Coming from a big, Italian family, Mikie discovered something very familiar at Mavidea.
By Mikeleen Means, Director of Controlled Chaos at Mavidea
My name is Irish but I’m actually German and Italian. My parent’s wanted to have twin daughters named Kathleen and Mikeleen. My older sister is named Kathleen, so I became Mikeleen.
I come from a large family by today’s standards. We’re second generation in this country and my family still carries on the traditions they brought over here from Germany and Italy.
My father took ten of us over to Europe once and we got to see where our grandparents once lived. The home in Italy was as they left it. All their coats and possessions were still in their rooms. It was assumed that they would come back someday after making their fortune in America.
So, in a way, I guess our visit was closing that circle.
I remember going to the church near that home which carries our family name, Marsaglia. I could still smell food and incense in the air from a celebration the day before. The walls of the church were covered in gold picture frames hung in memory of family members. It was just gorgeous.
The German side of my family had traditions, too. Every Sunday, we would have huge family dinners.
When my parents were alive, every Sunday we would have big family dinners with all the other German families. I grew up learning that when you sit down and break bread with people, it creates a special bond.
As an adult I have worked for a large corporation. Culture-wise, it was very similar to many other large corporations, but really not much like a family.
Then I went to work for Mavidea.
Coming home to Mavidea.
From the very beginning, I noticed something was very different about Mavidea. But also, something very familiar.
My very first day, I got flowers from the Culture Club. This made me feel appreciated and welcomed from the start.
I quickly learned that if we work hard and achieve something, we celebrate! We have town hall meetings and other meetings where it seems a lot like family.
For me, coming from a larger corporation, it was a big culture shock. But I learned that here at Mavidea, we’re not just serving our cusomters, we’re serving each other.
I found that out immediately, because during my first days here, they were producing the employee videos that are on our website. Our leadership was doing the videos to help tell our story. They wanted our customers to understand not just about Mavidea, but who we are as people.
The family side of teams.
At Mavidea, we have many meetings over lunch.
I kind of compare it to a family dinner, where everyone can talk about what’s going on with the day-to-day business and also what’s going on in our lives.
All employees have a team huddle every morning. We are often asked, “What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday? Is there anything you’re stuck on?”
It really helps us understand how our own work connects with the efforts that are going on around us. It also helps us learn to better support each other.
Communication is the tie that binds.
In the larger company, we had a lot of communications coming down from upper management. But a lot of it was too general and didn’t pertain to our individual areas.
I feel that the management here listens and that no one here has a bad idea. We understand that if one person succeeds, everyone succeeds.
Some of the meetings I used to attend ended up being nothing but a complaint fest. But at Mavidea, the meetings end up being something of value.
Caring for our families and our family at work.
One of the biggest things that stands out to me is one of the first things I heard our CEO, Erik Barnlund say. It’s that we’re here to provide a good lifestyle for our employees, as well as serving our customers.
The people we work with are a lot like our families. Often times, we spend as many hours here as we do with our own families and the relationships we have with them are important.
It’s critical that we support our ability to make both our home and work families a success.
The end result is we want happy clients. Whether it’s a web or IT client, we all share in that Smile Meter (a Mavidea daily KPI for client happiness).
Mikie’s 8 suggestions for building a strong family culture.
- Communicate openly – Keep working at it. Maybe it’s a process of baby steps, but keep pushing for that open line of communication. With any personal network, if you don’t have communication, you don’t have a relationship.
- Build a culture of success – Celebrate successes. Even if it’s just an email or stopping to say “thank you.” Don’t let the things you work hard for slip away unnoticed.
- Make meetings a positive - Don’t place the focus of meeting on what the team is not doing. People walk out feeling unappreciated, like they don’t have value. Focus on the positive.
- Don’t ignore your history – This applies to the things you’ve done right and the things you’ve done wrong. You have to acknowledge both to move ahead.
- Encourage people to be better people. Encourage them to set personal goals for themselves outside of work. A team can be a great support system for reaching all kinds of goals, both personal and professional. By becoming a better person, you become a better employee and better contributor in your role.
- Make competition about how we’re improving ourselves – Don’t pit team member against team member. If one person succeeds, we all succeed. Most of our “competitions” here are really in the interest of getting to know each other and making our work fun.
- Empower yourself to ask for your own successes to be celebrated – So much goes on each day, it’s easy to overlook those opportunities to share your happiness at achieving something great. Many times it’s those little things that really need to be celebrated.
- Ask how I can help – Most people aren’t used to asking for help. When you ask someone how you can help him or her it makes a huge positive impact. It doesn’t always have to be something big. It’s a rally cry and is living proof that we're all part of the same team.
Culture is always changing.
Culture is continually changing and it’s also true here at Mavidea. With our Culture Club as a touch point, we’re always exploring new ways to help our employees empower themselves to serve their family, our customers and our teams even better.
How is your organization building a unique and successful culture? Let’s share ideas! Contact us at Mavidea to join the discussion.
