Building a Culture of Joy

By Evan Horowitz

This last year has taught us a lot about culture: how challenging it is to create, how easy it is to damage, and how possible it is to build even when we’re all working from home. At Movers+Shakers, our mission is to spread joy, and that mission starts with our team and our culture. Joy is one of our most important values (both for my co-founder Geoffrey and me personally, and for our business). Our commitment to spreading joy has only increased during COVID

Our company has quickly skyrocketed from the two of us to a team of over 50, and we’ve onboarded the team remotely during quarantine. With this kind of growth, building a joyful and supportive company culture has required thoughtfulness and dedication. The payoff has been immense -- with our team, our clients, and the work we produce.

First, What is Joy?

The word means different things to different people. Some hear “joy” and picture people smiling and laughing. For us, while positive emotions are often associated with joy, the core of joy is a perspective of deep appreciation for everything. Joy comes from seeing the glass half full, from feeling lucky to be on this adventure of living. As a result, a joyful person approaches their teammates and their work with gratitude, respect, and positivity. 

So how do we foster a culture of joy at Movers+Shakers? Here are the top five things:

 

1. Joy Starts with the Individual

We believe that joy comes mostly from within. While a great team environment can help you feel better, different people seem to have different baseline levels of positivity they bring to their day-to-day life. This is a skill, and it can be built over time. I’ve spent a lot of energy, practice and coaching building more joy & positivity in my own day-to-day experience. But we know it takes time and training and commitment, so we want to hire people who are already bringing in a high baseline of joy.

 

2. Hiring for Joy

So how do we screen for joyful people in interviews? Not by asking directly, but by seeking to understand what drives the person and how they see the world.

Can you feel their warmth when you get on the call? Do they light up when they talk about their favorite past projects? On the flip side, do they complain about negative experiences? We look for people who speak constructively about bad experiences--because when they’re on our team and things get tough, they’ll bring a positive, constructive outlook. 

3. Celebrating Small Wins 

All companies celebrate big wins. We create an environment of appreciation with structures to identify and celebrate small wins as well.  

For example, we have a Slack channel dedicated to what we call “#tiny-wins” where any and all good news is shared. We also have a gratitude moment in our weekly all-hands, where we open the mic for the team to share public praise with each other. There’s never a shortage of shout outs, and the chat in these meetings are always buzzing with additional encouragement.

4. Reframing Failure

Perhaps one of the most overlooked ingredients to building a culture of joy is actively reframing failure as necessary and good. If we were all afraid to fail, we would work every day with an underlying fear of failure (and, by the way, our work product will be very safe).

We strive to never punish each other for mistakes, but instead to simply find learnings and ways to level up. We want to push our comfort zone (and that of our clients!), and we recognize that failure comes with the territory. “Faceplant Fridays” was born from this idea: it’s a time for people to speak publicly about any “faceplant” moments and what they learned.

 

5. Leading with Positivity

Culture can’t be dictated, it must be demonstrated. A company’s real culture is set by how its leadership actually behaves; not what the posters or PowerPoints say.

I believe that a leader can only lead a team as high as they can go. So building a culture of joy starts within yourself.

Geoffrey and I have spent a lot of time working on ourselves to become more joyful in our own lives. By investing in our own personal development, we are investing in the culture of our company as a whole. When we bring joy and positivity to the workplace, it’s contagious! When we create space for risk-taking and don’t punish failure, it unlocks a far greater potential in our team. 

As we emerge from the thick of the pandemic and continue on our rocket ship of growth, our culture and our values will remain core to our business. We’re constantly learning as we grow and adapt to the changing world. But one thing has remained constant: when culture succeeds, so too does the team.

If you love to spread joy and want to join a team that practices it every day, check out our open positions across Client Service, Creative, Production, Strategy and more! www.moversshakers.co/careers