Risk & Business Magazine Gifford Associates Fall 2017 | Page 15

TEAM CULTURE

“ Technology will merely amplify whatever habits you already have .”

of the company . When an issue arises internally or with a client ’ s task , we follow a “ Five Whys ” method where you state the problem on a form we ’ ve created , than ask yourself “ Why ?” and again four more times until you arrive at a solution . It ’ s incredibly powerful and empowering .
Technology will merely amplify whatever habits you already have . If you have good habits , technology can help magnify your results and if you have bad habits , technology will usually just get you to the wrong place faster . We use technology effectively to further the impact of our human powered team culture . These are some of the tools we ’ ve used to get our people charged up .
SLACK Many of your know Slack and probably use it to communicate with your teams . We adopted Slack as THE means of internal , written communication . Emails were never exchanged between team members , which meant that public discussions included everyone and were kept efficient through the designation of topical channels . It democratized our interactions and kept our flat hierarchy … flat . The first Slack integration we ever used was GIPHY , which allows you to type a phrase like “ you go girl ” and an “ appropriate ” animated GIF would post in the channel . It made people comfortable , it made them laugh , it got their focus .
ZOOM Zoom . us has been our video conferencing platform of choice since we started and we began weekly huddles with the whole team almost immediately . Being able to have live video chat really helped us get to know each other and connect in a way that you couldn ’ t through text based messages alone . If a team member couldn ’ t make the live huddle , the recording was made available so they could watch it later and respond at their convenience .
ROGER / FIKA These two apps were indispensable . One of Ari ’ s personal constraints was that he has four children and at the time we started the company , was only working three days per week so he could be with them the rest of the time . Roger made it so that we could still get things done . As a “ walkie talkie ” app , one of us could record a two minute brainstorming session to send to the other and hours later , when we had a few minutes , we could listen , digest it , and respond . Eventually we would use Roger to send messages to groups and even hosted some asynchronous meetings with it . The team behind Roger would eventually release Fika , a video version of Roger that added the ability to share images or webpage while talking . Not only did this add clarity to any messages we would exchange , it made it really easy to make impromptu , video announcements to the whole team . That made us very accessible to the team so we could support them and they could work with us rather than for us .
OFFICEVIBE This Slack bot would survey the team each week with questions like “ How likely would you be to recommend working for Leverage ?” or “ How supported do you feel in your work ?” The resulting survey told us that we were doing really well but there were three areas that needed improvement . First , the team felt like they were getting good praise and recognition but the feedback wasn ’ t specific enough . Second , they felt a disconnect with their teammates . Finally , there was a lack of alignment with our core values .
GROWBOT This Slack bot allows team members to give “ props ” to other team members and it keeps score of how many points you had earned . Now we started getting very specific as to why someone was being recognized for good work . In addition we give weekly bonuses to the best performing teammate and until this point we would just read off the names . Now we spend some time explaining exactly why a particular person earned the bonus .
DONUT Another Slack bot that pings two random members of the team every Monday and basically suggests a coffee date so they can get to know each other . Now that could mean an actual get together for coffee if geography allowed for that , or a quick one on one video chat .
MANIFESTO This was one of the most challenging . The surveys said there was a lack of alignment with the core values of the company and the truth was that we didn ’ t have any defined on paper . It didn ’ t take long to get the inspiration to write a document that lays out the exact culture we have and want to maintain at Leverage . This serves as a way of setting the bar for new hires and providing guidance to our veterans . +
Ari Meisel ’ s story starts in 2006 , when some unexpected news derailed his booming real estate career : Crohn ’ s Disease : A highlydebilitating digestive ailment , Crohn ’ s barred Ari from leading a normal life . He lost weight , energy , and the ability to work with regularity — in fact , there were times he could only work for 60 minutes a day .
With a blossoming business to run , Ari knew an hour per day was unacceptable . Against the advice of doctors and loved-ones , Ari embarked upon an extraordinarily painful journey to cure what medical textbooks consider an incurable disease .
Through excruciating amounts of trial and error , Ari not only regained control of his life but beat this seemingly unbeatable disease — and is now symptom-free .
Less Doing , More Living and Leverage Virtual Assistants are the result of Ari ’ s amazing journey back to health , happiness , and well-being .
Ari lives in New York City , where he spends every ounce of free time with his loving wife , Anna , and four fantastic kids — Benjamin , Lucas , Sébastien , and little Chloe .
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