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When people talk about great work culture, the two company names I hear most often are "Zappos" and "Rackspace"--someone might even throw out that big old giant "Google," especially if discussing amazing perks like free child care and laundry facilities for all employees. One name you don't hear? "Facebook." It's one of the most referenced companies of the last five years, a cultural phenomenon, and yet, no one really knows much about the inside of "the mighty book of faces." Until now.

On June 15th, 2009, TechCrunch.com's MG Siegler enticed geeks everywhere with the title, "Behold! The New Facebook Headquarters." What follows is a collection of photos--and one twenty minute video--shot during the Facebook "open house," to which Siegler and others were invited. It's an interesting journey.

By checking out the post and the video, you get a good sense of how the company wants to be perceived by the media, and potential employees, but there's no work culture that's really palpable during this tour, which I suppose is reasonable.

Facebook appears to be creating a Zappos-style work environment in their new digs, which used to be owned by HP. Vaguely reminiscent of an Ikea store, the new Facebook campus has lots of interesting talking points, delivered by a tour guide who looks like he woke up and decided to go for the "emo" look that day:

• The building, which used to belong to HP, was originally wall-to-wall cubicles
• No cubicles now--all open workspaces and new-concept desks "designed for collaboration"
• Facebook likes to "capture intelligence" of coworkers by encouraging conversation between individuals so that others overhear their conversations (how social)
• The conference rooms downstairs are named after condiments and video games
• According to emo tour guide, an important part of Facebook culture are "Gribbsteaks," which he says is Facebook's interpretation of the "dot com era's" razor scooters

A funny moment occurs at 3:19 in the video where the guide compares trying out new things like desk orientation to how Facebook makes changes to their "product." He says, "we do this in the product a lot--we'll roll things out on a small scale, figure out what we actually think about it, and learn by actually getting real data, and then get bigger..." Ahh, yes. Like that whole "we own your content" debacle? Maybe they should apply this revolutionary process to the goal of becoming profitable?

On a more serious note, it does seem like the Facebook crew has put a lot of thought into creating a collaborative and modern work environment. Not really surprising, but we'll have to see if this effort also produces a unique and vibrant work culture like Zappos.

If you've ever had to come up with an idea for a project, or held a brainstorming session only to discover that the storm had been reduced to a light shower, then you understand how important it is to stop and feed your brain. No, I don't mean walking over to your office's kitchen and getting a snack. I mean taking a break and doing something completely opposite of work. Doing this gives you a chance to decompress and can open up unknown reserves of creativity in your mind. The end result? Better ideas, and more productivity.

With the launch of Grasshopper, everyone has been working very, very hard, and putting in long hours. As spring finally emerges, we decided that in order for people to actually decompress they needed a work-sanctioned opportunity to do so. And so "Summer Fridays" were born. From now on each year, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Grasshopper will have Summer Fridays, during which time people can do something together as a group that doesn't involve sitting at a desk and working through a to-do list or going to a meeting. Whether it's going to a baseball game or actually playing one, employees--our people--can decide what they want to do as a group. If a group outing doesn't work for them, they can also use the time for personal obligations. It's their call. After we announced Summer Fridays at Grasshopper, people talked about having basketball games, golf trips, and visits to museums. We look forward to getting families involved as well during the summer so that this isn't just another "work event." Bringing families into the events is crucial.

A lot of companies and organizations might balk at the idea of giving people a paid half day every Friday for a few months, but I think it's pretty smart. It's a way of acknowledging that your people are your most valuable resource, and you want to treat them as such. And that means giving Grasshopper folks a chance to cross-pollinate their brains with the activities and people that make them who they are.

Nintendo Wii sold out quickly when it was first released and its popularity only continued to grow. The interesting thing about the Wii is that it isn't just for video game fiends and the other usual suspects. Whether it's playing the guitar and drums in Rock Band, or working out with Wii Fit, there's something for everyone. And that's good--because Wii is everywhere. There's even a bar/restaurant here in Boston called Achilles Project, where you can play on a Wii while you have a beer (although, one might argue, that could be disastrous for your game).

