the contribution culture: how to assemble a team of initiators
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The Contribution
CultureHow to Assemble a
Team of Initiators
“The people who make the biggest difference are the people who find their own problems to solve
and solve them without you telling them to.”
- Daniel Chait, Co-Founder & CEO of Greenhouse
This presentation consists of insights inspired by 33voices® interviews with Jenna Abdou.
Table of Contents
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Jeffrey Wald, Work Market
Arian Radmand, CoachUp
Mike Townsend, HomeHero
Brittany Hodak, Zinepak
Munjal Shah, Health IQ
Paul Berry, Rebelmouse
Liz Wessel, Campus Job
Credits
Understand the Three Phases of StartupCulture and lead your team based on where
your organization is right now.
Phase One: Cowboy execution: Everyone is doing everything (including
eating pizza) until sunrise.
“Phase one people...There’s something a little bit wrong with them. They aren’t wearing shoes all the time. They don’t shower for a few days. They are brilliant in a very unstructured
way. I miss those people. You go to war with those people.”
Phase Two: Organizational processes areestablished. No one, especially individuals
from Phase One, follows them.
Phase Three: The company is too large not be guided by policies and procedures. A group of
team members emerges to dictate culture.
“We are building this company to an outcome and that outcome is the most powerful,
driving force towards culture.”
Focus on outcomes, not tasks. As a founder, it’s your responsibility that everyone has a clear understanding of the team’s high
level goals. Make it a priority to recognize how each individual brings you closer to them.
“Outcomes are more important than just working in your role. Individuals
have a great degree of freedom to contribute in any way they feel necessary to
achieve the desired result.”
Implement a bi-weekly meeting where your CEO shares the major initiatives the team is focused on.
Adopt CoachUp’s ‘Smart Autonomy’ approach. Once everyone on the team understands the
organization’s implicit goals, leave it up to them to figure out how to get things done.
Use ‘Smart Autonomy’ to lead each division of your company. When it comes to
engineering, have an end of the week meeting where team members share updates as well as new ideas, resources, and tools that drive
productivity. This is how you’ll make necessary changes in your processes.
Define your culture in explicit terms. HomeHero’s mantra is:
“Dream it. Plan it. Do it.”
Cross functional and collaborative creativity doesn’t happen on its own. Split your team
into “Idea Teams” every week.
To assemble an Idea Team, bring together three team members from different departments and encourage them to spend 45 minutes sharing what they’re working on, the challenges they’re facing, and creative
apps/hacks they use to work smarter.Create new teams each week.
Hold town hall meetings specifically for brainstorming.
“Innovation and improved efficiencies can come from anywhere. At
a startup, it’s critical that all employees feel empowered to share their ideas.”
Being goal oriented > Being responsibility oriented. When you focus each individual
or small team on a single metric their efforts will far exceed the goal you set.
Avoid using titles to describe team members. Instead, promote cohesive
involvement by saying: “You’re in charge of this. You make it happen.”
“I don’t care if you’re an engineer or a product manager, we cross things over
and make them happen.”
Always choose ‘Yes and’ not ‘No, but.’
Always choose ‘Yes and’ not ‘No, but.’‘Yes and’ validates individuals’ contributions
and encourages them to open up.
Always choose ‘Yes and’ not ‘No, but.’“‘No but’ is the death of creativity. It’s
the death of contribution.”
Define your company as a team not a family.
“Being in the company is being on the starting string for as long as you’re a
star and fit for the team…Not necessarily together forever as family.”
Prioritize implicit goals for the entire organization.
“A sales team is actually just a group because they all have individual
goals. A real team has one goal together.”
Give every team member the opportunity to participate at the idea
level of shaping the road map.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a sysadmin or the head of sales, there are no silos when it comes to contributing
intellectually across disciplines.”
Don’t underestimate the value of spending time with your team members one-on-one.
“Everyone in the company needs to have a one-on-one with their manager at least once per week. Managers are encouraged to get new ideas and feedback in those sessions.”
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Presentation by Chase Jennings
Insights by Jenna Abdou