On building a better workplace culture: Welcome to Team Dynamics Month

What makes a group of professionals a team instead of just coworkers?

Technically Media, Technical.ly’s parent company, spent a gleeful two days out of office last week for our annual retreat, this time in York County, Pennsylvania. We made soap, we ate tacos, we mini-golfed, we roasted marshmallows, we listened to Todrick Hall.

This small break is one of the highlights of my year. Each summer, the ~20 of us pack into vans and post up at a giant Airbnb in places such as Surf City, New Jersey, and the Southern Tier of New York. We discuss strategic initiatives and the state of digital media — but mostly, we hang out, laptop free.

Why take two days to just be together? Because separate from the daily grind, it’s a chance to remember that we’re people first — people who happen to like each other, but who are also working toward a common goal of sustaining an independent newsroom and convening local tech communities. It helps solidify — at least to me, a TM staffer of nearly four years — that we’re a team.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0YflhojwHr/

The retreat seems especially timely this year, as August is Team Dynamics Month of Technical.ly’s 2019 editorial calendar. That means our reporters are taking a look at the ways local employees interact with each other and feel about their shared workplaces. This will include topics such as internal culture, organizational structure, professional perks, HR best practices, inclusivity, remote work and the like.

Some questions we’ll explore this month:

• What informs a workplace’s culture?
• What makes employees feel good/bad about where they work?
• What strategies should be put in place to create the culture that you want?
• How can workplaces be actually, honestly inclusive? (What does that mean?)
• How can you fix a “bad” culture?
• How do team dynamics change as a company grows?

This month will be likely be “how-to” heavy, with lots of shared strategies from biz leaders and culture managers. Send story ideas to dc@technical.ly, and find stories here once we get rolling.

P.S. We’re also looking to hang out with YOU in person on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at our annual Super Meetup (now presented in partnership with DC Startup Week). This year, we’re taking over Mindspace. It’ll rule. RSVP here.