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Over the past year, Thinker has been in a growth spurt. We\u2019ve added employees to add more services, building on our core competencies. And we\u2019ve moved into a larger building to accommodate the extra talent and to showcase ourselves better.<\/p>\n
All the changes have led to conversations, some awkward, on the best ways to interact with each other as the company grows. The conversations are necessary because, as we grow, we don\u2019t want to lose the company culture that Thinker was founded on.<\/p>\n
Culture is paramount. It trumps nearly everything else. It\u2019s also a word with a broad meaning. Culture is the intangible energy that determines whether people are happy, motivated, kind to each other, truthful, bounce back from failure \u2026 all the words that we judge people by. Hard to describe? Yep. Here\u2019s a clinical definition of culture<\/a>: \u201cThe arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n WHAAAT?<\/p>\n Culture is what comes to mind when we say something like \u201cit\u2019s who we are.\u201d At that moment, you are your culture, your culture is you.<\/p>\n At that moment.<\/p>\n The United States, the great melting pot, is a conglomeration of cultures mixed together. Each has its own holidays, its own framework for discussions, its own working out of emotions, its own beliefs. And yet, some common element keeps it all together \u2013 values deeper than the disparate cultures.<\/p>\n Companies are the same. Common goals, common values that form the reason we all stay here, working together, enjoying what we do and whom we do it with. On top of that are the individual cultures that each person brings.<\/p>\n At Thinker, we share a few common values. Everyone brought into the Thinker organization is greeted with a document explaining exactly what is meant by each. On those values are built the \u201cdo\u2019s and don\u2019ts\u201d of the organization. The minutia.<\/p>\n Here are our values:<\/p>\n Why those? Because they are foundational, everyone knows what they are, and they build on one another.<\/p>\n The closing remarks from our Welcome document put it well:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we agree to be honest, respect one another, encourage one another and to be excellent, a dynamic team of individuals will achieve more than the sum of its parts. It will be a pleasure to work together, and we will achieve great things. I want to be that team, and I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve joined me in that pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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