Like most companies, we’ve spent a good amount of energy defining our vision, mission, and values (or “VMV”) at Remind. As we’ve evolved our goals and priorities over the last few years, these core tenants have helped spawn an important framing for how we think about our work in education — something we talk about at the company as “One Team, Two Goals” or #OTTG.
These two important cultural elements — VMV and #OTTG — provide crucial foundations for our company culture and how we collaborate and work together on behalf of teachers, students, parents, and administrators across the K-12 and higher education spectrum. At the same time, VMV and #OTTG help spawn a number of other ways we can describe and talk about our work together. Here are ten that I personally like and believe are worth sharing:
1. One team, two goals is what matters above all else — everything we do should align with this framework
As a company this has become a powerful way we bring everything together. No matter where you work at Remind, you’re an equal and important contributor to our “one team”. By extension, the concept of “two goals” creates simplifying clarity for team members that inspires and focuses our efforts. Our first goal is anchored around the “impact” that we strive to achieve in support of students, teachers, parents, and administrators; and the second goal defines the business objective of “revenue growth” that serves as a proxy for how we progress towards a reality in which Remind is able to perpetually exist as a sustainable platform supporting education across K-12 and higher education.
2. Live our vision, mission, and core values
A friendly reminder shared in context — for example in a cross-functional team meeting — helps reconnect us to this important foundational layer at Remind. What’s so powerful about referring back to our VMV is how these layers can also be augmented and customized to the work happening in specific departments. For example, our engineering or customer success teams will each create their own examples for “Find a way” and “Create simplicity for others”, as well as for our vision “To give every student an opportunity to succeed.”
3. Work hard — value #4!
Nothing replaces work ethic. I’ve written about this as a company’s value number “N+1”, meaning that no matter how many core values your company defines, the idea of working hard becomes, de facto, one last value that wraps around all the others.
4. Be here and be present every day
We all have so much going on in our personal lives. At the same time, we’re all subject to an ever growing flow of content and information via our mobile devices that pulls our most scarce resource — attention— away from our most important work. Reminding ourselves to be present and focused on the work we are doing (and being compensated to do) is critical if we expect to deliver the results connected to our #OTTG.
5. Time is short — execute with energy, enthusiasm, and a sense of urgency
This one’s related to #4, think of it as another way to frame it for everyone. In life we all get just a few opportunities to be a part of something special. Perhaps it’s the benefit of being a bit “older”, but I tell team members that the last thing you want to ever do in life is look back and regret that you didn’t do everything you could to make something as successful as it otherwise could have become.
6. Commit to hold yourself and your teammates to the highest standard of excellence
We owe excellence to ourselves, to our colleagues, to our investors, and most importantly to the users and customers we serve. Highlighting instances where we could have done better — or situations in which we outright failed — shouldn’t be taken as offensive, it should be seen as supportive. Be sure to create an environment where doing your best work is the expectation, not the exception. And if you need help with some ideas of how to approach discussions when this standard isn’t being met, check out “Crucial Conversations” for a framework that might help everyone come together on this front.
7. Build every product, process, and relationship as a strong foundation for our future — don’t build flimsy
This one came from our product and engineering team leaders, and I love it. It’s neatly connected to #6, but goes a bit deeper and more specific to the component parts (product, process, and relationships) that ultimately support the intertwined fabric that supports a company’s success. And I just love the last phrase “don’t build flimsy” — it provides such a powerful visual for the standards we must set here!
8. Making Remind successful comes first
This one reaffirms the “one team” ethos embedded in #OTTG. Granted, in today’s “look at me” social media-driven culture, the importance and value of contributing to team success can often feel secondary to one’s desire to optimize personal outcomes. The reality, however, is that so much of what we build in the form of personal identity comes from the teams we’re a part of, and how successful these teams are as measured by the impact they impart on their industry — and the sustainability they’re able to achieve in delivering this impact. In the long run, it’s truly the case that “we first” > “me first”.
9. Communicate clearly and candidly with each other in an honest and non-confrontational way
Yes, this one is so much easier said than done. Increasingly the norm in society is to retreat to polarizing positions, to define your perspective, dig in, and hold on tightly to your desire to “be right”. With this approach we all lose. Teams lose. Team members lose. Our users and customers lose. And, our ability to achieve our “two goals” fades away, slowly but surely. However, if we’re able to raise our line of sight to focus on team goals, make it about “we and us” versus about “me and I”, then we can create communication channels that take us in the right direction. Again, if you or your company need some formal help in creating this environment, bring “Crucial Conversations” into the picture.
10. Not every decision will be agreed with 100%; yet every decision must be supported 100%
For many of us this is one of the hardest concepts to grasp, or at least support. It goes back to some of the themes above. If it’s about “me” then I’ll push for what I believe must be done and if that view doesn’t align with what the broader team decisions are, then I’ll stay silent. I’ll pretend like I’m on board even when I’m not and I’ll step away from all of the points above. Conversely, when I take the view that it’s always about “we” then I contribute my expertise and perspective with the rest of the team. And regardless of the decision or direction the team selects, I lean in with 100% support — even if that wasn’t the decision or direction I advocated. This dynamic is crucial for team success as well as for a team member’s personal and professional growth. Fortunatley, it’s easy to spot when teams and their team members operate in this way…and when they don’t.
I’m sure there are many other elements beyond the 10 highlighted above that we speak to and reference at Remind. Likewise, I suspect that folks at other organizations have many other novel themes they use to similarly help define how their team’s work together. I encourage you to think about other elements like those listed above (or use those listed above!), and apply them in a way that works best for your company or non-profit’s culture. Most importantly, invest the time in crafting at a minimum your VMV and a short list of supporting elements that all of you can come back to over and over as you progress on your unique #OTTG journey.
Originally published on Medium on November 5, 2018. This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.