Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Now here’s a little story I got to tell
about a great joint you know so well
It started way back in history
with Matt-Rock(man), MC Andrew and Paul B

They had a little company that others would fear
Just them, their culture, and a lot of beer
Laying out their hand, rivers of gold be damned
Fairfax must be thinking that they’ve been scammed

One little pink book it be
A bunch of pictures and some copy
The culture’s coming through and it’s really phat
We’ll give it to new dames and new chaps

We’ll tell it how it is and how it was
So all will know it’s not just because

Last week was the fifth (and my second) hackathon at SEEK.

Hackathon 5 had a hip hop, rap, street, graffiti theme and, fittingly, the week opened with a rap battle, where the teams busted out the rhymes in order to promote their ideas and recruit members.

Our Managing Director, Mike Ilczynski, opened the hack by saying: “This is a big investment from the business but we’re really looking forward to seeing what you all create.” I think what he was trying to say was: “Mo money for your skills. Don’t waste my bills.” But, whatever.

A total of 33 teams self-organised to try to create something great in 3 days. As well as the serious work being done, there was a real emphasis on fun. In addition to the rap battle on day 1, we also had a dance off (complete with massive cardboard dance floor) and a bling making competition — if you can’t find any silver foil at the supermarket this week, you know why.

The photographer made it look more graceful than it actually was

One thing that struck me a number of times during the week was that the people who had the most fun and contributed the most to the vibe were the ones who were happy to take the piss out of themselves in order to get a laugh — like the first person to take to the cardboard and show us his terrible moves (with such attitude) or the guy who foiled up a cane, shades, and platter of foil “notes” which he made rain into the crowd. Pimp dawg!

My awesome team worked on the “Little Pink Book”. Inspired by Ben Barry’s Little Red Book, we wanted to create a beautiful book that could be given to new starters so that they could get an impression of the unique culture at SEEK and some of the things that are a bit different to your ordinary company.

I’m in my 12th year (and second stint) at SEEK and there is a large contingent of employees who have been here for more than 10 years so one of the things I hoped to achieve was to give a sense of what it was about this company that led to its employees wanting to stay for such a long time and to come back after they may have left.

Through the course of the hackathon, we trawled through email archives & photo albums and met with dozens of employees — old and new — to extract the essence of SEEK’s culture and distill it down to a set of statements, anecdotes and images that made the finished book.

Take your work seriously, just don’t take yourself too seriously

Work is serious but that doesn’t mean that you have to be or that you can’t have fun. Testament to this; we researched, wrote, designed, published, and printed our book in 3 days while having a great time working with people we wouldn’t ordinarily work with. One of the funniest and most rewarding experiences of my career.

And we clearly weren’t the only ones having fun and doing great things. The work that was displayed in the Hackathon Marketplace on Friday afternoon was creative and innovative. World class. All of the projects focussed on solving real business problems and many of them are ready to ship. Seeing all of the teams dressed up in rap/gangsta threads and presenting their wares — exhausted, but smiling, was a great sight.

How my team didn’t win “The Marketer” award, I’ll never know. Our marketing campaign included video and email endorsements — one genuine, one hacked (So. Much. Laugh.) — from 2 of the 3 founders of SEEK as well as a fresh rhyme to dope beats. But no sour grapes here, just the sweet taste of working with great people, for an inspirational company where we are able to do serious work and have a heap of fun while doing it.

Hackathon 5 was, in my eyes, a roaring success. Maybe that’s because of the emphasis on fun. It could be because the reins were loosened and employees were free to work on things they wanted to work on. Perhaps it’s because each team member was invested in their idea. Regardless, I have to take my bucket hat off to the SEEK leadership team for believing that their people will do the right (and great) things if given the chance.

I hope the investment was repaid in spades. I believe it was.

Props to my crew.

Word.