Tradition is a big part of a corporate culture. I agree with Kinger AKA Brendan King that culture can not be dictated and that it should form naturally. This is why we need to recognize and cherish traditions which bond people in so many ways. Tradition can be corky, fun or funny and initially without much meaning. However when a simple act is shared in a social setting, it becomes a very hard bond. We are young but we already have few traditions that sneaked up on us. For example every new employee gets to build (assemble) her/his own chair. Simple thing but ask anyone at VendAsta an you will find out how proud they are of their own chair. Another tradition is a very strict time for a Scrum meeting at 9:15 am. As strange as it may be, the start of a meeting is a tradition for us because this is the only strict time line that we have. Everything else is flexible and is left to team members to decide what works for them. Amazingly the pace at which we pump out quality and innovative software is incredible which quickly becomes a tradition on its own. I must say that a very enjoyable tradition is our bxxr fridge that opens every Friday at 3:00pm. This is also a great time for all sorts of demos of our achievements from the past week. Last but not least is a tradition which involves all of our family, friends and business partners. Every Friday at 4:00pm we have VendAsta Open House where everybody socialize and dream up ideas for the future. If you don't believe me when I say we pump out quality and innovative software, you don't need to take my word for it. Come and join us on Fridays for a cold beverage from our fridge and ask anyone what are we all about. We are pretty transparent here.
Some traditions come and go and others stay forever. What is important that our traditions are building blocks of our culture. They come form my very innovative colleagues so you can be sure there are many more to come.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tradition
Posted by Allan Wolinski at 12:34 AM 1 comments
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