For mission-driven, self-funded, high-growth organizations, it’s common to see a small group of passionate individuals wearing multiple hats. Over time, by working together constantly, the organization can transform unintentionally into somewhat siloed departments with a more hierarchical decision-making structure.
A mission to re-integrate siloed teams
- Turning our leaders into coaches through training and experience
- Intentionally building grassroots teams to build and maintain the culture from the front lines and building new leaders in the process
- Truly listening to the human beings that pour their hearts into our business and giving them a voice and the responsibility that comes with it
- Turning learning and development on its head by focusing on developing the individuals first and focusing on skills second
A focus on developing a Happy(8)Hours culture
- Human beings respect, care about, support, and challenge each other
- The human spirit is awake, creative, and free
- Human resilience is cultivated and nurtured
- Human connection and authenticity are encouraged
- Human potential is stretched and realized
- Human diversity of being and thought is celebrated
- Human performance is maximized and multiplied through collaboration and teamwork
- Human beings are contributing to something bigger than themselves, together
In a Happy(8)Hours culture, work doesn’t have to suck. It’s not always happy in terms of pleasant and feeling good, but it’s happy in the way of being a place where you feel the joy of striving to reach your potential.
Happy(8)Hours culture success
The successes we see as a result are a company where everyone drives the culture (not just leaders), internal promotions are primary and frequent, decisions are made all over the organization, and amazing organizational growth in reach, revenue, and impact.
Key setbacks and challenges
- We thought that the early culture would carry itself through, without much work. With growth, hierarchy and centralized decision making will happen unless you intentionally lead the organization in a different direction.
- We have learned, sometimes the hard way, that not all people are built for an environment that changes in big ways fairly frequently.
- Some folks want leaders to own the full responsibility for the culture, their happiness, and their growth. We expect them to own their part. This has caused some growing pains
- Shifting from a professional services company to a product/technology + human services company challenged our communication, trust, engagement and service.
Key lessons
What we know now that we wish we knew then.
- Generating and maintaining energy and growing a culture must be done with intention and focused effort.
- Choosing the right people for the right reasons matters greatly. It is better to not hire that brilliant person that does not align with your company values.
- Sometimes it is better to help people leave than it is to help them stay.
- An organization has an archetype that has just as much power as the individuals. Learning to work with that understanding instead of against it opens up possibilities.
What’s next
- We have built our own technology to enable the capabilities to partner with and collaborate with organizations wanting to maximize the potential of their own teams and the customers that they serve. We are beginning to serve global populations and are shifting solely from a customized experience for the organization to a personalized experience for the individual, supporting them in identifying what matters most and accomplishing what is important to them. This serves both the organization and the individual.
- While we aren’t moving fully back to a flat organization, we are putting intentional efforts into leadership at all “levels” and collaboration across all functions.
- Growth. Focusing on supporting the growth of our team and ourselves is the driver for the growth of our company and the positive impact on our customers.
About Dr. Toni Best
Dr. Toni Best is the Chief Human Performance Officer and founder at Aduro, the human performance company that promotes well-being, health and performance in corporate workplaces. She holds a B.S. in Human Biology and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree and is a Certified Intrinsic Coach and Valuation Specialist with more than 20 years of teaching, coaching, and workplace culture development experience. Toni supports human performance program development, transformative habit change, leadership training and talent development, and company culture initiatives at Aduro, focusing on enlivening the workplace and maximizing individual and team potential and performance.
About Aduro
Aduro maximizes Human Performance for individuals, and overall effectiveness for organizations, through intrinsically driven lifestyle, performance and prevention programs. Serving hundreds of leading organizations and more than one million unique users, Aduro (Latin for “ignite”) inspires individuals to create positive change through proven assessments and screenings, culturally aligned content and personalized intrinsic coaching accessed via our advanced mobile platform.