At GotVMail, we knew couldn't come up with any good reason not to set-up a Wii Room at our headquarters, so we went ahead and mounted a nice LCD screen on an Ergotron cart and put it with the Wii in a dedicated room for people to enjoy.

So, how do you convince your boss (or yourself) to purchase and install Wii in your office? Use one of the arguments I've listed below.

• All work and no play makes for some really agitated employees. Everyone at GotVMail works incredibly hard, but sometimes people need a break. Easy way to blow off some steam? Play a fellow team member in a 10 minute game of tennis! (Of course.) Playing Wii is a good way to free your mind, let go of your frustrations, and think like a kid for a bit (and that's good for everyone's productivity).
• Wii gets employees talking. No matter the size of your company, there will be people who don't interact with each other on a regular basis. Wii brings a lot of people together, and during a few games, gets them talking, too. Wii lets up to four employees play at a time. This is crucial for community building in your workplace.
• We all could use some fun. These days, fun is hard to find. People are struggling. Why not make the workplace a little more upbeat? No, playing Wii won't solve the economic crisis, but it might help some of our bigger problems seem more manageable.

It's great to see people taking a break and having some fun playing the Wii in any of our offices in Boston or Austin. Our most popular games have been Wii Sports and Madden 09 in the quick 5 on 5 mode.

So send this blog post to your boss and get employees playing Wii to relax, socialize, have fun, and be more productive.

I think our pre-school and kindergarten teachers had it right: at a certain point in the day, you just need to close your eyes, and if possible, get some shut-eye. Even in the "adult world" of 9 to 5 work, there's just something about "shutting down" both your computer and your mind for about fifteen minutes per day that just re-starts your brain, and makes you even more productive when you wake up.

But why won't people admit that napping--a practice rooted in childhood--could actually boost productivity in adult environments? After all, the statistics are there to support the benefits of napping: according to the National Sleep Foundation, "[a] study at NASA on sleepy military pilots and astronauts found that a 40-minute nap improved performance by 34% and alertness 100%." Researchers at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness also discovered that sleep's basic function is to "remove the noise" accumulated in the brain from tasks performed each day, allowing the brain to "refresh" itself. The University of Wisconsin's Sleep and Medicine Program also states on their site that sleep is vital for proper brain function: "Some experts believe sleep gives neurons a chance to maintain themselves. Without sleep, neurons may become so overloaded by normal cellular activities that they begin to malfunction." Why not give our brain the help it needs with a fifteen or twenty minute nap each day to recover and consequently, be more productive?

We're a long way from providing an assigned "nap time" for those who work in offices, but I'm doing my part as a business owner and considering the benefits for our employees, all of whom stare at bright computer screens for more than eight hours a day, working on multiple projects. Even if the solution is something as simple as asking people to take fifteen minutes each afternoon to simply shut their eyes and recharge, something has to be done to beat the afternoon "drag" when the brain starts to feel the fatigue of the day. Who knows, we might even have to take one of our empty spaces here at the office and create a dedicated relaxation room...

Anyone who has flown Southwest in the past knows things are done a little bit differently at the airline. In fact, in the book Mavericks At Work, authors William Taylor and Polly Labarre discuss how doing things differently has not only made the airline one of the best out there, but it's also created an undeniably strong work culture. The people they hire believe in Southwest's goal of doing things differently, and the work they do on a daily basis reflects this. Case in point? The rapping Southwest flight attendant in the video below. Instead of simply stating the safety instructions in the typical way, the attendant mixes things up, and arguably gets more people to listen to the safety announcement than if they were spoken in their usual "serious" tone.

Southwest is a great example of how you can standout in an otherwise downward-spiraling industry (no terrible pun intended there) with an amazing culture and core values.

South by Southwest (SXSW), held in Austin, TX, seems to get larger each year, and 2009 was no exception. While I wasn't able to attend, I'll make sure it is on my calendar for early next year.

