If you build it, they will come
It seems like every company that has ever existed likes to talk about culture in companies and more specifically about their culture. Make no mistake, this is a post about company culture so if that’s something that you’d rather not read right now, maybe give this one a miss.
This is however maybe a bit of a different post about company culture. Most companies like to talk about how they grew the culture and what already exist — we (Studio Zero) are merely newborns and are only just two people currently — but we think it’s important to start thinking about what defines us now and going forward so that we will always be able to talk to anyone at anytime about us as a company and who we are.
We started with some core values. We’ve both worked at companies that have had great core values and for ones that don’t have any. What we’ve learnt is that core values allow culture to grow and define who you are. Core values give you foundations when deciding on which projects and which clients you’re going to work with, they give you pillars to lean on when making decisions that effect the company and give you goals to aim for. The core values should be able to help both the business and employees and we decided early on when discussion what ours might that when we hire new people they might want to add or evolve our core values.
Core values sometimes sound like a bit of business-wank, but when you work somewhere where there aren’t any, you end up working at a place that has no real culture and becomes just another job — and that might be fine for some places — but we want to build a company where people WANT to work. We don’t want an unbalanced work/life scenario, we don’t have ulterior motives other than to build a happy place to work. Most of us have to work and earn money to survive and provide, it one of those unfortunate circumstances that come along with being human, but I’ve worked in too many places that I’ve not been happy in (I have also worked in places that I have been happy in) and I know a happy company will produce great work purely as a byproduct.
One of the things we definitely don’t want to do is have forced culture. Organised company events will happen, but they wont be made to feel mandatory and the company as a whole will decide what they want them to be.
Eventually we’d like to create a space where creativity blossoms. This isn’t just bean-bags and ping-pong tables. The space will be a collaborative space. Art in all its forms should be thrown up on the walls. Power tools, metal working and Photography will fuel us for our work with clients.
Our culture will grow from the people who we work with and evolve over time. Annual company trips to Disneyland, Company Lunch Thursdays and Karaoke Fridays are all things we’d love to be part of our culture, but it could be anything in-between. Good culture will come from happiness and Great work will come from good culture.
Oh, and every Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Friday.
