3 min read
TimeXtender has carved its own path in managing its business with an original organizational structure. While some companies still prefer to function with HR structures such as hierarchical, flat, matrix, functional, or divisional, we were at the forefront of creating an organization based on being purpose driven or more specifically one built on organizational purpose circles or OPCs.
Running in concert with our OPCs has been our adherence to several programs that help us connect in an informal way; these include: Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a moment of silence to land, focus, and connect in business meetings, online café karma and barstool chats and weekly recharge sessions (more about these later in this post).
We rest our business on short-term goals (Xgoals as we call them) and core purpose strategy and core beliefs, all of which provide guiding principles, direction, and alignment for the Xpeople (what we call ourselves at TimeXtender) about having a greater purpose in life and business.
OPCs were instituted enabling Xpeople to be mostly self-managed. This self-autonomous environment offers personal freedom and has helped us reach new levels of agility, productivity, transparency, sustainability, and innovation, while inspiring us towards greater personal and organizational growth. Our modern-day framework takes advantage of group synergy which has come alive with idea sharing, mentoring and learning -- blending individual and organizational purpose. The Xpeople cherish the opportunity to share responsibilities of technical leadership, management, planning, implementation and delivery assurance – all this while dealing with the “new normal.”
This inventive workplace culture was instrumental once the pandemic hit. While many companies experienced layoffs, furloughs or outright closures, this proactive business structure allowed us to easily transition into a fully distributed team. This transition was quite beneficial as we were determined to do our part to help get everyone through safely and not endure layoffs due to the pandemic. In short, we completely revamped our business to enable Xpeople to work remotely from anywhere in the world.
With the transition, many Xpeople needed to set up a home office space and we decided to reimburse them so that the expenses would not put a strain to their private economy. We also offer external office membership so that the Xpeople have the option to work at an external office to have meetings or simply hang out and connect with others. Many prefer this type of work atmosphere given our innate desire for human connection rather than working exclusively in an online environment. Either way, to measure progress of teams and individuals, we do so by production rather than office hours.
And, we’re proud to say that for this effort we were awarded the Gold by the Stevie Awards for Covid Response – Most Innovative Workplace Redesign. With this modern workplace firmly rooted in place, we believe that we’re ready to face an ever-changing future in the most resilient way.
This transition also helped us to maintain growth even with the effects that Covid-19 had on economies and organizations. Even more, we became a valued partner for many of our global customers to help them adapt to their specific requirements vis a vis environmental challenges. Given the fact that we were able to smoothly adapt to our own challenges brought on by the pandemic, we were able to allocate resources to assist customers along the way.
Another way we provide continuity and socialization is with our hosted weekly recharge sessions (mentioned earlier) to help us recharge. These sessions provide mind and body exercises that focus on a life theme, health and well-being. This program consists of:
- Relaxation and tension release for face, body, mind, and breathing
- Strengthening the body, core and muscles
- Breathing, visualization and meditation sessions
- Stretching to keep body vigorous and limber
- Combination flow of exercise, breathing, meditation and activities
The fully distributed work model takes a high level of self-management skills but has been widely accepted with open arms by the Xpeople. Also, regular internal surveys among the Xpeople showed that there was interest for additional direction and alignment during the pandemic just like in other situations of change. Given this helpful feedback, we offered more frequent “TimeOut sessions.” These sessions helped to inform and communicate to the Xpeople about company direction, alignment and commitment.
We value full transparency to help keep us agile and effective working across different cultures and time zones. This has taken some time and effort for many of us to get use to the change, but with trust and frequent connections we´re getting there. We´ve found that working as a fully distributed team means that we all need to consciously make time and room in our schedule for informal connections and dialogue to keep and feel a sense of belonging and to build trust with your team. It’s an effort that we all need to choose to take responsibility for.
With these changes fully in place, and as we accelerate coming out of the pandemic, we look forward to an even brighter and prosperous future as a global, fully distributed team working together with existing and future employees, partners and customers.
To learn more about how we work, please visit our DNA webpage.
