How Mavidea’s Culture Club Keeps the Life at Mavidea Buzzing.
When Mavidea was founded, there was no Culture Club. The group started as our company began to grow. Our CEO, Erik Barnlund, and Marketing Manager, Kim James, envisioned it as a way for employees to help shape the future of Mavidea. Each of our departments has a Culture Club representative. The representative goes to Culture Club meetings to talk about everything from day-to-day activities to 5-year plans.
Culture Club basics.
The Culture Club was initially led by Kim James. It started as a series of events designed to help us celebrate being Mavideans. These occasions are always a lot of fun
For example, we have a big anniversary party every summer where we relax and blow off some steam. We even invite customers to join us in a game of wiffle ball! We also came up with end of year award ceremony, the Mavvies. We give away faux trophies that are actually hideous, in a lighthearted way. And each employee gets a fun title for the year. Most of the time, the titles are different. But a few are passed on from year to year. Examples are, the Who’s that Guy Award (given to a new member of the team) and the Shiny Object Award (Squirrel!). We take photos of our celebrations to reinforce their value and to help us continue to share the enjoyable times we had there. Sometimes we decide on a quarterly theme. They were usually based on a central focus we call, What’s Most Important Right Now. These themes become a rallying cry that keeps our energies focused for that quarter.
Picking up the leadership thread.
Last year, the team handed off the title of Culture Club Chairperson to me and I’ve been leading it since that time. So far, we’ve hosted a number of hilarious events. From obstacle courses to trivia nights, the last year has been an enjoyable time to be a Mavidean. We try to vary the theme and tone. We’ve played paintball, but we’ve also enjoyed wine tastings and visited museums. We also try to mix grown up and family events.
Supporting our culture every day.
The most important thing about Culture Club isn’t the events. It’s the impact it has on our daily work environment. The biggest thing is banishing those Sunday blues and doing those things that make it exciting to come to work. And of course, building a dynamic culture has an impact on serving customers. It helps our employees express themselves and also include customers in that conversation. One of the things we’ve done that’s unique is to have people tell a joke when answering the phone. We also send our customers love letters and anniversary gifts. I’ve seen small efforts like these bridge gaps between individuals. They help us become a better company by helping us understand the importance of each individual contribution. They also encourage us to celebrate our successes in good times — and pull together when things get rough.
Because a culture is really all about people.
Because of Culture Club, we’ve been able to bring up new ideas and talk about the critical subjects without fear. There’s no taboo topic. Management is able to open up about what they’re thinking about and planning. Employees get a chance to open up about how they’re feeling. It affects turnover because people enjoy working here. And once they come here, they want to stay. When someone leaves, there’s an emotional part of the company that’s lost. It’s like the way you feel when a family member moves away. When you have a strong culture, you learn to help each other through times like that.
How culture benefits hiring.
Mavideans are often brought in on group interviews and those interviews are often a lot of fun. It’s less about stock answers and more about showing us who you really are. It’s helped us bring on some amazing hires — because everyone is on board and excited when we hire someone. It helps us find a plumb line about whether a person is a cultural fit. It also helps us get real answers to practical questions, such as, “Are you going to finish what you start?” We also sometimes discover great qualities in a person that we hadn’t even been looking for. When hiring for the Internet Marketing part of business, we wanted someone with a strong sense of humor. It wasn’t a characteristic we added on to the job description, it was part and parcel to the job. We felt it reflected an important part of who we are as a team. More particularly, with the SEO team, we have a very dry, dark sense of humor. We wanted someone to fit in with us. As it turned out, the new employee is actually a little funnier than everyone else at the company! Everyone enjoys working with him – even our customers. His personality has helped make him a successful new hire and a valuable asset to our team.
Beyond party planning.
One of the biggest things we work for with the Culture Club, is to be continually moving past being the “party planning committee”. We want to move more and more toward achieving aspirational values for our company. As time goes on, we hope to use Culture Club as a way to move Mavidea from where we are now, to where we aspire to be.
Tips for building a meaningful Culture Club.
If you’d like to try the Culture Club approach at your company, here are a few suggestions that can help make your effort successful:
- Allow employees to openly express their feelings without retribution.
- Look for equal representation from your different departments. This prevents some of the quieter groups from being under-represented.
- Help less confident team members feel acknowledged.
- Use routine to your advantage. Try not to get into a rut. For example, you can set a tradition with a company Christmas party. But it doesn’t have to be lavish. It’s more important to make it awesome. Whatever your culture, your events should be a sincere statement and something that people look forward to.
- Have representatives take responsibility for getting ideas from the people they represent. Invite and welcome participation.
- Invite management to listen and lead, but not to monopolize conversation.
Enjoy our culture? Join the club.
If you appreciate working with people who are never satisfied with “the usual”, talk to Mavidea. We’re always looking for better ways to bring the brightest solutions to our customers. Not satisfied with standard solutions? Looking for a smart, energized approach? Join the club!
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