An Unconventional Workplace
by Paulina Sygulska Tenner, Pippa Clark, Andrew Ormerod and Daniel Tenner from GrantTree
Paulina:
When Daniel and I set up GrantTree six and a half years ago, we did not have the slightest clue what the culture would end up being like. In fact, I don’t think the topic ever crossed our minds. Culture? That’s something small businesses don’t have the luxury to spend time on.
And yet I don’t think it would have been so unpredictable even back then, to expect that whatever culture we ended up creating would be weird and not very conventional. I don’t think those expectations have been disappointed.
In the relationship between the two of us we always went for radical honesty paired with respect (and curiosity!) for our differences. Predictably, we transferred those qualities to GrantTree.
Founders always have a distorted way of seeing their own company, so it’s better to get a few different views of what a culture is like. Here’s Pippa’s view:
Pippa:
“I wish I knew how it would feel to be free”
Moshe Dayan once said “freedom is the oxygen of the soul”. At GrantTree, we adopt this as a fundamental belief in how we work.
The freedom at GrantTree is intrinsic throughout the company. We have the freedom to self-manage, the freedom and structure to express ourselves if we see a way to improve the operations and to the freedom to have full control over salaries.
The freedom over our pay is one that people find most surprising about GrantTree; it is an unusual concept but having the structure to reflect and decide on pay is one of the most empowering things about working here. It allows all the employees to be a participant in GrantTree’s evolution and to see the strategy of the business and where it’s going.
Be like a beanstalk: grow
We really care about personal growth. It’s not an added extra for us. We see that there are opportunities in everything we do at work to learn about ourselves, take on new challenges, and get out of our comfort zone. In fact we think that this sort of personal growth is a key driver of business growth. The more our team is able to do, the more we are able to do, so we don’t want to put a speed limit on people’s development.
We want to work with people who have the mindset of an entrepreneur, not an employee. Our kind of people always take ownership of their work, however big or small a piece of the business it is. They don’t want to be put in the narrow box of a job description. They crave room to spread out, and believe that the biggest obstacles to overcome are the ones inside their own heads. Career progression at GrantTree is not about a straightforward ladder to climb, it’s about forging your own path.
Our only similarity is that we’re different
Diversity is important in any team. You don’t make a good sports team out of all attackers, or all defenders. You need a mix. If you only have one point of view, your perspective is inherently limited. New ideas are made by smashing together old ideas in novel ways. The greater the wealth of ideas you have to work with, the more creative you will be. That’s why we welcome applications from everyone, regardless of the categories they put themselves in.
Our company thrives on the giving of good advice and collaborative sharing of knowledge (it’s one of the many reasons we don’t believe in secrets). For us, “culture fit” is about an ability to approach difference with respect, and to handle the clash of conflicting ideas skilfully.
Daniel:
Two roads diverged
From where we are now, it seems to me like GrantTree’s culture is weird and unique and wonderful, and it seems impossible to deliberately aim to get where we have arrived, and yet when I really think about it there is a principle at play here.
Many times in GrantTree’s life we had opportunities to do the “normal” thing… and many times we did. And those normal times didn’t shape our culture. What did have an impact are the times when we chose to do what seemed right, even when it wasn’t normal.
As a simple example, the very process of writing this article started with me drafting something, then asking for some quoteable contributions from some teammates, then the suggestions took over and the whole format of the article was re-arranged to be more reflective of the multiple contributions. Is the resulting article better? I don’t know, that’s up to you to decide! I do know that it’s more GrantTree, and more reflective of how things happen here. One person initiates something, others get involved, and in a semi-chaotic, half-magical process, something new comes to life.
This sort of approach, that respects the intrinsic value in a plurality of views, and yet still biases towards action, is not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s challenging, in the sort of way that leads to personal growth. It requires people to develop good levels of affective competence, to be comfortable with giving and receiving open and direct feedback, to be willing to get stuck into conversations that seem over their heads and trust that they will be welcome in their vulnerability.
If that sounds like the kind of environment you want to work in, one where you are warmly welcome to get stuck into work that interests you even when it’s not “part of your job” and where people treat each other as peers, then maybe you should get in touch.
Job openings
We are hiring (in fact, we tend to have at least one role open most of the time these days), looking for another Marketing Manager and a Senior R&D Consultant (a more experienced hire to join our tax credits team working alongside our R&D Consultants), and we’re also looking for an office manager to cover some maternity leave.
If any of these look of interest, or if you would like to have a further chat about our culture, please get in touch — we would love to hear from you.
