Office Balance - How The 44 Group Supports Productive Creative Work In The Office

How Does The 44 Group Support Productive Creative Work In The Office?

At the 44 Group, building a creative environment where every team member can flourish is crucial to our success. We aim for the highest level of creativity across all our brands to help them gain traction and create the best working environment. Many factors contribute to creating a space where team members feel comfortable letting their creativity run free. Below are a few important ones.

Building the Right Team

At the 44 Group, we spend a lot of time finding employees who are the right fit. The wrong hire can cause negative ripples, affecting overall performance. We look for superstars for each position within our creative team, helping them excel in their roles.

Energy is key within the 44 Group and is a major factor in our hiring criteria. Does the person bring the right energy to add positivity to the team? Start-ups face many twists and turns as they refine their path to success. Building a team that embraces this journey is essential to maintaining a positive vibe while experimenting with market routes.

A quote Steven Bartlett frequently champions is, “failure is feedback, feedback is knowledge and knowledge is power!” As a start-up, we know not everything will work the first time. Ensuring we build a culture where everyone understands this and can adapt is fundamental to our success.

Department Autonomy

Each department has total autonomy over their tasks and how to achieve them.

Everyone is left to do what they do best and share their progress at key project milestones. We nurture passion and give members the space to express their solutions. Giving people ownership makes them feel more invested, resulting in better, more thoughtful solutions.

Space to Think

An often overlooked area is giving the team space to think. We avoid overloading them with unnecessary information that can hinder the creative process. Allowing them to focus on tasks with the clearest, simplest brief possible is vital. Creative people are there to create magic; their brains are wired differently, enabling them to see solutions others can't. Filtering information helps create thinking space to get the best out of creative people.

Become a Sponge for Knowledge

Much of what we do at The 44 Group is innovative and cutting-edge, with little information available publicly. We encourage staff to seek out knowledge, start conversations with experts, read credible sources, attend events, and be open-minded. This helps expand their knowledge and makes them essential to The 44 Group engine.

A Calming Environment

Our studio space is designed to meet a range of needs for creating great work. It's a contemporary, intimate space filled with creative energy. There's always low-level music from various artists, from Coldplay to Charli xcx, and everyone is encouraged to contribute to the studio's playlist—the more diverse, the better, as it subconsciously educates us all.

The creative studio consists of four key areas to help people do their best work. First, there's the desk space area, an open-plan zone where the whole creative team works together, sharing ideas and improving projects. The openness allows team members to ask questions and learn from one another daily.

Next is our meeting table area, where the whole team can gather to discuss creative work on a big screen. It's a place for both informal chats and serious discussions, where work is reviewed from its infancy to its more established stages. Many big decisions defining our brands' trajectories are made here.

Then there's the breakout area, a small sofa space for relaxing and thinking about creative challenges in comfort. Sometimes, getting away from the desk can unlock the answers staff are searching for. We also encourage them to use local facilities nearby to help unlock their creative flow.

Lastly, the kitchen! You'd be surprised how many challenges are resolved over a break and a brew. The whole company uses the creative kitchen, so it's a good place for different departments to chat and share thoughts with the creative team.

Get Social

Team bonding and socialising are very important to us. Stronger bonds lead to greater energy, more collaborative work, and better end products. We have a weekly Friday Wrap where we celebrate the week's achievements over snacks and drinks, making it a relaxed way to wind down. We also visit a local establishment to enjoy the fresh air and calming nature of the beer garden and hold quarterly company gatherings to acknowledge our hard work and progress.