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From Grind Culture to Joy Culture

August 30, 2022

What does it mean to build a work culture that lives out our values of intention, care, and partnership?

Thanks to the innovative coaching of our People + Culture Lead Isabel Scher, we are striving to answer this question day-by-day through imagination, experimentation, and of course, play.

A huge part of building this culture is making sure that each member of the team feels connected both to their teammates and the work that they are doing individually. While we incorporate games, check-ins, and presence building into our virtual meetings each week, we also know firsthand the difficulty of finding true connection through a Zoom screen. That’s why twice a year, we make a point to come together at an in-person offsite, where we take time to be together and align ourselves on goals and strategy for the upcoming season.

We’re just coming off the tails of our second 2022 offsite, and while it may seem counterintuitive to spend a week focused on culture-building in the middle of one of our biggest campaigns of the year, it made all the difference for our team.

We believe that our best work happens when we are our best selves, and productivity and employee wellbeing cannot, and must not, be mutually exclusive.

And according to this article from the Harvard Business Review, we’re not the only ones: research shows that employee wellbeing actually drives productivity, not the other way around. Although employers often throw material perks to employees as a means of increasing wellbeing, studies also found that true employee “wellbeing comes from one place, and one place only — a positive culture.” Rather than hoping this culture will passively develop, we are taking steps each day to actively create and define it… even if it means slowing down every now and then.

At the end of the day, building a joyful, connected work culture allows us to more fully invest in supporting children and our nonprofit and company partners. Our back-to-school campaign closes in just a few days, and we are harnessing the energy we gained from our team offsite to close this campaign out strong. Help us support as many children as possible with the tools they need to thrive by giving today.

For next steps and ideas on how to proactively build a positive culture, read HBR’s take on foundational principles or learn from our very own Isabel Scher by visiting https://teamjoy.substack.com/ today.