September 2, 2022
Great cultures ,Personal Exploration
If you’re curious how I started what was called the first co-working space in America and other adventures in culture, check out the EventUp podcast.
August 16, 2022
Great cultures
When one of the biggest Biotech companies in the world gives the greenlight on an inspiring experience for their people. This was SO fun. I’d love to give your company the experience as well.
May 25, 2022
Great cultures ,Hacks ,Hiring
“Adversity creates cohesion.”
That’s what Rob Angel said. He created the game Pictionary.
At one point their team had to work around the clock together to collate half a million cards. But during that time they talked and found out a lot about each other.
“We experienced pain together. That really cemented us and gave us the belief that we can overcome anything.”
That’s the same thing we felt after 4 weeks of Zappos training – showing up at 7am every day. And of course if you look up the Navy Seal training, you can see how their “hell week” of 200 miles of running, within 20 hours of physical training per day. And only 4 hours of sleep… for the entire week.
What can you do as a team to bond you in shared struggle?
March 31, 2022
Culture of Chaos ,Great cultures ,Hacks ,Productivity
In high performance companies, HR often has to remind people to take their time off because they spend so much time at work.
The problem is that these high performers see vacations as a luxury, as opposed to a productivity hack that helps the company.
Think about it this way – Do you usually get more or less done right before a vacation? A lot, right?
So if HR (or managers) proactively address this before burnout, it will make the individuals more productive.
So pull each person aside and say, “I’d like you to plan your vacation that you’ll take 3 months from now.” It will probably make them nervous, but explain to them that:
a) This will make them more productive so they will get things done before the vacation starts and
b) It helps the team because if anyone is so crucial they can’t even miss a week, then the team is not resilient. This forces the team to be resilient by making sure the operations are covered.
So go ahead, while it’s on your mind. Set up those meetings to ask people to proactively schedule their vacations.
April 29, 2021
Great cultures ,Values
I’ve heard leaders say they want loyalty from their employees. The question is – Loyalty to what?
They say loyalty to the company but they’re really saying loyalty to the leaders and their decisions.
And when it’s loyalty to people there are only two solid use cases I see for that:
In a strong culture based company, the loyalty is to the values.
And in those companies, employees may even challenge the leaders, based on those values.
Do you want loyalty? Or do you want a great company with people smarter than you who challenge your decisions in service to the customer?
February 2, 2021
Great cultures ,Hacks ,Tools
Now, at first this power tool may seem disappointing. Like if I told you I have the secret to weight loss and said, “Workouts.” But… there are workouts you dread and then there’s the Peloton experience with great music, instruction and a crowd. Same, but different.
So the power tool is the org chart. Yes, that incredibly boring outline that always seems to be out of date (that’s half the problem).
Typical org charts look like this:
Notice how dull and uninspiring it is. Why even look at it?
The reason we don’t is because it’s not actually useful. But the potential is huge. Why? Because the bigger the company gets, the more people get confused about who does what. Who has the authority? Who is the gatekeeper? Who has domain expertise?
Imagine you have a new idea, and you don’t even know whom to talk to about it.
Take a look at this map I did for my team at Zappos (and beyond the words, notice the feeling you have about it as you look at it). When my team saw it, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
The opportunity is to make it come alive in the following ways:
1. Use photos rather than names.
Using just a name and a title reduces people to letters. Humanize it.
2. Show actual roles and responsibilities
Titles are not only boring, they’re often not fully descriptive or they assume a lot of knowledge of the person reading it. Your people aren’t there to figure out the code of titles. They’re there to do the work. And this lack of information adds unnecessary friction.
3. Keep it up to date
I just consulted for one the world’s largest social media companies. I said a caveat to my recommendation when I said, “This may sound really ridiculous…” And I told them that for a company their size, having a full time org chart updater actually makes sense. This role goes beyond word and graphic updates. It takes a curious mind, a great communicator and an ability to connect people in various roles (like playing the game Memory).
For more on this see the chapter on “The Corporate Navigator” in my book, The Culture Blueprint: The Guide to the High Performance Workplace.
