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Anytime it is 110 degrees in Oklahoma, it’s a good time to get the heck out of town for a conference. I was lucky enough to attend this year’s Culture Summit in beautiful (and much cooler) San Francisco, California. This cross-industry conference focuses on ways to increase employee engagement and build high-performing teams. It’s sponsored by some of the engagement platforms we use here at InterWorks, so I thought I’d give it a try. Plus, this year was particularly promising since much of the focus was on remote employee engagement – something I always have on my radar given that InterWorks has quite a few remote employees.
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Above: The much-cooler SF Bay.
The Conference and My Takeaways
Some of the conference was devoted to deep-dive workshops. I loved the presentation from David Hassell and Shane Metcalf, founders of 15Five. David noted that the question we should be asking our employees regularly is, “Are you a better version of yourself for having worked here?” This was intriguing to me – does InterWorks make people better? Is this a scary question?
In many ways, we can say that the opportunities we have, especially for folks just starting their careers, are far beyond anything they could find somewhere else. But we are also huge believers in personal responsibility, especially as it applies to things like happiness and self-improvement. My hope is that we simply give people the space to make themselves better. Hmmm. This is definitely a question I want to return to at some point.
Big Takeaway #1: When employees are driven to improve themselves, organizations flourish.
I was also able to sit in on a workshop on preventing burnout by Laura Hamil, Chief People Officer at Limeade. When you have a whole company of Type-A go-getters (ahem, InterWorks, ahem), this can be a huge drain on employee well-being. Laura focused much of this conversation on the importance of one’s manager, as well as the organization, in recognizing and preventing burnout. I was so impressed by this workshop that I’m planning to present the material at one of our Team Meet Ups next month.
Big Takeaway #2: Our most “on-fire” employees are the ones most at risk for burnout.
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Above: Not shocking to find an array of pink-haired HR ladies at the Culture Summit.
There was a fantastic panel presentation that focused on building culture across remote teams. This panel ranged from companies with several established remote offices (Twitter) to companies whose entire workforce is individually remote (Buffer). I jotted down a ton of ideas from this presentation (hello, “unified celebrations” and “gratitude Slack channel”). But, when they spoke about onboarding new employees … well, it was very satisfying to note that InterWorks is way ahead of the curve here. We are basically killing the onboarding game.
Big Takeaway #3: Making remote employees feel like part of the team starts at onboarding, but after that, we must have intentional and consistent engagement strategies for the entire company.
One of my favorite presentations came from Cat Lee, Head of Culture at Pinterest. Who wouldn’t love a presentation from Pinterest? It was a visually stunning, kitschy-in-a-good-way, all around good time. Cat focused mostly on core values – which Pinterest is pretty famous for. They actually use the term “knitting” to describe the way they collaborate within their teams … totes adorbs.
Big Takeaway #4: Core values are the ones actually LIVED across the company, not just written down in a strategic planning session.
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Above: Cat Lee of Pinterest presenting.
My last big takeaway came from Karlyn Borysenko, owner of Zen Workplace. Early in the week, I had made friends with Karlyn. She’s hysterically funny, whip-smart and had a ton of insight into company culture. Much to the chagrin of our sponsors, her presentation, “Creating Real-Time Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime” focused on the importance of human connections over expensive technology or engagement platforms. Karlyn’s humor and honesty reminded me of how we try to approach culture here at InterWorks.
Big Takeaway #5: Showing our humanity, being vulnerable and building trust within our teams is the only authentic way to build culture.
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Above: An excellent quote on culture.
Bringing It All Together
Overall, opportunities like the Culture Summit give me a chance to really reflect on ways we can continue to strengthen our culture here at InterWorks. Surrounding myself with other “culture warriors” was just what I needed this summer to kick-start some ideas and keep me focused on the incredible people I get to call my colleagues. Plus, I got to wear a sweater in July – can’t beat that.
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