On Becoming a "Go-Giver"

by Mike Bruce

Over the Labor Day holiday, I read the book The Go-Giver, a business parable modeled after the style of the well-known book Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. The Go-Giver tells the tale of a salesman named Joe, desperate to close a major account he has been targeting, or else he will risk missing his quota for the third quarter in a row. The trick is that he only has seven days. Joe seeks out an infamous, but mysterious sales consultant named The Chairman, who Joe hopes can proved the clout and leverage needed to land the deal.

Without spoiling the plot, I found myself agreeing with each of the principles that The Chairman gave to Joe. Principles that all InScopers should be applying. All of them worked, but not in the way that Joe had anticipated. I'll list the principles below, but leave it to you to read the book and discover what happened in the end with Joe, his major account, and his quota.

Principles, according to The Chairman

The Law of Value:
Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than what you take in payment.

The Law of Compensation:
Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.

The Law of Influence:
Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first.

The Law of Authenticity:
The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself

The Law of Receptivity:
The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.


Are you willing to apply these principles and become a "Go-Giver"?

InService: An Outward Expression of Our Internal Values

So our corporate vision is "Advancing the Global Good." Everybody wants to do that, right?

By placing global issues such as Affordable Housing, Cyber-Security, and Warfighter Support at the center of our consulting model, InScope International demonstrates that our finger is on the pulse of the international community. We are not going to continue to sell outdated and obsolete capabilities, or seek out business in fading industries. Instead, we are aware of that the international community faces borderless challenges that span geopolitical boundaries, and want to get involved in tackling these challenges. InScope International is dedicated to our desire to advance the global good.

Perhaps now skepticism come into play. Some of the issues the world faces are just too big for a small business to make a difference! This is where InScope International is different. Our actions within any given business day at InScope are also played out in the way we give back to the community. We give back to people, organizations, and programs that also strive to advance the global good. And we even have a program designed to directly support InScope's vision of advancing the global good- not only with our words and business, but with our actions.

> Example: We go weed the garden and organize the donation room at the Fisher House in Washington DC. We helped make a house into a home, for families of wounded or recovering warfighters. Though the gesture seems small, InScope matching their actions with their words. We aim to protect and support warfighters, and by giving back to Fisher House, warfighter families are the best support a warfighter could want.

> Example: InScope is a sponsor for the Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walkathon. We believe in this cause not only in our consulting work during the day, but we truly desire advances in the global issue of affordable housing.

> Example: Multiple InScope employees would prefer to exchange a portion of their Paid Time Off for a charitable contribution from InScope to an organization of their choice. Their are literally donating their time and money to advance the global good.


The InService program is an outward expression of InScope International's internal values. Our actions match our words and match the core of our consulting model. We do truly desire to "Advance the Global Good."

All Moved In!

Sorry for the delay! InScope has been undergoing quite a bit of change over the summer! Here's what you missed:

InScope International is getting settled into their new office space, their new name, and their new brand. For over a month now, InScope Solutions has relaunched as InScope International, a mission-centric consulting firm. Our office move reflects the direction we are heading as a company: innovative, green, and equipped with industry-leading features...

An earlier blog gives a sneak peak at the office space during construction. Here is the finished product!

InScope International reception area
Walkway to enter the home of the professional staffing team, the public initiatives team, and the ITO team.

Here it is! The home of Professional Staffing, Public Initiatives, and ITO.


This is our main conference room, the Richard E. Bryd conference room, named after the Admiral who explored both the north and south poles.


Kevin Cassidy getting moved into his new office.


Both sides of the office have huddle rooms, designed for collaboration and quick meetings within and across the different organizations at InScope. A lot of brainpower has already been expended in these four walls!


This is our beautiful cafeteria, where InScope employees now can enjoy lunch together, not eating at their desk.

This galley is designed for more huddle spaces, each booth equipped with power and computer outlets.

This is our Walter Reed Conference Room, named after the Army MD who discovered the cause of yellow fever. This room is uniquely built with a window to view into the Innovation Center, where current and future projects will be housed to demonstrate to clients.

Since we have so many employees outside of the Reston HQ, we built a hotelling office for those who come and visit!

More cubes, on the side of the office which houses Technology Innovation, Mission Systems, HR, Finance, Communications, and, of course, CEO Mike Bruce.

We underwent more than just a name change and an office move. With mission-centric consulting, we are undertaking a whole new approach to business. Instead of aligning as a capabilities-oriented firm, or an industry-driven company, we seek to advance the global good in the consulting we provide. Of course, we do want to be able to define our capabilities and be strategic about the industries we pursue, but what matters most to InScope is the global issues behind the clients we serve. InScope International places global issues at the core of its consulting model, aware that the international community faces borderless challenges that span geopolitical boundaries.

New Office Seating Plan

Take a look at our new office seating arrangements! Our space is THREE TIMES the size of our current headquarters home. Take a look at the big picture above, along with the below close-ups, color coded by departments:

Mark your calendars to check out the final product on July 10th during our company picnic!

Sneak Peak: InSync Preview!

You are looking at the future portal homepage, which is just weeks away from launch! The portal will have some wonderful features to help us stay connected within the company. The employee directory is one of the highlights of this project. Each employee will have their own "profile page" of sorts, like a facebook profile, where we will each download a photograph, and then list out our details-- location, contact information, position, project, etc.

InSync will be the home of all of our HR forms as well, including many of them becoming electronically available!

InScope International looks to utilize InSync to unite the company. Though we are geographically dispersed, InSync will look to bridge the gap between one another!

Housing Mission

Check out this article in yesterday's Washington Post regarding the DC area's housing market recovering its health:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/05/16/ST2010051603765.htlm?sid=ST2010051603765

Within the article, it reads, "In turn, restoring health to the housing market is crucial for returning vitality to the financial system and fostering growth across the broader U.S. economy." This is how we want to impact the housing mission.

Photo Office Tour

So much has changed this week, even since the video tour of the office was shown during our company meeting one week ago. (In case you missed it, you can view it at www.clearfocusproductions.com/Site/InScopeintl.html) Come join us for a photo office tour of the progress we have made this week!

This is a shot from the entrance to InScope International's new Reston Headquarters. To the right is the reception area, and to the left of the hallway out of view is the main conference room (yet to be named!).

Here is the main conference room, with a window view out to the road and parking garage.

This is the space where the Technology Innovation Team and the Public Initiatives Team will sit. Natural light will be accessible to all!

The group is looking into Steve Conner and Dave Blessing's new offices.

This is a shot of the Public Initiatives side of the office space, looking straight into the cafeteria.

Here is the Technology Innovation side of the space.

Now we've entered into the new cafeteria! It is a large space, full of windows and natural light, and will be equipped with a television, coffee maker, soda fountain, and snack machine.

This space is dubbed the "Galleria" - it is the walkway between the two sides of the office space.

On the other side of the Galleria, you will open a door and your eyes will first see the Demo Lab, which will occupy this open space here. The demo lab with showcase some of the current projects and products we are working on.

This room is being built as a lab for the mission systems team.

This is the corner that will house the Mission Systems team.

Here are the future offices of Gary Struzik (right), the executive conference room (middle), and Mike's office (left).

A shot of the cubicle space on the other side of the office!

This is the other suite we purchased, which we are building out to be the future home of Professional Staffing!

We are counting down the days until we get to move into our new home!