Team Culture: Our Path Made in Space of 10 Years
What comes to your mind when you hear about “the team culture”? Some people claim that team culture is a set of values and rules the team follows inside the company. However, this concept is more than just an agreeable pastime in the office. Culture is about interaction and achieving common goals. It affects strategic decision-making, employee-to-employee dialogue, communication with customers, and so on. This is what helps the team to be a whole.
Whatever the case, team culture is not about free cookies, group travels, and watching a movie with your team after a hard-working day. It is about a similar vision, a common mission, mutual trust, and respect.
We will not talk about all companies and their path, or give long lectures on what corporate culture is. We will not tell you how to apply to your company. Team culture is what has been forming for many years. And today we want to share our experience — our values, that have been helping us to be leaders on the market and know our own worth for people in the space of 10 years.
And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.”
— Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO/Founder
Our company started out as a team of 2 developers. At that time, we already had two things — a common idea of business and a joint vision of what we want to achieve as an outcome.
These were two things that helped us understand the meaning and intended purpose of what we do. We wanted to create a valuable product that gives people the opportunity to be productive, communicate despite the distance, understand customers’ needs better, and achieve goals.
This rule is still with us. It helps us stay a family despite the fact that the team has become much larger, easily identify “our people” when hiring, adapt to new changes, and do our work qualitatively because we know what goals we strive for.
Do you know what makes a lot of companies successful? — It’s that simple: these are the people. As a team leader, you should be interested not only in the experience and knowledge your employees can share but also in their personal qualities. If there is no respect inside the team and you don’t know whom to trust, then, it will not help matters, reduce motivation, and separate all employees.
Our team members are always open to each other. Sometimes, the best way to solve an issue is to talk about it. In turn, it speeds up the decision-making process and helps to find an answer to a lot of questions we are looking for.
For us, team culture is about responsibility too. We are not afraid of issues, we solve them and interpret as a challenge promoting self-development and growth. We look at each challenge as a way to learn something new and gain valuable experience.
After all, inconvenience and indeterminacy, challenges entail, are always an opportunity to push your way out of the comfort zone and unlock the potential. The same is with conflicts. Disagreements affect changes in any business. No argues — no changes and no way around it. If you want your team to grow you need to learn how to solve them. This is what expands your consciousness, broad horizons and makes you think differently.
Humor is our strategy too. It connects people, increases loyalty, and makes the working environment more pleasant and productive. We joke and feel unity. This is another principle of our culture.
The birth of corporate culture is not a copy of the universal ethical rules. It is not a desire to be perfect. This is about how the team thinks, makes decisions and treats each other. That’s what turns several people into a team of like-minded persons who are ready to act here and now.