For people like me who missed the big event, Mike Rohde's sketchnotes are an excellent resource. Rohde takes "visual notes" at all sorts of events, including South by Southwest. It's great for people who don't take notes (but should), for visual thinkers, or for those who may have wanted to take notes during the event, but were otherwise occupied meeting, speaking, or even Twittering about what was happening at the mega networking event.

I'm not as familiar with sketchnotes as much as graphic recording or graphic facilitation, but these notes contribute to the type of visual learning that I love and find most helpful. Here are three pages from Mike Rohde, which show the major points Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, made during a talk at SXSW. Tony has been doing a lot of speaking lately and has done a great job turning the Zappos culture into a true story.

A month ago I posted an example of visualizing core values and how GotVMail has used this technique to make our core values as visible as possible. But then we thought, "Where do we show other important ideas about our company?"

So, after creating the original graphic for the center we decided to expand to include company goals, department goals, and personal goals. Getting these on the same page wasn't enough, though. Originally, we were going to print these "visualized goals" for each team member, for every quarter. We realized the extra paper was unnecessary, however, and and decided it would be more effective to integrate the info into our corporate wiki. With the document now posted on our wiki, updates are easier than ever, and the concepts stay fresh in people's minds as they visit the wiki each day.

About a week ago, I went to a breakfast talk featuring Richard Branson, who happened to be launching the new Boston to Los Angles Virgin America route the very same day. Having been interested in Branson and his success at building the Virgin brand into over 400 companies, I was very much looking forward to the talk. Unfortunately, soon after the talk began, it seemed as though most-- if not all--of the questions had been rehearsed ahead of time. Disappointing, but I did get some key takeaways:

• Branson structures smaller divisions of his company as separate entities and as entrepreneurial ventures. Branson spoke only for a few minutes about this, although I wish he went into more depth. He discussed how his companies are structured as independently run businesses, each with their own goals, advisors, and employees, with the common tie being the overarching brand. By keeping tabs on the number of employees in each "company," he can keep them from getting too big, and losing the entrepreneurial perspective. Very powerful concept of creating self-sustaining companies all of which further the brand.
• Branson got the audience to participate and interacted with them, too. Any public speaking book, seminar, or course will tell you to get the audience to participate, and when speakers take a question, it's recommended they acknowledge the question in some way. Branson did something that was very interesting that although might not have worked well in the large forum of this particular event, was very effective in engaging the audience, and acknowledging people: after answering a question from a member of the audience, he posed another back to that same audience member. This meant fewer questions were asked by audience members overall, but it was effective in producing more substantive comments.
• Simple solutions for complex problems. As of late, Branson has been interested in using his success not only to further the Virgin empire, but to do good in the world, from stopping global warming to halting food shortages. His approach to complex socioeconomic problems is ridiculously simple: bring together the best minds in the world, free from constraints bureaucracy can impose, and they innovate solutions to a wide range of problems. When they're proven effective--on private companies' budgets--they hand over the plan to various governments for implementation around the globe.

After the talk Branson left for Logan Airport, where he dressed in drag to launch the new Virgin route from Boston to Los Angeles. Good times. Check out this video from CrunchGear:

I've written a number of blog posts about our culture and core ideologies. Most recently, I wrote about how to keep these values top of mind and visible, and this graphic came to mind. Trying to visually represent all of these important concepts, link them with our longer term goals ('big hairy audacious goal' or 'BHAG' for short) and to ultimately show how interconnected it all is wasn't an easy task.

In order to take such an abstract concept and make it concrete, we worked with our graphic facilitator to create an interesting graphic that we've since used in company communications, a goals worksheet, and our wiki.

Starting from the left, the core purpose is the first concept, then we integrated all the core values around an apple core to give it some visual appeal (apple core, core values--get it?). Each core value has a few actions or notes next to it remind us exactly what it is.

