This yr, a favourite Michael Jordan quote of mine, “Don’t aspire to be the perfect on the group—aspire to be the perfect for the group,” fueled my journey of utilizing easy, sensible management and team-building ways to attach our distant and on-site tradition at Mercury Mosaics.
When I regarded for the gaps, my purpose was to grasp what programs we would have liked in place so extra individuals might shine. We place plenty of concentrate on constructing a spot that creates careers. And final yr, we had zero layoffs and really created jobs. A group strategy was driving my focus to sharing management tasks. I’m all the time saying many fingers make mild work.
Digital connections
Forty p.c of our group has been working remotely since March 2020.
Sixty p.c of our group has been in-studio. Most of them had no entry to expertise, as a result of our present methodology was largely analog.
This created a transparent divide and disconnection.
2020 revealed that we had been spoiled by being underneath the identical roof (whereas having cute dogs operating round). I was compelled to ask, “How do I maintain individuals feeling linked, empowered, and guarantee entry to our good vibes?”
Microsoft Groups was a straightforward setup for us. Moreover, we acquired everybody an organization e mail deal with. This made us really feel collectively, and having the ability to have particular cohorts inside Groups created methods for smaller items to collaborate remotely. We began an space for bulletins, and shortly it turned a channel for our manufacturing group to share their studio life.
What turned extremely clear to me was how many individuals have been wanted to execute varied initiatives. Each a part of the corporate, throughout 2020, was overhauled, as in many different organizations, I’m certain. To make it extra of a sport, we used Asana. This empowered us to “flip our cannots into can dos,” “desires into plans,” and on high of all of it, “get ‘er executed.”
So many tasks we had hoped to work on out of the blue introduced themselves as alternatives. I realized that I wanted to strengthen the muse of Mercury Mosaics, and this was a key device for doing so.
Advertisements
I’m a chart aficionado. If you may make a flowchart or one thing visible, I’m all in. Having a visible chart exhibiting the important thing teams and after they have recurring conferences made a giant distinction.
While you don’t see everybody, this chart is comforting as a result of it offers consciousness of what is happening in all areas.
Weekly bulletins: Considered one of our Mercury Mosaics traditions was potlucks. These have been robust to interchange throughout COVID-19. I’d actually evaluate the weekly bulletins we now roll out to a few of the good vibes of a potluck (minus the satisfaction of an important meal). Having a spot to attach and share—particularly the number of visuals that roll out from week to week—is the sweetest group builder. I’ve seen individuals actually step as much as spotlight the constructive accomplishments of fellow teammates. The synergy from this is one other vital layer in our inner group constructing.
Quarterly conferences: We wanted to provide you with a option to convey distant and on-site staff collectively, particularly as we deliberate to open a second manufacturing location. So we kicked off quarterly conferences in June and have had three to date.
In them, we shared shout-outs among the many core groups to spotlight our values in motion, and every division chief shared updates in their sector. I rapidly noticed that with the dimensions we had grown to, it didn’t really feel proper for me to be “on the market” someplace; somewhat, I wanted to assist coach the smaller groups. This allowed me to get extra readability for my imaginative and prescient for Mercury Mosaics.
With extra intentional programs to attach my groups, I began to see magic. At our fourth quarterly assembly, I shared a private interview between me and one in every of my mentors, and in 12 minutes my groups understood the “why” of Mercury Mosaics and supplied a brand new layer of which means to our collective journey of development.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning was the primary main factor we did to kick off 2021. The brand new management cohort of eight started working to include all staff’ enter to replace our firm’s mission, imaginative and prescient, and values. We nonetheless have a number of weeks to go earlier than we end the tactical facet of the strategic planning. Nonetheless, the facility of merely having readability round this factor is going to assist lead us into the longer term.
We are able to use these items to align, whether or not we’re all underneath one roof or expanded and scattered into new areas. These easy instruments helped make a really actual connection between distant and on-site staff attainable. Tackling the dismantling of our life as we knew it in 2020 has allowed us to rebuild a greater enterprise—one which fosters our group to be way more cohesive. With this basis in place, we’re really in a position to concentrate on our mission of enhancing the world one handmade tile at a time.
Mercedes Austin is the founding father of Mercury Mosaics.
