Our meeting culture is a good example of this
We have a great advantage over other companies: We didn’t have to first create a culture in which everyone dares to say what they think. Why is that?
- Because we are small enough. There are not so many of us (yet), meaning that each responsibility for SAPERED.
- Regardless of whether you are a partner or an employee. We work together on and not only in our company. It’s not a coincidence, it’s an important part of our DNA.
- We love to hear ourselves speak. Some more, some less.
A great prerequisite – which we quite didn’t get the hang of at first.
Our meetings were sometimes chaotic, mostly amusing and rarely productive. So, we worked on ourselves. We have set up simple rules that we consistently integrate into our day-to-day work. Sometimes it hurts, but later, when my colleague declines an appointment for the third time because the purpose, goal or agenda is missing, I am less inflationary with my invitations. No more bullshit meetings.
Need more examples?
We are now discussing our capacities with the help of a pulse board. We only deal with projects that present challenges, bottlenecks, and risks. For further discussions, we hold follow-up appointments with a reduced group of participants. No more blabbering.
So, we have adapted our meeting culture to improve communication in the team. While doing this, we noticed that we were missing something…
The Jeopardy wall as an inspiration for team meetings
Like any other company with flexible office hours, we lack spontaneous interactions with one another. There are simply topics for which there is apparently no space working from home or in the digital meeting room. So, we drew inspiration from Jeopardy to create exactly this space.
We now have our own Jeopardy board where we can place different topics in four categories. For example, if I secure the 3-minute slot in the “teaching learning” category, no other colleague can have it. I can then share my ideas with my colleagues during the next team meeting… and get points for it!
Of course, we gamified the whole thing. Why shouldn’t we apply concepts that we use successfully in our projects internally? We get points assigned depending on the length of our talk (300 points for three minutes, 400 points for four minutes, etc.). Additionally, our colleagues vote on how relevant the last few minutes were for their everyday work. This not only gives the speakers direct feedback, but also extra points.
We can check the score at any time. Whoever is at the top at the end of a cycle wins a prize. However, we still haven’t decided what this prize will be. Any ideas? Let us know in an email!
We are currently running the first test round. We will assess the tool as soon as we have heard the first twelve ideas. We are of course aware that the tool might not be the ultimate answer. If that is the case, we will label our experiment as an “educated failure”. Don’t fret, we’ll definitely keep you posted with our progress!