Our brand promise is next and highlights the four concepts that are most important to us as a company. Finally, tying it all together is our long term goal, or "BHAG" as Jim Collins called it, one million influential entrepreneurs as customers. This creates a very powerful graphic with visual appeal while still communicating very important concepts which are at the core of what we do.

At GotVMail, we make an effort to provide free, healthy snacks (that taste good) for our employees in addition to providing a wide array of beverages. Having better choices on hand makes it harder to pig out on bad stuff. We've had dried fruit in the past, but nothing beats the real thing. There's no other time of year when this is more evident than around the holidays, when we receive tons of fruit baskets. We always put these in our GotVMail kitchen, and the fruit is gone within minutes. Since it's clear our people like fresh fruit, last year I started to look for a good way to provide this year round.

There aren't a lot of options for fresh fruit delivery, and here's why:

• Fruit basket companies: Either include lots of non-fruit items or offer very expensive "branded" fruit (for example, Harry & David offers their special fruit that somehow needs to be vastly more expensive than the same kind sold in the supermarket)
• Supermarket delivery: Lacks selection and quality
• Famers' market: Requires time we don't have, and selection isn't consistently varied

While reviewing the options, I finally found a company that specializes in fresh fruit delivery for offices, The FruitGuys. Every Tuesday each of our offices (Boston and Austin) get a delivery of fresh in season fruit. It's a no-frills deal--just fruit, straight up. This has become so popular that by Thursday on most weeks everything is gone or sitting on someone's desk in the final ripening stages. Besides having a lot of nutritional value, having the extra fruit around means our people can supplement their lunches (along with our $5 lunch subsidy) or have an extra snack. Anyway you slice it, it's a good idea.

I recently found California Fruit Company who seems to be offering a similar service but limited delivery area.

One of our goals at GotVMail was to create a world class work culture. In order to achieve that goal, we need to create an outstanding employment brand. What's an "employment brand"? Similar to any other brand name, an "employment brand" are the recognizable attributes a company projects to prospective and current employees. It's essentially what people think about your approach to finding the right talent, and how you treat that talent once they're a part of your company.

There are two very important imperatives to GotVMail's employment brand: treat every employee and prospective employee better than you would treat your best customer, and make things radically easy for your applicant, from the interview process to benefits. Important to note: "easy" doesn't mean "easy interviews." It means creating a situation where expectations about the position are clear from the outset, and that part of doing well in that job doesn't consist of guessing what your personal objectives are as an employee. For this post, I'm going to talk exclusively about the impact of treating every who enters your office with respect.

We may be a growing start-up, but whenever a prospective employee enters our Boston office, they're greeted and made to feel at home right away. Candidates shouldn't feel like they're interrupting the flow of business or putting anyone out by arriving for an interview. I'd never thought about how powerful a personal greeting could be to a prospective employee until I received a thank you note from a candidate who explained its impact: he felt valued and welcomed from the moment he stepped in because he received such a warm welcome from our staff. It affirmed my belief that it was very important for every candidate to be greeted and given a personal tour of our headquarters when they arrive for an interview.

A workplace shouldn't be an alienating environment, regardless of whether you're a current or prospective employee. Employees should feel as valued and worthy of attention as the vendors you do business with each day. This is a crucial tenet of our employment brand; we want people to know we want them!

People are always asking me how we keep GotVMail's core values at the forefront of the company's collective consciousness. The short answer: any way we can. The emphasis on core purpose, core values and brand promise is very important to me, so we try to get the core values into email signatures or on the footer of our company wiki, or anywhere else that seems useful. We also work them into the performance management process so that these words are meaningful and visible to team members as often as possible.

In an increasingly "digital" world, it can be helpful to return to our old standby, paper, to keep our core values visible. Sure, that sounds odd coming from a CTO, but it just stands to reason that with most of our informational universe on computers and Blackberries, it stands out when you have a sticky note adhered to your desk. That's why we had custom sticky notes printed. At the top of the notepad is our brand promise, finished off at the bottom with core purpose and core values. Whether you're writing "buy eggs after work" or a customer's call back number, those core values pop up at you and hopefully entrench themselves subliminally. We think this mix of direct and indirect repetition is effective for keeping our core values top of mind.

