We are all builders: Nicole Maynard
One of my first memories was when I was around 4-years-old.
It was a hot and humid day in Chicago,?I was playing in my backyard and needed a break from the sun. Meanwhile, my father was tinkering in the shaded garage. To cool off, I joined him, gathered scrap wood pieces and tape, and sat on the cool concrete floor building a model biplane.
As far as I can remember, I have always been a maker and a builder. I cannot recall intentionally choosing this path. Instead, I followed the innate drive to learn what being a builder means. This has taken on various forms: from making jewelry and creating collectibles to building a small design agency and designing software. Among my most revered has been building teams. Perhaps because teams are not made by hand, and the impact they make can be far-reaching.
We've recently celebrated Thanksgiving in the U.S, which kicks off my reflection on 2022. There was plenty of building this past year.
Outside of work, I built furniture pieces. A Chowki floor table I designed and made with my father. Toy sets. Learning resources for my son. I even managed to rebuild connections with myself.
At Able, I’ve been a part of building new partnerships, a new services structure, a website refresh, a new leadership team, and the design team. The latter is what I am going to reflect on here.
Four designers joined the team this year. Hiring the right individual on a small team is critical because of the immense impact one person has. How do you know who the right person is?
This is a learned skill that improves with practice. It starts with taking a thoughtful approach by considering the following questions: What does the future team need to look like? Why? What skill sets are the most needed? What are the transferable skillsets? What traits will support success? What type of backgrounds or uniqueness gaps do we have? Figuring out these answers and finding and hiring people is just the beginning.
领英推荐
My goal was to have a family of designers. A place to call “home” where we come back for respite to learn, vent, get fresh ideas to imagine better or help with problems with no egos and no judgment. A safe space. One where we can push each other because we care about each other. Where we create great experiences and expect excellence because together we can achieve it.
Building a fully remote team was a first for me and had a few nuances from previous experiences. You have to deliberately design activities to create connections based on who your team is and what needs strengthening. For remote teams, it takes more time to get to know each other, and creating a place of trust and vulnerability needs extra care.
In April, we created our team charter after two new team members joined. Although the output of that charter has been helpful, the most impactful part was the amount we learned about one another, what we wanted from our team, and how we wanted to work through our conversation. This poured the foundation for our home.
The following months focused on putting structures in place that supported team collaboration. We set up design office hours every Tuesday and Thursday to share our work and ideas and discuss noteworthy topics in and outside design. We utilized our weekly Wednesday team meetings for general updates, learning new skills, sharing inspiration, and getting to know each other more deeply through a variety of personal questions. Our Slack channel also went from silence to light chatter. We began pairing up on projects that needed extra oomph, and OOMPH did they get! Designers do their best work when partnering.
Our time together went from awkward to kicking off our shoes and putting our feet up. Of course, room for us to grow still exists as we’re not done building yet.
The leadership team just finished Loonshots by Safi Bahcall, in which he shares, “The physicist and Nobel laureate Phil Anderson once captured . . . ‘The whole becomes not only more than but very different from the sum of its parts.’” This quote may describe molecules, but the author explains how the same principles apply to people. This is a principle I keep in mind when building teams, and at Able, I think this is our secret power.
Not only is the whole greater than the sum of its parts, but together we have the ability to make everything different exceptional.
Our unity is our strength. Our diversity is our energy.