What does a great workplace culture in tech companies usually look like? Free swag, food and drinks whenever you want or maybe flexible working schedules? Or is there something more that can be done to build a great culture? Within the Hyphen Technology team, we spend quite a bit of time thinking about the type of culture we want. Through continual reflection on how to embed Hyphen’s values in our own practices, we have landed on these 5 tenets. As members of Hyphen Technology across all levels and functions, we live to these tenets as the north stars that will build that envisioned culture.
01. Be prepared
Start with the assumption that everything will break, all the time. If you start with this, then you will be able to plan and predict anything that can happen. This is what true preparation is all about.
02. Exercise good judgment
It’s okay to make mistakes. To put it in more stereotypical terms: embrace failure. But learn from those mistakes. Only then can you move forward.
03. Humility
Don’t pretend to know everything already. You can always learn something new. So challenge your own beliefs and biases, and actively seek out alternative points of views to help avoid your own blind spots.
04. Be an owner
You own what you don’t own. Be independent, don’t wait for others to do the work for you, whether it’s escalating an issue or challenging something for you. Challenge others if they’re not keeping their end of the bargain.
05. Find ways to say yes without overcommitting
Collaboration starts with Yes. Ideas shouldn’t be excluded because they’re hard. Innovation starts with finding the hard problems to solve. But saying Yes also doesn’t mean that we can just do anything. Weigh the risks and costs versus the potential benefits, and make sensible decisions based on what is best for the organisation.
At Hyphen Group we are driven by a mission to help empower and connect people to a better financial future. We will be able to reach our ambition only if we live by these codes.
Written by Stephen Matthew, Head of Data Engineering Hyphen Group.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash