The new season was officially launched last Friday when we celebrated our fall kick-off on the beautiful island of Lonna. In addition to some exquisite food, relaxing sauna time and wild dancing, we started off the fun with something a little more profound and significant to our company culture: our redefined values.
There are a couple of words that I use with caution at work. “Strategy” is definitely one of them, followed by “concept” and “prototype”. These words need defining, since they can be understood very differently. “Value” and “values” are up there as well.
Company values are interesting - every company has them, and usually claims to live by them. Even the notorious Enron had the values of communication, respect, integrity and excellence stated on their site. Selecting meaningful values is one thing, but really embodying them is completely another.
We at Frantic have our values stated as well. Would anyone remember them by heart? Probably not. Our shared understanding of what things here at Frantic are generally respected has worked for us thus far. So why change things? It’s easy to share values and common ideals when your company is fairly small in size. But as our company has been growing at a steady pace, the need for clearly expressed values have emerged. I also feel that it’s increasingly important to share what you stand for and believe in as a company.
So after a couple of months of work we are ready to share our values with the world. Our mission is to use our values as a tool for guiding our decision-making, development initiatives and customer interactions. When everybody at Frantic knows what we value and where we are heading to, we can all make better decisions.
So with a lengthy intro, here they are: our four values.
RESPECT
This is our core value: respect towards ourselves, our clients, and the end-user – empathy can only be achieved through respect.
TEAMWORK
Because 1+1 is more than 3. Teamwork to us means working together, by cooperating and by listening to one another, and by being as transparent as possible towards our clients.
CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT
We see curiosity as a driving force for development. We want to develop not just the things we are doing right, but also to go places we’ve not yet been.
PLAYFULNESS
Playfulness is a prerequisite for learning. We need to be constantly striving to try out new things to learn and develop. Oh, and not to forget: work should also be fun!
With our values we are on our way of becoming a company driven by values. As the world changes ever so rapidly we need anchors that bring us stability, some predictability and a common platform to grow upon. Becoming more values-driven is also about transparency: there is no need to hide what we stand for.
But first we have to get more familiar with our updated values and learn how to make the best of them. I’m more than confident that when working together, respecting each other’s views, and curiously finding new ways and meanings, we are going to have fun on this journey led by values.
Our strategy director Michael will be posting about our values process next week and he will also share a nifty technique for making your values actionable.
