Some thoughts on culture
How can we build a workplace founded on love & belonging? Recently reading books by Jason Fried (ok, not so recently... but the thoughts are still simmering in my mind...), I’ve been thinking about how to do “business ops” differently. Layer in my do life differently motto and throw in some Brene Brown into the mix (which, by the way, she does not reply to all her tweets.. go figure), it’s been lingering at the rim of my mind. To start - some brainstorming: Friday Days Off - for intentional team activities. Every other Friday. - from sharing gratitude accumulated over the last 2 weeks (in our mailboxes) - a shared meal together: one could be a potluck or a paid pool of money - learning together and from each other (open-ended topics) How about adding vulnerability and honesty and personal connection into the mix? What about truly fostering inclusion and diversity? Accessibility too. Life is not without empathy and dreaming either. Today I watched an interesting video about “original thinkers” by Adam Grant where he discusses those who come up with the most creative ideas and also those who succeed in their ideas. 1) you must try. Just start. Don’t worry about failure - accept you’re going to fail and keep trying when you do 2) test your idea with real users and make it better (better than others who have done it before.) you don’t have to have the idea first, just different and better. Some companies doing a good job with team culture: - Google? - Basecamp! - Shopify - Netflix? - Facebook (maybe from a policy perspective? An interesting note from Sheryl Sandberg about bringing things up that weren’t always obvious to others in the room. E.g. how parking for pregnant women was way in the back) Question: whose lives are enduring challenges and pain points and how can we alleviate some of these obstacles for them? A matter of fact is that everyone has points of contention or aspects of their lives that are a point to be addressed. Hmm... maybe, maybe not... if not, how do those individuals perceive their life so differently than the rest of us? (It’s an element of life that passes by. Accept it. Perceive it differently. It is an opportunity - it’s all an opportunity.) Question: how can culture, policy, or X improve the current state? Another question: what are some orthodoxies we don’t need — can flip it on its head right now?