Why our people enjoy our employee meeting
Meetings are an indispensable part of everyday work and something we should attend and be a part of. To make it clear, no meeting at Mindnow is mandatory, but our colleagues are liable and serious regarding their responsibilities. In this blog article, you’ll find out how we manage to make more than 50 people look forward to our monthly employee meetings.
Working at Mindnow is an experience full of challenges, great people, exciting projects, and the ability to have free hands to make decisions on our own. We don’t work by strict rules we blindly follow. Instead, we give suggestions, share thoughts, and bring off a creative working atmosphere − in our everyday work as well as in our meetings. Attending a meeting doesn’t mean only listening but also adding a different perspective, contributing, and being active.
We work with the Scrum framework and the usual ceremonies like stand-up meetings are part of every week's duties. In addition to what's happening within our Scrum teams, there is one meeting that is very particular: We call it “Mindmeeting” and it’s open to everyone in the company.
How our mindmeeting is structured
The mindmeeting takes place once a month and is one of our employees’ favorite meetings. How do I know that? Because as mindnow’s HR manager I check the comments, I read the feedback and I hear the reactions. If someone can’t attend it, they ask to record it so they don’t miss anything important. Indeed, people are interested in the news and discussions happening in our employee meetings, even though they usually last up to an hour and a half.
The exact topics usually contain a little surprise factor, but overall our mindmeeting consists of fixed parts:
1 – Project insights by the CEO
In the first part of the mindmeeting, our CEO gives insights into our new and ongoing projects. He talks about the opportunities and successes of the company. We hear what’s new, the current status, and what we can expect in the future. This is helping us in making plans, reorganizing, and having a better structure. We like to see where the company's vision and ideas are leading us.
2 – Culture & team
In each mindmeeting, we have a different topic, mostly about the culture and non-technical aspects of the team. That can be internal communication, taking holidays, new benefits, or how to take ownership at work. These topics are carefully chosen based on the feedback that we are getting from our teammates. We try to address every concern, every possible problem, or give our point of view on a past situation.
Also, we regularly add new topics. One of these new topics is called “Lesson learned”, where each time a different colleague presents a project where they worked with their team. The person talks about what they did, where the issue was, and how they solved it. The aim is to help others not to repeat the same mistakes once they face a similar obstacle.
3 – Local news
The third part is news from the different countries where our teams are located. We have a presenter from each office who shares some team photos or sometimes private photos (whoever wants to share them), whose birthday or anniversary we celebrated, and if something worth mentioning happened in their country.
In this part of the meeting, we also introduce new employees and give them the chance to say a few words about themselves.
4 – Core Value Awards
As a cherry on top, at the very end, we announce our Core Value Award Winner. The winner is determined through a survey where colleagues can nominate and vote for someone who is a hard-working, responsible teammate, and someone who cares.
It is completely optional whether you want to attend this meeting or not, and if you're going to talk and share some private information. However, our teammates enjoy being part of it and growing together, so they usually attend the mindmeeting despite not being obliged to do so.
Transparency is one of our main pillars
Besides all the good news we share, there are, of course, things that are not that great. Just like at every other company, people might leave, we might not get the client we wanted, or people might experience critical situations. The point of the mindmeeting is to be transparent and inform our colleagues about what's going on − the good and the bad.
From the mindmeeting with the whole company to the 1:1 meeting and from the Junior to the upper management: We are encouraged to share our mistakes. It is an essential part of creating a connection between each other and building trust. It shows that you are never alone because there is always somebody who backs you up. That is the beauty of being one of us.
