5. What’s Axelerant? (Warning: Shameless Plug)
We’re a fully-distributed integrated global delivery partner, helping to create digital
experiences with agency affiliates.
80+ Team Members | Five Countries
6. Everyone is so
image obsessed
and afraid.
Keep your cards close
Don’t take any risks
Keep your mouth shut
Spin, optics, smoke, mirrors
This is all crap.
13. Some examples.
● Transparent salaries
● Weekly open surveys
● Bimonthly announcements
● Public & unreserved Q&A
● Open door policy
● Diversity and Inclusion
● No ivory towers
14. Where did this come from?
Customers, employees will not put up any longer with anything false
The internet encourages, forces transparency
Millennials value transparency above all
Ray Dalio,
Bridgewater
James M. Whitehurst,
Red Hat
Joel Gascoigne,
Buffer
Some radical leaders.
15. But it’s challenging.
● There will be good days & bad days
● Humbling that can hurt pride—needs
courage & vulnerability
● Takes commitment to create culture
safe enough for this behavior
● You have to really make it a priority—
dedicate time, recommit to it often,
demonstrate to people that it is okay
to speak up
17. ● Builds team trust in both good &
bad times
● Individuals and leadership hold
themselves accountable
● Allows the right people to join
team and partner
● Better conflict resolution,
problem solving
● Greater commitment to goals and
higher motivation
● More informed, more context,
less guesswork
18. Openness as one of our values.
- Systemic encouragement of transparency
- Public highlighting and reinforcing what we want to see more of
- Compensation: Open finances/salaries
- Open lines of communication with leadership
- Open Source ethos of transparency, peer production and collaboration
- Shared documentation: Handbook, collaborative docs
- Flexibility of working from any place, any time, your way
This is how we do it (and how you can, too).
19. This is how we do it (and how you can, too).
Communications, Tools and Frameworks
- Organisational alignment via V2MOM
- Communication tools like Slack, Zoom, Jira etc.
- Officevibe surveys, reporting, weekly
- 7geese: openness rewarded ( OKRs, 360 feedback, OneOnOnes )
- Public channels, failures & successes via #lessons-learned
- Announcements across all areas: Operations, Sales, Marketing, etc.
- People centric programs like Lifecoaching, Personal Triumph, Mentorship program, Happy
Hours etc..
20. ● Isolation
● It can cause resentment
○ Pay scale, performance jealousy
○ Public let go’s, reasons known
● Decisions open to multidirectional
challenges
○ Doubt, argument, disagreement
○ Takes time to answer questions
● With great power comes great
responsibility
○ How much should you share?
○ Clear boundaries, psych safety
Negative consequences &
management
21. ● It’s the right thing to do
● It’s the best way to bring issues to the
fore early
● Without transparency, expect
unexpectedness
○ problems don’t come to the surface
○ operations failure
○ higher attrition
○ hampered growth
In spite of it all, why is it worth it?
28. Remote: Office
Not Required
Jason Fried
Recommended readings
The OPEN
ORGANIZATION
Jim Whitehurst
Blogs and Podcasts
DRIVE
Daniel H. Pink
Yonder, Buffer, Signal vs Noice, Bridgewater, Open, Bridgewater, Nomad city
and more...