How to do internal hackathons the right way?

I'm going to answer this from the perspective of an engineer who has worked in similar environments and who has had leadership changes that went well, as well as ones that didn't Basically you're describing an environment in which people aren't doing as much as they are capable of, they were working in a hostile environment in which threats were common, and there's a sort of lack of accountability + poor communication / collaboration. Okay first thing, I wouldn't recommend using analytics to hold people accountable. Not yet anyway. It's a carrot and a stick problem and bringing out the stick first... you're likely to add demoralized staff to the list of problems you're trying to solve. What if instead you talked to everyone and explained your vision for the company and then followed up with each employee over the next week or two. Figure out what their vision for their own career is and what they want the next year to look like, the the next three, the next five. If you can align your employee's goals and ambitions to your own, I think you'll have a lot more luck getting people to solve the disfunction that they can. And they'll be a lot more understanding when you start taking measures to hold people accountable. Again, just my perspective as an engineer. I would bet you that the people you are working with are aware of the same problems as you. And they would probably agree with you that people need to be held accountable. But you need to be careful about how you do that. Accountability right now probably will look like more micromanagement and intimidation. Paint a picture for where you want to go and commit to helping your people reach where they want to go... well, then accountability isn't such a bitter pill and it will likely be seen as necessary, not more of the same toxic leadership that wrecked the culture last time.

Your question is very interesting and gives me a feeling you have a real commitment for success because it makes me feel you care for your team. If this question could be fully answered in a couple of lines, you can imagine all managers and executives would lead their teams successfully. The 2 key principles to remember are: 1. Everyone is different: you have to adapt to each individual. It is time consuming but pays off in the long run because everyone has their own learning styles, speed and attitude. Take the time to have 1:1 conversations about them as individuals: likes and dislikes, under what conditions they perform best, how they learn most easily and about their career goals. 2. Create a team spirit. This is the exact opposite of point 1: as much as you recognize everyone as individuals, you have to also build unity and cohesion. There has to be standardized rules of behavior, common values and a shared vision. You have to take time with your team as a whole. This will lead you to create: 1. A personal development plan for each individual in your team, which helps you develop a tailored approach for each person, create reward & recognition systems and monitor people's happiness and performance. This helps you understand your team from a micro-perspective. 2. An organizational development plan for your start-up to give you a more global vision of the talents you need to acquire, retain and grow. This helps you understand your team from a macro-perspective. Team building requires taking time for all the different aspects of bonding: forming, storming, norming, performing, mourning. It's always about balancing two extremes: On one hand you want to take time to work together and alone, to learn & grow, to brainstorm, to create, to plan, to prepare, to research and to measure performance. On the other hand you, you also want to take time away from the office to stop & think, take time to have fun, take time to get to know each other, take time to rest & relax. Do you need any guidance to build individual and organizational development plans that will support growth and team building for your start-up?

Almost all my clients have the same issue as yours. So your challenges are not unique. While making positive business progress is a wonderful thing, external growth must come with relevant similar pace of internal growth. It seems that you are using the same old management approach/ style despite your business has grown from 1 or 2 people into current size. It is no more purely a number game now, mismanaging people will lead to loss of knowledge, valuable customer, profits, and growth potential. Your backyard is having fire currently means your internal support team is having some challenges and you may have uneven growth in some business functions - immediately you should investigate the following areas: 1. Review your management approach/ style and system 2. Review whether you are capable to manage C-level employees. 3. Review your human capital policies and culture diversity 4. Review, whether you have clear/ appropriate a) accountabilities, b) roles and responsibilities, c) committed budget, d) monitoring and control system, e) KPIs, etc 5. Revisit your mission/ vision/ expectations, adjust if necessary. 6. Review workflows and communication models to identify what has triggered the conflict(s). I think the above should help. Upon making the reviewing, you may already have action plans. If you still have problems, feel free to drop me a message

No-Skill-Guitar: Get a [guitar (Jasmine S35 Acoustic Guitar)] + [chord buddy (chordbuddy.com)] + [electronic tuner (Intelli IMT500)]. Any time you hear a good song, look up the chords for free on ultimate-guitar.com, save the page as a .pdf, and you'll be able to play the song right away on the guitar with the chordbuddy, even if you don't know how to play the guitar. You'll bond over sing alongs, and you'll be learning how to play the guitar at the same time with the help of the chordbuddy. Hacky sack Local Multiplayer Games (everyone plays on the same computer): Get a couple wireless controllers (Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows), and download these local multiplayer games from Steam: 1) Speed Runners (http://store.steampowered.com/app/207140/) 2) Starwhal (http://store.steampowered.com/app/263020/) 3) Duck Game (http://store.steampowered.com/app/312530/) 4) Nidhogg (http://store.steampowered.com/app/94400/) Naptime: Get an ENO hammock for people to nap in. It's healthier and easier to sleep in than a real bed, and can be stowed away. They'll be able to work later. Have fun

There's many ways to help with this, here's what I do at Clarity 1. Build an email relationship with your supply. They should have direct access to you, and you should build an ongoing drip campaign that teaches them how to improve their experience (and make more money) on Clarity. 2. For members, you should define community guidelines (Do's & Dont's) and ensure they all review / agree to them - and enforce them proactively. 3. Create a discussion forum (we use LinkedIn group) but you could use VanillaForum.com or similar, and invite members/experts to join to ask questions about your marketplace. 4. Feature experts & members that have had success or are exhibiting the types of behaviours you want from other members. We do that here: http://clarity.fm/customers Those are the big things ... smaller items would be the copyrighting, design and data you show on profiles to help increase the right behaviour (ex: Search with filter by Last Active, tells experts to be active). Hope that helps.