On Thursday, 16 August 2018, nine Netstream employees visited the company Sipgate in Düsseldorf, because they apparently work in a completely different way from what we usually know from companies. They have no managers, no overtime and no budgets. In their book “24 Work Hacks”, they describe in great detail how they work and think.
As we are currently undergoing a transformation as a company ourselves, we wanted to take the opportunity to be inspired by their way of working. I would like to briefly note here what particularly impressed me after this enormously exciting but also exhausting day.
1. Decentralised and self-organised product/feature teams
They organise themselves so that each team can fully develop and run a product completely independently of the others. This means the teams have end-to-end responsibility and can decide and act independently within their area. Of course, this also means they need different experts and roles in the teams. But this way they can ensure that a large number of employees can run experiments constantly and quickly and successfully operate a large product range. What do I particularly like about it? Every employee can work effectively and the team can act on its own when something needs to change. This means there are no dependencies, and I imagine that to be very liberating and satisfying. For this to be possible, however, point 2 is a prerequisite.
2. Transparency – portfolio, mission and analytics report
For the self-organised teams to be able to make decisions, they need all the information relevant to the decision. For this, there is a specialised team that deals exclusively with the figures. They regularly publish a report with 90 pages of decision-relevant information.
In addition to the analytics report, a centrally managed and transparent portfolio is needed. It is aligned with the “winning aspiration”, which is the signpost for the next 5 years. This portfolio board in turn steers the individual teams, ensuring that all teams pursue the common goal.
3. Learning organisation – library, training and experiments
They give employees room to learn, room to develop and room to be inspired outside the company. They do this with a large library and without a training budget (everyone may take two training courses a year, no matter how expensive or where in the world – it just has to be transparent and the knowledge has to be passed on). As I understood it, it is enormously important to them that their employees do not have to reinvent the wheel but can adapt existing concepts and solutions to their environment. Learning means that people keep moving, and in my opinion that is one of the most important things in an agile corporate world.
Of course, a learning organisation also includes experiments. With experiments, the outcome is completely open, because the most important thing is to understand and learn. When there are ideas at Sipgate, a team of a few people forms and is given the time and space to develop and test the idea. Development does not take years; the aim is to go to market with a solution very quickly simply to see whether it works or not.
What I find most exciting about experiments is the uncomplicated approach of simply giving it a go and being open to what happens. It is not essential for an experiment to be financially successful, but for it to be used to generate new knowledge.
4. Peer feedback
MbOs, appraisal interviews and performance measurement have been debated in the HR world for years. My opinion on this is relatively simple: abolish them. That is why I found the feedback room particularly exciting. Here, employees receive honest and well-meant feedback that they can actually use to develop. They don’t get it from their manager – there isn’t one, after all – but from five or six people they choose themselves. These people prepare well and each give feedback for 10 minutes on “What should be kept”, “What ideas do I as the feedback giver have on how someone could develop” and “What were the highlights of working together”.
The feedback recipient stays silent and listens; there is no justification. Moderators can be brought in to ensure the feedback rounds run “smoothly” and the principles are respected.
The attitude behind it is important and, for me, decisive, because it is about well-intentioned feedback and the genuine interest of the feedback giver in contributing to the development of the feedback recipient.
For me personally, this way of receiving feedback is far more meaningful and effective for personal development than simply having a talk with your manager once or twice a year.
5. Culture
There were many other things that really impressed me. The time clock, Open Friday, the childcare and the peer recruiting. But for me, all these little things ultimately make up the culture. It is characterised by personal responsibility, a focus on what matters and a constant desire to develop and move both oneself and the company forward. They have tremendous fun doing what they do and want to share it with the world.
It is difficult to really put into words why this day and Sipgate’s culture fascinated and inspired me so much. But I imagine life in such a working environment to be very satisfying. Because as a person I can influence my environment, I have the freedom to change something if something bothers me, and the people around me trust in my abilities and in my acting in the company’s interest. The whole company also sees me as a person with all my talents, potential, wishes and goals. As a result, I want to put exactly that fully to work for the company and will probably achieve a good deal more than if someone “above” dictates what to do, even though in my role I probably know better. Because I know the goal exactly, I am ready to run towards it with full commitment and know that everyone else around me is heading in the same direction. That gives me an enormous sense of cohesion, belonging and purpose.
As I mentioned at the beginning, we at Netstream are also undergoing a transformation, and from many little things I can feel that we too are heading in this cultural direction. That makes me personally very proud, and I am driving this change forward with all my heart. Of course, this does not mean that we will simply copy Sipgate’s way of working and structure, but that we will find our own way of shaping our world. Sipgate was a wonderful and lasting inspiration on this path, and I would like to thank them warmly once again!
I am curious to see where the journey will take us (Netstream) and where we will stand in a few months’ time. One thing is certain: things are moving, and I am glad to be right in the middle of it.
