Take Care Of Your People

At the end of last week, Clockwork hosted an all-staff, in-person meeting - bringing together our in-town crew and flying in remote workers from across the country to spend time ideating and learning and fostering camaraderie on our teams. Because human systems are complex, we had a handful of folks who couldn't attend. But we still made space for them and tried to up our virtual game for this special event. Like so many other organizations across the globe, Clockwork shifted how we worked pretty dramatically at the start of the pandemic. And since then, we've been mostly virtual - with a smattering of humans taking advantage of quiet office space from day to day. As an introvert, the thought of two solid days of people would normally make me break out in hives. But I can honestly say that I went into the weekend feeling energized, proud of my colleagues, enlightened, and, quite honestly, full of joy. If I try to point to a reason for this energy boost, it would have to be because we didn't just impart wisdom on our teams or hire outside resources to teach them new things. Instead, as a human-centered technology shop, tried some of our own medicine. And that medicine was healing.

Clockwork often uses design thinking workshops for our clients to accelerate our discovery and research process. In recent months we've been working on a pilot of an interactive workshop that challenges individuals and teams to think critically about the future of THEIR workplaces. What is working and what isn't? What solutions exist just under the surface that, if given a little bit of energy, could actually solve big problems or improve efficiency dramatically? What can be done to alleviate virtual meeting exhaustion? How can we work more effectively asynchronously? It's not about executive-level leadership making decisions and mandating behaviors. The future is on all of us to determine. Because - if leaders just make rules based on how things used to be - they will find their people even less engaged than they've been. And let's be honest, true engagement is hard.

When I am traveling around the country talking to audiences across business and industry I often remind them that caring about people isn't about the perks we extend to them - like on-site gyms, free food or beverages in physical spaces, or home office allowances and ergonomic accessories. That's what I often see businesses tout; as if humans are motivated by the candy drawer. I'm not sure how we got so lost about what matters to people. But if I were to distill it down to a simple theme I'd have to say that humans are motivated by purpose.

Last week we pulled our staff together to remind each other of our purpose. We're not here to simply build software or solve problems for the enterprise. We're here to make life better for our clients. We're here to grow business. We're here to do great work and have great lives - which is our mission statement exactly. And great work looks like delivering on our promises. Great work looks like satisfied clients and lasting relationships. Great work looks like pushing ourselves to learn and grow and try and fail and learn from that. Great work looks like improving our process and evolving our tools and systems. And our great lives? They are deeply connected to that work. Because through the work, we build relationships. It's in the work that we learn to trust - each other and our clients. The work pushes us to set personal goals and to challenge ourselves to level up. The work expands our expertise. And it all connects back to something we realized long ago - there is no work AND life. It's all life. We want our lives to matter.

Our future-focused culture workshop fueled our collective fire. I was what we affectionately refer to as a 'free radical' - roaming around from room to room to observe the small group exchanges. In those rooms they tackled everything from meeting fatigue, to information overload, to focus time, to team dynamics, to software tools and artificial intelligence. Every team identified solutions to solve known problems or address shared challenges. Then they prototyped those solutions and presented them to their colleagues and the room was filled with hope, and something else - relief. Because we didn't just tell them what to do - we made them part of the solution and in doing that - they could SEE how the solution could work. In the days following the event we're doubling down on delivering on the most low-hanging fruit and creating a road map to help us provide clarity around when and how our processes will change.

Sure, we had team-building exercises. Some folks tooled around on a boat on the Mississippi. One team worked through an escape room together. Another crew stayed in the office and explored real ways to level up our engineering. Our whole company went to a St. Paul Saints game. We had an outdoor dinner of BASEBALL FOOD (hotdogs HELLO!), and we shared several meals in our office. We even had a visit from an ice cream truck. But the real thrill of the event wasn't any of those perks. It was, instead, the way we openly acknowledged areas where we were struggling and included everyone in the process of formulating solutions. Real, practical, actionable solutions. Through that exercise - we actively explored not who we were but who we are going to be. And there's nothing more energizing and engaging than coming to that thinking collectively.

I guess the moral of the story is - take care of your people. Don't just mandate - include them. Don't offer up shallow rewards for their thinking or their energy, and their talents. Invite them to help to determine who you will be and how you will get there. Taking care isn't just about high-end French roast coffee beans in the coffee machine, or the absolute Cadillac of health benefits. Sometimes taking care is as simple as an invitation. An invitation to be included.