What about my Stapler?
It’s a cringe saying: “Teamwork makes the Dream work”. It reminds me of large rooms filled with tiny cubicles and the high pitched buzz from fluorescent lamps beaming harsh light from the ceiling. Maybe the place where Mr. Incredible worked, or Milton with his Stapler from Office Space. (anybody old enough to remember?)
What these characters have in common is the crappy team around them. They don’t quite fit in, they are not understood, respected. Work often gets portrayed that way - a means to an end, a necessary evil to make rent.
The pain is real
In the recent years, we’ve seen many articles on the topic. The global workplace unhappiness reports, forced RTO initiatives and most recently waves of layoffs, especially in big tech. This leaves a whole generation of workers disillusioned and confused.
It wasn’t always that way though.
Xooglers
The other day I was doing a virtual lunch meeting with a bunch of former Googlers (Xooglers) organized by https://www.xoogler.co - a group of over 30k previous Googlers networking and exploring opportunities to collaborate.
As we were chatting, I got reminded of the early days at Google in Sydney. It was distinctly awesome then (2012ish). People were quirky (especially some of the engineers) and there was this spirit of doing something big, together.
As a Noogler (new Googler) I felt proud and completely overwhelmed at the same time. So much stuff to learn, so much success around me already, complete impostor syndrome. And yet, the team was there, everyone was friendly and supportive and ambitious. Sure there was office politics too, but the vibe overall was “we are doing something big, together”
Today’s different
I hear many stories, how work has changed for too many people.
It’s partially turning into a soulless sweatshop of endless KPI check-in’, unhealthy performance culture and scary “i’ll better not rock the boat or else..” self preservation mode.
Combine that with economic fluctuations through wars, loonie-global leaders and general human madness and life can quickly become difficult, which then makes the work challenges even harder. It’s not good for the individual, the team, the product or the client either.
Please don’t get me wrong - I actually believe in working hard and hustling. There is magic in grinding a bit and getting some unbelievable results done. Especially as a team, it can be a powerful bonding moment to go through a tough time together with others and emerge down the other end. Hair ruffled and clothes a bit tattered but with the incredibly sweet taste of victor lingering in the mouth.
It does not have to be that way
Occasionally, I read about more positive examples. You may remember the dude who raised the minimum income for all his employees to $75k to ensure more equity within the company. Or the philosophy of “It doesn’t have to be crazy at work” by 37Signals co-founders.
Then there is this story of the Midwest Garage door factory that was bought out by a New York PE firm. The firm gave equity ownership to all employees to truly make them co-owners in the success of the overall business. Guess what: It worked, the business was sold and on average people made $175k in the sale. Some long time assembly line workers even a lot more than that. Amazing!
Here’s another great example that’s closer to my heart - Key Search. A global exec search firm. I’ve been doing some work with them recently and noticed interesting patterns:
Equity ownership in the business outcome
A high level of trust between the folks
Individuals are accountable to themselves and the group
Super diverse group with vastly different strengths
Being globally distributed, yet well connected
A clear vision & mission
High level of psychological safety
An incredibly strong learning attitude
Innovation wherever you look
Feedback is happening automatically, all the time
Humor and Joy are part of the MO
What struck me as most interesting though is how they all co-design the future of their business. It’s the opposite of rigid - it’s flexible, always growing, always getting smarter, faster, better. It’s this whole idea of the Growth Mindset personified.
Their customers can feel it and I think it’s a big reason for their success.
I recently facilitated a sales workshop for them during a group offsite in Barcelona and the vibe felt very similar to the early days at Google…
Great workplaces still exist. They are usually co-created by it’s members. It’s not always easy, not without it’s challenges - but in the end - it’s worth it.