how we failed at company culture (and how we fixed it)
TRANSCRIPT
How We Failed At Company Culture
(And How We Fixed It)#boldmoves16
Hello everyone...
We are NeoMam
We create content that people want to share around
the web
We are a creative agency with only one goal in mind.
We provide in-house SEO teams with media features
that help increase their search visibility.
We l❤ve our clients
Today we are here to talk about the not so shiny side
of business - our mistakes.
Our business was easy…
Until it wasn’t.
I read a book that
changed me
We met this guy
Arend Welmers
Together we started on a journey.
Scorecards
February 2015
Open book
April 2016
MiniGames
March 2015 July 2016 August 2015
Happy ever after...?
Financially things got a lot better
We survived and were starting to thrive.
But something was wrong.
And it was getting worse.
Arguments over scorecards.
Growing disinterest over company financials.
Negative change in office atmosphere.
Cliques started to form.
Back channel communication.
And then came the anonymous reviews...
We started to realise we had forgotten a thing called
“culture”
didn’t cause
our problems.
helped us to see them clearly,
and fix them.
Mistake 1:
We just let culture happen
We got stuck with a culture that didn’t align with
what we wanted.
Fix:
We spent time to identify our values and the type of company we wanted to be.
NeoMam’s Core Values
1.We just say it2.We are one team3.We don’t stop when things get
hard
We now use these values for hiring and rewarding the
team.
And continue to educate them in the same way we do
with financials.
Mistake 2:
We hired on skills not values
Bootstrapped and a naive view of
business.
“If you can do the job - you're hired.”
We ended up with too many different values and ideas of
what NeoMam was.
Fix 1:
All job applicants now fill in a core value questionnaire.
NeoMam Questionnaire
Fix 2:
All in-person interview questions are about cultural
fit.
An in-person job interview
with NeoMam
today
Mistake 3:
We hired too many people too quickly
Growing 137% in one year didn’t help.
With so many new people, culture changed every week
as new faces appeared.
Fix:
Currently we only have the resources to make one hire
every quarter.
Mistake 4:
Not spending time together as a full team
Groups of “work friends” stuck to each other.
=Many people felt left out.
Fix:
We now allocate time during work for group activities.
D&D Fridays
Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Hiking
Lunch
Mistake 5:
Not clear on what is not working
Without numbers, problems can be hard to pinpoint.
We want to move away from emotion and see how the
business is doing.
Fix:
We continually improve our scorecard so we have an
accurate picture of team and individual effort.
February 2015
September 2015
April 2016
August 2016
Today things are a lot better.
We’re sustaining our net profit
Our cash reserves keep growing
Not only financially but also culturally.
What our
team has to
say
One thing to remember:
Don’t leave culture to chance
or you will end up with one you might not like.
Questions?
☞ neomam.com✍ @dannyashton
#boldmoves16