Organizational Reflections: What C1C is Most Thankful for This Year
This is the perfect time of year to reflect back on the things we are most thankful for – both in our personal and professional lives. It can also be a great time of year for organizations to reflect back and identify the things that are working well at their organizations versus the things that might need some improvement as they move into the next year. At C1C, we believe that some of the best people who can provide insight into what’s working and what isn’t are your employees. Organizations can gather employee perspectives using a variety of different methods including employee experience surveys, team listening sessions, and even quarterly conversations. We polled our team members to ask them what they are most thankful for at C1C. I included their top five areas along with some takeaways from their responses below. I’d love to hear what you are most thankful for at your organization. If you’d like to share, please leave a comment.
Passionate Clients. We have the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients who are all passionate about the work they do, the organizations they support, and the communities they serve. Getting to work on a variety of projects for clients spanning corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors means that each week is different from the last, which keeps our work interesting and exciting. We love getting to meet new clients at the start of a project, share in their passion throughout its implementation, and have a sense of shared accomplishment when we wrap things up.
Meaningful Work. We are thankful for the opportunity to do meaningful work every day. We constantly get to work on projects that challenge us, allow us to learn new skills, and help us grow. We get to support initiatives that have a positive impact on communities such as those focused on providing kids access to books, reducing homelessness, stopping the cycle of incarceration, and increasing access to healthcare...just to name a few. It feels great knowing that the work we do is important and we feel lucky to be able to have an impact through the work we do with our clients.
Fantastic Team. Supportive, Skilled, Hard-Working, Fun, Talented, Driven, Encouraging, Dependable, Awesome, Helpful, Respectful, Capable. These are just a few words our team used to describe each other. We have supportive and driven leaders and the camaraderie of our team is outstanding. There is great comfort knowing we are surrounded by experts who have diverse skillsets and experiences, but that we can also have fun with each other along the way. Our combined talents allow us to produce better work than we would individually and we appreciate getting to bond as a team and celebrate accomplishments through our annual volunteer events and quarterly celebrations. There is a strong team feeling where all input is valued and considered, which allows us to work together to make our work better.
Flexibility & Autonomy. We are thankful that C1C provides us the flexibility to choose when, where, and how we work. We get to organize our schedules to best fit our needs whether that is early in the morning, later at night, or taking some time off during the day to run errands, go to an appointment, or just meet a friend for coffee. We have freedom in our days because there is trust that work will get done. We also get to choose where we work whether that’s in the office for a storyboarding session or at home on the couch next to our pets (aka the C1C Intern Team). We also appreciate the autonomy we are given to infuse creativity into our work and do our best work in the way that works best for us.
Proven Practices. We use the proven practices we provide to our clients. Our team meetings, 1 on 1s, and quarterly conversations help facilitate communication, collaboration, and alignment. Our templates and task guides help ensure consistency and quality for our clients while still empowering employees and giving autonomy. Our detailed-oriented approach to project management enables the success of any project, big or small, in order to consistently deliver excellence to our clients. We appreciate that we get to benefit every day from the evidence-based practices we deliver to our clients.
If you would like additional support gathering employee perspectives, optimizing employee experience, or implementing any of the organizational practices mentioned in this post, feel free to reach out!