Article

From Foosball to Foundational: Crafting Lasting Company Culture

August 6, 2024

By Kim Burmeister | CEO |

When I first began my career in software, there was a movement to bring fun into the workplace. Our developers spent a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, pounding out thousands of lines of code and they needed a break from their screen. When crafting the perfect space for this, we brought in a ping pong table, foosball table, slushie and popcorn machines, and even a cookie oven. Our fridge was stocked with snacks and pop to keep anyone amped up with an endless supply of Mountain Dew options. I loved this work environment and it was especially effective in attracting great talent.

But somewhere along the way, these perks started to be labeled as culture. And as much as I enjoyed the era of office fun, it cannot be your culture. It can be a part of it, but it will not stand on its own.

Nothing proved this more than a pandemic. In 2020, the workforce made a gigantic shift that will likely never return to what we once knew to be normal. Hybrid and remote work are here to stay and any onsite perks cannot be utilized by a team that never sees your office. The benefit of these things isn’t lost, but it needs a new execution plan and rebranding. 

So what are some of the important things to integrate into your plans that lead to a healthy culture? Here are a few things to consider:

Aces in their Places: I heard this phrase last week during a panel discussion on culture and it has stuck with me. Having the right people in the right seats is important for both your employees and your customers. When team members are doing work that is in their sweet spot, they bring a different energy into the workplace. Sometimes this may mean that you have to move people around as their skill sets grow. An employee may join your team with one passion that changes over time, so make sure you are aware of their strengths and their motivations.

Psychological safety: OSHA regulations have made sure that our workplaces provide physical safety, but there is a need for emotional safety as well. When teams work with a mission of psychological safety, they operate from a space of vulnerability, honesty, and concern. What does psychological safety look like when it is in place on a team?

  • People feel safe to take interpersonal risks
  • Your team members speak up when they have something to share and don’t have any fear doing so
  • The team will disagree openly and surface concerns
  • More questions are asked to bring alignment and clarity 
  • People own up to their mistakes because mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth, not something to be punished for
  • There is a shared sense of value and appreciation for ideas

This culture factor cannot be underestimated because without it, team members will hold back on sharing their ideas or hiding their mistakes. This will lead to less than optimal solutions and issues being buried. Neither of these are healthy for your team and can lead to much larger issues down the road with your customers.

Use Failure as a Tool: This concept rides shotgun to psychological safety, but warrants its own bullet point on this list. I remember hearing this for the first time at a software product company I worked at. As an operational team member, I was perplexed and the phrase actually scared me a bit. Why was failure being encouraged? 

It is a software development philosophy that leads to quickly identifying and correcting errors with the goal of recovering quickly. When applying this principle outside of software development, you can begin to see the importance of that last part, recover quickly. Failure is a part of growth and learning. The key is to see it, name it, and recover from it as fast as possible. 

If your team has a fear of failure, you will find them covering things up, applying band-aids to the issue, or even worse, blaming others. All of these can snowball into larger issues over time. Instead, ask what is to be learned in order to share and teach others. In a way, celebrate failure and leverage it to the maximum amount.

Gratitude and Recognition: As the CEO of a small services company, this one is imperative. Fostering a culture where everyone feels valued and seen for their contributions is vital to the retention of great people. What can get lost as companies grow is the personalization of gratitude and recognition. If this one feels like someone is just checking a box, the team will feel it. Therefore, even in a large company that sends the generic Thank You gift to everyone, each manager has the opportunity to set aside time to build this within their own team. Here are some ways to build this into your routine:

  • Set aside time once a week or once a month to write and send a handwritten thank you note to a couple members of your team. Mail this to their home rather than setting it on their desk. Finding this amongst the usual bills and junk mail will bring a smile to their face. Be sincere and reference specific things they have done to contribute to the team in a positive way.
  • Create a system for peer to peer recognition. Giving a mechanism for peers to point out their teammates’ contributions helps build a broader culture of recognition. At SpinDance, we utilize our “Awesomeness Nominator” as a method for team members to thank each other for living out our values. These are seen by everyone in our team Slack channel and we pick from the nominations for larger quarterly recognition.
    Annual awards for large contributors on the team can be a great way to acknowledge larger, sustained efforts. We have annual awards for:

    • MVP: A team member that went above and beyond, They exemplify hard work, integrity, flexibility, a great attitude to achieve, pushes us to be our best, and creatively solves when faced with a challenge.
    • Team Player: A team member is someone who is eager to help a team move forward by doing whatever is needed. These individuals are integral to any team’s ability to hit their goals and ultimately succeed. They come to work with a “can do” attitude and are always looking to lend a hand.
    • Unsung Hero: A team member who works tirelessly and consistently behind the scenes to help our team deliver and does it with a great attitude. While this team member’s work is not visible all the time, it is definitely valuable to the success of the organization.
    • Rising Star: A team member in their first 2 years at the company who exemplifies our values and culture as they grow into their role. They have a desire to learn and they offer help to their teammates when a need arises.

Bring the Fun: As the effectiveness of ping pong and snacks becomes less relevant to a remote or hybrid workforce, you can still put great energy into how you incorporate fun into the daily grind. Thinking about how to gather with a purpose can make a huge difference. Understanding how your team defines fun is also an important variable. What do your team members enjoy in their free time? How do they like to spend time with others? Do social gatherings fill them up or drain them? 

Remember to design experiences that can be enjoyed in similar ways regardless of work environment. Here are some examples of ways we bring our team together:

  • Team trivia: One team member leads the trivia session and determines the questions that will be asked in all 5 rounds. Sometimes we make it company specific or team member related questions for additional fun. Each team gets a Google Meet invite for just their team members and we use a Google form for answer submissions. The trivia lead then checks the answers and keeps score along the way. All questions are displayed for the team to see in our communication tool (Slack). This is a lot of fun and we mix teams up every time.
  • Virtual Escape Rooms: Our team members enjoy puzzles and strategy games, so this one leverages many of our team’s strengths. We utilize online game companies and their platform for running the escape room. Again, we send out a Google Meet for each team to gather and share ideas along the way. Communication is key during these sessions as everyone works on different things at the same time. We race to see which team escapes first.
  • Annual On-Site Event: With team members located throughout the country, we bring everyone together once a year for a quarterly meeting, annual awards, and a company picnic. This ensures that our team sees each other face to face at least once a year. We host lunches and games in the office and managers plan night time dinners or outings. 

These are just a few ideas for gathering with a purpose of fun and ensuring that team members interact with each other, regardless of whether or not they are working together on a project.

For our team, culture is a multi-faceted, complex set of practices that we protect. Leadership is fully committed to these initiatives and ensures that investments are being made into our team. At SpinDance, we have a committee that meets regularly to discuss new ways to engage and build the plans for executing these activities. Without consistent attention and a feedback loop, you could be headed in the wrong direction. 

With a strong workplace culture, you will have a foundation to build upon. Retention of employees and customers will be a by-product of this endeavor and growth will be on the horizon.