Every team should take a stretch break
^ that and 8 other tips from Change.org
During my two years working at Change, I’ve come to realize that a company’s culture isn’t defined by its leaders. It’s shaped from the bottom up and it starts small.
At first it’s just two people stretching. Then a few others catch on. One day someone creates a calendar invite and a slack channel. And the next, someone else records piano tunes and sets them to play in the office everyday at 3pm (the perfect midday breakpoint). All of a sudden, what started so modestly, has turned into a multi-office, widely-attended stretch fest.
If you have an idea for your office, don’t let the fear of appearing non-productive hold you back. Your coworkers will thank you for it and ultimately a happier team will do better work.
I’m inspired by the ideas my coworkers have had to bring the team together, to have fun, and to support one another. And I’m writing this post in case you get similarly inspired.
8. Make breakfast
I could never have predicted the undercurrent of breakfast zeal amongst my coworkers. When I last asked if anyone wanted to make breakfast in our office chat, I was envisioning your standard fare of eggs, potatoes, and fruit. I was mistaken.
Together, we made one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had — matcha waffles, shakshuka, hash browns, and avocado toast.
7. Take silly competitions seriously
No athletic skill was required to participate in the inaugural Change.org Olympics, which was organized while the Winter Games took place earlier this year. Our offices competed in a variety of events such as “Synchronized Office Chair Swiveling” and “Endurance Hula Hooping.”
Since we’re a global company, each office was invited to participate by capturing and submitting videos. Their submissions were judged by a panel — San Francisco took home the gold, Victoria with the silver medal and London with the bronze.
6. Bring in speakers from your community
Everyday, we read stories of people around the world who are stepping up and using our platform to create change in their communities. Yet, when Carl, Colin, and Taren were talking about the biggest issue plaguing our community of San Francisco — the lack of affordable housing — they felt somewhat powerless.
As a first step, they decided to invite Catherine Bracy, founder of the TechEquity Collaborative, to speak at our office. She told us about her organization and highlighted the key policy changes we’d need to make in order to open up a greater number of affordable housing options.
5. Start a book club
Book Club started a year ago when Sara and I read Radical Candor by Kim Scott. We felt that everyone would benefit from Scott’s guidance on delivering direct, yet kind, feedback so we invited the San Francisco office to read the book and to discuss our takeaways over lunch.
Book club was born! Since then we’ve read books about activism like Rules for Revolutionaries and How Organizations Develop Activists. We’ve read books on marginalized communities like The New Jim Crow and Undocumented. And recently, we’ve been on a time-travel kick with the novels Kindred and The Doomsday Book.
4. Create a buddy program
Last year, A.J. and Justin recognized that our company was fragmented. Our average software engineer knew little about the work of our campaigners — who advise petition starters on how to tell their stories, build and mobilize public support and influence decision makers. Likewise, our average campaigner had a shallow understanding of product development processes.
They started the Impact Buddy program to create stronger relationships across functions, and to expose staff in product development to the meaningful impact our platform has on people’s lives. Not only did the 25+ impact buds (as I like to call them) spend time one-on-one discussing their work, but they also invited one another to sit in on meetings and join new Slack channels for ongoing education.
I’m grateful to my bud A.J. Not only did he teach me about the quintessential role he plays in getting petitions featured in the news, but he also gave me feedback on my designs — which proved invaluable because of his extensive work with petition starters.
3. Substitute group conversations for training videos
Some companies send out required training videos on the issue of unconscious bias. We took a different approach thanks to Senior Software Engineer, Channie Wu.
Well, we still watched videos (this series from Facebook), but we watched them together and held group discussions afterwards. We shared our personal experiences and identified opportunities to tackle each of the unconscious biases.
The experience brought us closer as a team and it led to a number of concrete changes. One pod, for example, introduced a system for alternating who takes notes at meetings because there’s evidence that women are more likely to take on office chores.
2. Dress up
For months, the team wore Hawaiian shirts every Friday. It started with just one team, but it grew organically…with subtle signs of coercion. One of our engineers bought a Hawaiian shirt for our VP of Product, Nick, who decided to keep the shirt at the office so he’d never miss a day.
The traditions ebb and flow. Sometimes we wear silly socks. Sometimes we go formal. But the spirit of dressing up remains constant.
1. Make time for demos
Every Friday we have demos. Anyone can sign up for a seven-minute slot to talk about experiment results, product strategies, code overviews, design, and user research.
We also have a healthy sprinkling of non-work-related demos. So far there have been three separate presentations on emoji, two vacation slideshows, a musical performance, and a live demo of how to use our coffee maker.
Demos help us stay connected as a team and they’re a fun way to usher in the weekend.
Office breakfasts, volunteer trips, stretch breaks, Holi in the park, demos, game nights — they all started the same way. One person wanted to do something (frequently related to food) and, despite busy schedules, people were surprisingly game.
So if you have an idea, or want to steal one of ours, go for it! If you like your coworkers, why wait for the next HR-planned team bonding activity to hang out with friends?
