Best workplace. Ever.

Proportion
Categories: Winnthinks

Picture the scene…

It’s a sunny morning in late July and I’m looking across the glorious Tuscan hills from the balcony of a 12th-century villa. The cicadas are up early and getting louder as the temperature rises. There’s an occasional refreshing breeze and beneath me, I can hear the lively chatter of children and the sociable clatter of crockery as breakfast is cleared away on the terrace.

What a place for a holiday! – except that I’ve come to work in the most delightful training venue conceivable.

So thank you to my hosts at Code Enigma. Here they are at the end of their company Away Week. Let me tell you about them and why I was there.

The client

Code Enigma’s workforce is fully distributed across Europe and beyond. That’s a growing trend as technology enables people to work together without expensive office buildings and tiresome commutes. Code Enigma design, build, host and support beautiful websites; having access to the whole world helps them snaffle up the best talent wherever they’re located.

The team stays connected through regular online meetings and messaging but also understands the value of physically meeting up from time to time. As Greg Harvey (Director) said to me; “if we’re not spending out on physical office space, we can afford to treat our people to an Away Week once a year”. So they do. Always somewhere beautiful, with time for strategy, business development, sharing ideas and updates – as well as to relax together and build bonds.

And the time to invest in some team and personal development – which is where I came in.

So what was I doing there?

Having already facilitated for the team online, I suggested running a webinar around the Clarity4D profiling tool. The Clarity4D questionnaire generates for each person a profile that indicates how we take in and process information, make our decisions and communicate with other people. Exploring our own profile also helps us understand how other people may ‘tick’ differently to us, be that colleagues, clients or even family members. We can use that insight to get more out of our everyday dealings with other people.

The management team at Code Enigma liked the webinar idea but took it one step further by inviting me to facilitate the final day of the company Away Week. And that, Reader, is how I came to be in the most beautiful workspace of my career to date.

Final word

The day itself was full of laughter, discussion and discovery. The company were thrilled to learn that they genuinely embody the values they aspire to. We all learned something about ourselves.

The final word goes to team member Chris who emailed me afterwards to say this:

“I found the session very useful…thanks for leading us so ably through the process and enabling the conversations to happen. I think we’ll continue to benefit from the realisation that we’re all different and knowing a little more about each other will empower us to communicate more effectively.”

If you would like to find out more about Clarity4D and how it can help your team work together better, do get in touch. Beautiful Tuscan venues preferred, but not essential.