How we work at Goji
At Goji we believe investments should improve society and be available to everyone. To this end we’re building platform technology that solve the core problems to help investment managers invest into critical sectors for the UK’s growth (property, renewables, SMEs).
We want Goji to be a place where we can all thrive and do our best work. In this article we describe how we try and do that.
Do something meaningful
What does it take for a company to be a place where people can do their best work? We think the research is pretty clear (watch this video) that everyone wants to do work that is meaningful, have autonomy in the way they tackle this work, be able to improve in a skill and be fairly rewarded (financially and otherwise) for it.
This is hard to get right but these are the guiding lights we use when trying to build our culture. Fundamental to this is to treat people as adults (watch Patty McCord on this). We need to set clear direction as a company and then get out of the way and let people get on with it.
Team first
A company succeeds for a number of reasons and one of the key factors is the ability for the organisation to work well as a team of teams. Hiring amazing people is important, but doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, relying on superstars can be detrimental. Research has shown that the most important factor that determines how well a team works when set an intellectually demanding challenge, is the empathy of the team members. This is far more important that having a few start performers or even the average IQ of the team. (If you want to ‘measure’ your empath, check out the mind in the eye test!)
This finding agrees with the research conducted by Google as part of Project Aristotle which concluded that the sense of ‘psychological safety’ led to higher performing teams more than individual skills or personality types.
At Goji we believe this culture is created by focussing on:
- Listening well. Suspending your own judgement until you deeply understand the other’s point of view.
- Curiosity. Why do others have a different view to yours? What biases are leading you to draw that conclusion? What other ways are there to solve this problem?
- Pose problems, not solutions. Give a team a problem to solve rather than a solution to implement and this will draw out the inherent creativity in a team.
- Not all problems are team problems. Know when to have a team discussion and when to allow people to wrestle with the issue by themselves.
- Model vulnerability. This doesn’t mean over sharing your deepest thoughts — it means leaders are happy to say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I got it wrong’. It doesn’t mean you expect others to prop you up emotionally but it does mean you feel safe to ask for help and look to others for input.
Alignment
For a team to function well, they need to understand what problem they should be solving and why. At Goji we do this by setting quarterly company and team objectives. The company objectives set out what the leadership believe needs to be focussed on over the next quarter. This is open to challenge and debate from everyone in the company.
Teams then set their own quarterly objectives that detail what they need to do in order to contribute to the corporate objectives. Teams also set objectives based on other work they know needs to be done eg in response to regulatory changes, customer feedback or other general improvements.
We also hold fortnightly All Hands meetings where updates can be shared and any question can be asked.
Feedback
Giving and receiving honest, accurate, respectful feedback — both positive and areas to grow — is one of the most impactful ways to create a culture where people can grow and they feel safe.
When done well, feedback means you always know where you are and helps your confidence to grow. Too many companies rely on annual performance appraisals to provide feedback. The downside of this approach is that it is often one-way (manager to employee) and too infrequent (the feedback can be out of date or imprecise).
At Goji we want feedback to happen ‘in the moment’. If you see someone doing great work, tell them. If someone needs to improve on something, grab a coffee with them and tell them. Be specific, not vague. Believe the best of them. Have the courage to do it and not put it off.
In addition to this day-to-day feedback, we have regular one-to-ones with our managers and also do ‘team feedback’ sessions where a whole team will sit down together and provide feedback to each other. This has been a surprisingly powerful way to build team cohesion.
Have fun
We spend 40+ hours together each week so let’s make sure we have fun together! Our beer fridge gets opened every Friday afternoon and we have lunch together every fortnight during our All Hands meetings. We go out for the evening once a month and we’re pretty active together — we have a gym onsite and have entered a number of running races as a company.
Interested?
If you think Goji is a place you could thrive and bring your best, check out our open positions:
