Each month, at Naimuri, we’re celebrating and exploring one of our company values; May was Collaboration month. Here’s a round-up of what happened:
Insights
Two great insights were published in keeping with the theme of collaboration:
Podcast
We recorded a podcast featuring our 5 company directors in which many aspects of collaboration were explored. It’s pretty concise and very interesting, with only a hint of football!
Training/Games
We held training sessions where teams of 4-5 people took on 2 tasks – the helium stick and the spaghetti tower. There were a few disagreements, some great problem solving and many broken towers! Overall, it was well received and hopefully we all learnt more about effective teamwork, being Agile and the need for testing.
Pub Quiz
A real pub quiz was held at Naimuri HQ. There was lots of pizza provided, so as expected, it was very well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! Bragging rights and chocolate were on offer to the winners.
Value of the Month Award
Everyone at Naimuri was given the opportunity to nominate a colleague for the Value of the Month Award. A whole host of nominations were received from across the company and it was great to see people giving recognition and appreciating each other’s work. Rightfully so, the nominees were made aware of their recognition. Well done to everyone who was nominated – A* collaborators! Special congratulations go to Jonathan R. who was the very well deserved winner of the award.
Social
To end a great month of Collaboration, we had an in-office social. There were snacks, drinks and games, consisting of: music bingo, mini quiz, pictionary, paper aeroplane building, and tea bag throwing. Everybody had a laugh – there’s something special about seeing adults excited to throw paper planes and tea bags.
What We Learned…
We’re Very Good at Collaboration
Looking deeper at ourselves has highlighted that, as a company, we’re actually really great at collaborating. We do it every day with our colleagues and customers successfully, so we will definitely continue to do the things that we’re already doing well.
We Can Always Get Better
As good as we are, there are always improvements that can be made – in behaviours, environment, and tools. Some great suggestions came out of our recent Kanban Lean Coffee session. The first of these to be actioned are:
- We now have a Meeting Owl to help improve collaboration with our customers and remote teams.
- The ‘Naimuri Hub’ (company intranet) is in development and, once rolled out, will aid internal communications and collaboration.
We’re All Impostors
Discussions during the month highlighted a phenomenon that pretty much everyone suffers from at some point; this is called impostor syndrome and can be a barrier to collaboration. If you suffer from it, remember you’re not expected to have all the answers. Have courage and ask for help. If you think someone else might be suffering from it, try to be non-judgemental and offer help and reassurance wherever possible.
There Are a Lot of Great Unsung Collaborators
When asked “who are the best collaborators?”, you might initially think of the ‘louder’, more outspoken people. One thing that the award nominations and collaborative events have highlighted is, although they might not be as vocal, many of the ‘quieter’ people in Naimuri are just as willing and just as good at collaborating. It’s easy not to see it if you don’t work alongside those people day-to-day, but overall all of our people are great collaborators.
During June we’ll be focussing on another of our company values: Integrity, so keep a look out for updates on what we’re getting up to.
