It’s no secret – Beanfield marches to the beat of its own drum. While this is clear from our service offerings to our customer support, one thing the public doesn’t get a chance to see is how we foster community in our offices. Well, here’s a peek behind the scenes.
Some understand onboarding as a tedious process of shaking hands and watching orientation videos. While we do have our fair share of that as well, we also do things differently. A major part of our orientation process is Storyleaders – a three-day workshop that helps new employees connect with one another on a deeper, more empathetic level. Out of the gate, our employees have people to share their highs and lows with – without the awkward pleasantries of traditional office culture (like discussing the weather).
So, what is Storyleaders?
It’s about changing office culture at its most basic level while improving our relationships with each other, our customers, and our larger community. Led by Ben Zoldan, Storyleaders consists of three full days of guided sharing and storytelling. Part of this is encouraging employees to be vulnerable with their colleagues on a level they usually wouldn’t be.
“When we focus on the most important values – passion, vulnerability, authenticity, connectedness and storytelling – everything falls into place, and our people and our organizations thrive at the highest level” -Ben Zoldan
The program also gives new employees a chance to get to know their more well-established colleagues. Veterans of the program are encouraged to come back and keep sharing with new hires, creating a big network of mutual sharing and support. From the moment someone joins the Beanfield family, they know they have people to lean on.
Andrea Midgley, Beanfield People & Culture Ambassador and frequent Storyleaders mentor, says:
“This program exists to help organizations be better, to build culture and enable communication that inspires everyone to meet our personal potential, ensure we create a culture of togetherness and to operate in a way that fulfills our bigger mission as a company.
In a brief period of time, we get down to what motivates us, how we find meaning and purpose in our work, how we develop trust, and change together as an organization. Essentially, the experience has been designed to improve how we communicate and connect with people, internally and externally.
The great part is that all the skills/values we focus on in the course are integrated into our business workflows. Consider this the Beanfield Way; the culture that builds our values into the fabric of our business.”
At the end of the day, Storyleaders serves to help Beanfield conduct business differently- in a more human, more connected way. After all, connectivity is our business.
