Tall Poppies rule at Griffin. It’s not a community where one plays it small, nor is it a place where we’re in competition with each other or big note ourselves at the expense of others. We hover somewhere in that blissful spot in between, where we are humble but we also deliberately celebrate success, both in others and in ourselves, in order to grow.
Early in our first year we discussed the gift we give others when we share our work and pondered how we might change the unhelpful narrative common in workplaces attached to sharing success. Our thinking is that hiding away our brilliance and working in silos benefits no one. Instead, stealing ideas from others, copying and highlighting high yield practices has been deliberately framed as a positive capability-growing tactic.
‘Fit In and Stand Out’ is a mantra we have adopted to remind us of the accountability we have to our team, fulfilling our responsibility to do what we agreed we all would, and the responsibility we have to showcase our talent with others. Celebrating the success of each other is a regular practice, noticing and naming brilliance and capability. High levels of trust allow our us to feel safe in celebrating our personal success, without fear of judgement. After all great ideas happen when good ideas bump into each other. Colliding Ideas provides opportunity for innovation.
This element of our culture is still not something we’re all entirely comfortable with, yet it is something we value, something we do and it gets easier. We push through the uncomfortableness that innately comes with telling others about personal triumph because we know what a gift it is to share. We don’t feel the eyes of our peers labelling us a show-off, we feel their admiration. Such is our culture.
Sharing parts of our story has allowed us to celebrate who we are and what we have created, capturing Griffin at this point in time. We hope that in sharing we might illuminate something for you, something to add to your soil, a new way for you and your team to flourish. A way for you to fit in and stand out and to ponder A Bold Vision of your own.
Next: Storytelling