Happy Birthday! We are 10 years old.

In Feb 2017, Xoxzo celebrates it's 10th year. To celebrate, the whole team except for Aiko and Arthur came to Langkawi and spent 3 days in the sun. For last year, we all gathered in Tokyo to work together.

The Andaman

We spent 2 nights at the The Andaman, a resort on the northern part of Langkawi Island. It is a quiet resort with it's own private beach. The resort has rules to preserve it's surrounding and no motor water sports can take place at it's beach.

It also works hard to conserve it's surroundings and allows the wild monkeys to breed and play around on resort grounds.

Giving thanks

The team comprises of different people from different cities and nationalities, but every now and then we do get together to work and enjoy time together. During the dinner, we took sometime to reflect on the past and also to give thanks on the many blessings that we have.

Dinner on the first night.

Seafood dinner on the second night.

Morning walk

The Andaman has guided morning walks that brings you around the resort with a knowledgable guide that will talk you through the variety of flora and fauna they have around the resort and near the beach.

We requested one and our guide Elis showed us the resident tockay gecko nesting on the roof, the mengkuang tree which has the largest leaf in the world, and also the Sunda flying lemur.

Meeting Stampede

On our second day we met up with Shaza and Dov from Stampede Design which is based in Langkawi. Stampede Design is very similar to us in terms of team building and how they look at their work. We discussed issues that we face when working in a remote team, and how Stampede Design uses tools and pre-defined communication text prompts to replace the missing body language in communication or physical company culture to install a feeling of comradery among team members.

I was especially interested in two topics that we discussed: One was concerning Simon Sinek's Golden Circle on how we define our position and why we're all here.

The other was about allowing each lead within their team to directly communicate with their customers as opposed to communicate through a project manager. This creates a sense of ownership, responsibility and positive effects on overall team morale.

It was a fruitful meeting. Originally scheduled for an hour, it ended up taking two hours instead.

In Summary

It was a good 3 days spent, meeting with the team members and their families. We also took time to discuss on our targets and where we want to head from now on. After 10 years of surviving, we all at least deserved some days in the sun.

See you again next year!