Week 9: Describe How You've Had Fun This at Work this Week: Musketeers

It’s well known around the office- Dwellworks’ core values: teamwork, innovation, integrity, performance and fun.  Those five things are a part of everything we do- or at least we strive to make it that way.

                

One thing I’ve learned though is that the most fun at Dwellworks actually comes from when the other 4 values are featured most prominently.  It’s true, we have a fun committee, and they do a great job lightening the mood and giving us well-needed diversions at the end of the week.  But no amount of snack time or themed parties can equal how much fun it is when a team is working together with integrity, to innovate with a high level of performance.  Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a certain sense of aliveness, a certain spirit that fills the room, when creative minds are working together at their highest potential. 

Perhaps that’s really the secret to the Dwellworks values: we don’t have to work very hard to attain each value individually: if we’re doing things right, they all happen at once. 

                

So take, for instance, our weekly intern project meeting; it’s almost always very fun.  But it’s not fun just because we tell jokes and get to take our minds off our regular work for an hour each Wednesday.  It’s actually not that at all.  It’s fun because we get to come together and brainstorm, and create as a group.  I have been so impressed by the members of my group.  Everyone has his or her own perspective, his or her own opinion, his or her own ideas, gifts, and background that they bring to the table, each and every week. 

                

For me, that’s really the most fun I've had this week, and honestly, it’s the most fun I have every week- whether we have whole-office snack time or not.  When we’re all really working together, collaborating, and working through problems, it’s not just living out the performance and teamwork values, but creating the “fun” value as well.

                

Somewhere along the way, Dwellworks discovered the secret to creating a productive office culture: it’s not about rules or goals or quotas (though plenty of offices use those to varying degrees of success): it’s about finding the right people for the right jobs and letting them be themselves.  Creativity bursts out in every direction when people aren't struggling just to fit in and feel like they belong. 

                

Somewhere between the hiring process and the incubated culture here lies an evolutionary sort of concept- that we all work toward the same goal, but we get there best by going at it from every direction.  That is true, ongoing fun-- so much more than anyone should expect at work, but barely as much as everyone should demand.

-Zack