A summer office after a pandemic – what did we do? – Board of Innovation

Company growth sometimes comes at the expense of maintaining a strong company culture and hiring the right people. Because of our focus on hiring for cultural fit, we have managed to overcome this challenge, and there seems to be a common theme about your average BOI’er: they are good-hearted people with no ego and a genuine interest in each other.

The verdict is out: real-life beats any type of digital bonding and meeting.

As a global firm, our people are based all over the world. As we grow, it naturally gets more difficult to know each individual in the company; not only knowing them personally, but knowing what they do in the company and what their strengths are. Asking someone for help or input, whom you’ve never met before, can be challenging, and can be a barrier for collaboration. 

But we want to leverage our global network of employees, to strengthen our culture and challenge our way of working. Having a yearly dedicated week, where we bring our globetrotters together gives us the opportunity to strengthen our internal networks and facilitate collaboration.

Seeing each other in person and having non-work-related chats helps to establish a relationship, which lowers the barrier for collaboration and communication in the ‘normal’ digital setting when working with teams that are based in different parts of the world.

We still have a lot to learn on creating an inclusive and diverse workplace and culture, balancing opinions and views from nearly 30 different nationalities. Especially as we continue to grow.

We come from various backgrounds and have developed specific skill sets that we want to harness. This theme sparked many conversations and opened up for better collaboration across the circles (teams) and regions. We’re already seeing the impact of this, with more projects and knowledge sharing, and a lower barrier for cross-circle work.