." I want that same notion to apply to my children about work. Since they were little, they have gone to my places of work and embraced what I've done for a living as a part of our family existence. Perhaps because of the role I play, many of the core values we live at work are in large part carried over into the values I am raising my kids with. Things like "Individual Excellence" and "Teamwork" are fundamental to how things play out in our family dynamic. Everyone needs to give her individual best, but at the end of the day, we all play together for team Luconi.
"Disciplined Risk Taking" and "Continuous Learning?" Every night we sit at the dinner table and talk about the best parts of our day, and the worst. As part of that, we have a no drama rule. We can talk about the worst, but it's usually shared with strategies about how to fix it so it doesn't happen again. My kids understand the concept of applying continuous learning to their own lives when they makes mistakes, or when they hit a snag at school. They are learning to problem solve their lives, because I won't always be there to solve these issues for them. As for the "disciplined risk taking?" These kids are turning into little adventurers...they've been indoor skydiving, zip lining, and taken horses through the rainforest. But the biggest risk I want them to take? Putting themselves out there and allow themselves to be vulnerable. To live and to love. My oldest has already had her young heart broken once, and she's powering through with grace and understanding. I think my kids are going to be just fine.
However the real reason my kids enjoy coming to my office at this point in their young lives is the people. Each time they have visited, they have been warmly greeted by those people they know well on my team - and those they have never met before. They aren't viewed as annoying children who are disrupting peoples' days. They are a welcome distraction. And they feel that positive energy. As they walk the halls taking a piece of candy from the open bowl, or stopping to draw a smiley face on someone's whiteboard, they say, "this place is so cool!" And that's because it is.
My kids, at age 10 and 13 can see that if people are happy and motivated at their places of work, they will want to want to be there. They understand that I don't just have a regular job like most parents. Their mom is on a mission. They get that for me and the almost 400 other people I work with, we are not just trying to build fantastic software, but an incredible place to work in the process. Together. So they support me in doing that. And as kids, they want to be part of that juggernaut too.
I don't tell my kids that my company isn't like most other companies. I don't need to. They watch tv, and they see where other people work. It's incredible to me that at their young ages, they have become so incredibly savvy to know what I have is unique and special.
So while I didn't want to drive to work on my day off, I happily made the trip today, and had my kids visit with old friends and new. I have no idea what either of them will grow up to be. However, it is my wish that they hold close the memories of visiting their mother's "adult Disney world" and remember that work can be pretty amazing. You just have to find a group of people who are just as passionate as you to make that magic come to life.
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