"Pay for performance" has been around for a while, but the results of implementing it in companies have been varied. It's an easy concept to understand --pay people when they produce results!--but it's not as easy to implement.

Performance reviews weren't a priority when launching GotVMail, and still weren't while fueling our amazing growth. However, at the start of this year, it was clear performance reviews were ineffective: the process was confusing to managers, resulting in delays or missed reviews, and they provided little value to employees. Rather than put a system like this in place, which took old fashioned paper-based processes and digitized them, we wanted to efficiently link pay with individual goals and company alignment.

"Pay for performance" is a concept that's so straight-forward that it's easy to just dump it into a business. However, this hands-off factor contributes to its failure rate and lack of long term viability. Rather than throw this system into the performance structure at GotVMail, we defined a framework that would take a number of quarters to fully implement. It will need refinement, but ultimately it will provide valuable as well as timely feedback to employees, while rewarding behavior and actions closer to the time they occur with quarterly bonus pay. Here's the plan:

• Company Alignment: Every company, large or small--and especially the truly entrepreneurial ones--needs to be driving in the same direction at every level of the company. This means making sure people are aligned around common goals, all the time--not just when it's convenient. It also needs to happen at all levels, from the most junior person to the executive team.
• Goals Culture: Once aligned, people need to be driving on a daily basis towards SMART goals, which are cascaded from each department and then, ultimately, unifed within the scheme of company goals. Understanding the difference between 'tasks' and 'goals' and boosting the ability to think in this way is critical.
• Coaching and Career Development: While the company works towards clear goals together, people need to establish a vested interest in the process by integrating their personal goals with their goals as an employee. Career development is the missing link that provides personal direction and commitment to the goals of your organization.

With this framework in mind, a true "pay for performance" culture is theoretically attainable--and sustainable. Here at GotVMail, we're eager to apply this theory, and see the results. We've completed our first full quarter cycle of reviews, learned a lot about ratings scale alignment as well as setting goals or "goal-setting." The end of the 4th quarter represents our second full cycle, and it's the first time we'll have a quarterly performance opportunity incentive (bonus) tied to the results. Check back here as my company goes through this process, learns the ins and outs (as well as experiences the major mistakes), and implements a truly productive "pay for performance" structure.

(Note: I recently heard a speaker talking about performance reviews and he suggested using the name "progress reviews" to be more positive, and I am considering making this shift. For the time-being, however, I'm sticking to the term "performance reviews")

This post is about something I have really strong opinions about: work. Some people hate going to work, and for a variety of reasons. When people hate going to work, they aren't productive and when they aren't productive... Well, you get the point.

One of the reasons I think people hate going to work is that the companies people work for have no identifiable core values. At the end of the day, if your employees don't know the company purpose and the values (which are non-negotiable tenets of the way you do business) then you've failed them--you've given them no reason to get excited about coming into work each day, and no reason to relate to the goals of your company.

This is a topic I'll continue to write about, but today I wanted to share this video with you. It's from Atlassian, and John Rotenstein and he has made an awesome video which highlights--in Atlassian employees' own words--what their core values are. The Atlassian core value that's one of my favorites is "DFTC": "don't fuck the customer." Yup, that's right. It's such a basic concept--don't make it harder for the customer to do anything--but it's pure genius. It's also a "big picture" concept that anyone can understand why pursuing that goal is important. Roteinstein's video is a great example of how vital core values are to a company because it shows how employees take them to heart, and incorporate them into their lives--and all in their own words. It also shows that it's not just about getting a project done, but also creating a work environment that makes people comfortable and understanding that changes that you make to anything have to work for the customer.

Anyway, I'm done writing. Watch the video and you'll see why it's no surprise the staff at Atlassian enjoys coming to work each day. We (my company, GotVMail, that is) happen to be a happy customer of Atlassian as well, using JIRA, Confluence and a few other applications.