In the corporate world, it’s conventional to believe that the person answering the phone is the lowest person on the totem pole. Worse yet, many companies believe we can replace receptionists with automated attendants: ring the doorbell for service or dial by extension.

Me, I’ll always have someone answer our main line because most people calling Matrix Group are customers who need help or prospects who need our services. So you better believe I want a warm, friendly, knowledgeable and committed person answering our phones! And because it’s not always clear to people who does what in a Web agency (do you talk to the programmer or a front-end developer or the PM about an error on your admin site?), a good receptionist can field and route calls efficiently.

My Creative Director Alex Pineda says that every employee is a brand ambassador for the company. So my receptionist, as the person who perhaps has the most contact with the most people, is arguably the most important brand ambassador I have. Which is why her title is First Impressions Officer. The other admins in the office, who also share customer interaction responsibilities, are equally important brand ambassadors.

Scott Spandauer defines a brand as “more than just your company image. It also includes your customers’ experience and the expectation you set when doing business with your company. In short, it is (a) promise.”

As a CEO, I may set the tone for our corporate culture and brand, but it’s my staff who live and reinforce it with our customers. Company owners everywhere, remember that your customers’ experiences start with the person who answers the phone and greets people at the door.

So I visited the website (TheseComeFromTrees.com) and ordered a bunch of stickers for Matrix Group. Jessica, who is on the “green team,” put stickers everywhere we use paper: in the bathrooms, the kitchen, all the printers.

Curious to see if the little stickers would make a difference, I started paying attention to the amount of paper waste in the women’s bathroom. Here’s what I found: in the women’s bathroom, the trash bin for paper hand towels used to fill up before lunchtime. Today, the bin does not fill up at all during the day. This is consistent every day. The women of Matrix Group are absolutely using fewer hand towels in the bathroom. Could the little sticker really be making a difference?

We haven’t reduced the number of female staff, so that couldn’t be the cause. And I can’t imagine that we’re using the bathroom any less. So I started talking to my co-workers and they all agreed that because of the sticker, they are using 1 paper hand towel instead of 2. We had effectively halved our paper consumption!

This got me thinking. How had a little sticker changed behavior?

I attended a presentation last week by Don Schmincke of the Schmincke Research Alliance. He effectively articulated why management consulting doesn’t work: You can’t change behavior by changing the process. You need to change people’s beliefs in order to change their behavior. People need to believe and understand why doing something is important and necessary.

So how did the little sticker make me change my beliefs? In this case, I don’t think the sticker changed my beliefs, but it did help me connect the dots between trees and my paper consumption. The little sticker also made it easy for me to do good: just think about where paper towels come from and use fewer!

This reminds me of signs that remind us that stormwater drains go into a nearby river or bay. Even though I already don’t litter, I’m extra careful when I see that a gutter or drain will dump into a body of water.

Or how about the gauge in my Honda Hybrid that tells me how many miles per gallon I’m averaging on a tank of gas? There is a number that I shoot for with every tank. When the gauge tells me I’m below that number, I look for ways to change my driving to up that number: I coast more, I don’t speed, I use distance to slow down, I turn off the AC, yada, yada.

The question is: in our daily lives, what other signs and reminders could help us be more productive, healthier, greener, nicer? What labels and signs have helped you make a difference in your life?

P.S. I hope you’ll consider ordering stickers for your home and office. Heck, I’m thinking of buying a bunch and plastering them in bathrooms of bars and restaurants all over town! Won’t you join me?

So when Maki and I went to the beach last week, what did the staff do? They pranked me and prank me good they did!

I came back to find that my blog had been completely redesigned and rewritten. I became Jar Jar Binks, my signature purple was now green, and I had apparently been blogging about our new dress code and drinking on the job (if you know me, you know that I’m not much of a drinker). The net admins went to great pains to make sure that my new, green blog wasn’t available from outside the office.

I was in shock initially. Then I panicked that the blog had actually been replaced. Then I started laughing hysterically when I realized I had been pranked and pranked hard.

Check out the alternate version of The Matrix Files. (If the image comes in small, click it to make it full screen in your browser. Trust me, this will be worth it.)

Kudos to Liz, who masterminded the whole prank, and the whole gang of people who designed, wrote, posted, and hosted.

If you’re at familiar with some of the internal jokes at the office (purple is our signature color, we don’t allow shorts, yada, yada), you’ll get a chuckle at the posts. The writing is so good that I think I’ll recruit some new guest writers for this blog.

If you’re shocked at the amount of time that goes into our pranking or that I even allow pranking, let me just say that pranking is great for office morale and productivity. The prank prep is done during personal time and it’s just plain fun.

How about you? Have you pranked anyone lately? Share stories!

© 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved.

In honor of May 4, a sacred day among Star Wars fans (because George Lucas released all of the Star War movies on May 4th), I’m blogging about my Rule #1: Do or do not. There is no try.

Clearly, I did not make up this rule. It’s Yoda’s rule. But it’s a damn good rule, especially in business.

Here’s what I know: Clients don’t come to us so we can TRY to develop the complicated web application they need. They need us to do it. And they need to know that we will be successful and the end result will be close to what they envisioned.

I learned a long time ago that when assigning tasks that must get done, I don’t ask staff if they can do it. I provide background, then ask what they need to get the project done, what obstacles are in their way, and how I can support them. And when I get, “I’ll try,” I remind them that “I’ll try” is not a commitment and it’s not a promise, it’s a half-hearted “maybe” or a definite “no.”

Now, if we’re brainstorming, assessing options or exploring whether or not we can accomplish something, then I ask if we (Matrix Group) can do it. And it’s perfectly legit to say, “I’ll try.”

So what happens if someone (me included) doesn’t know exactly how to get the required task accomplished and can’t quite commit to it just yet? In that case, I ask people to give me a plan that details what they are going to do so they will know and can commit to a timeline and budget.

In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda lifts Luke’s starfighter from the swamp. An incredulous Luke says, “I don’t believe it.” To which Yoda retorts, “that is why you fail.” Like Yoda, my best developers, front-end developers, designers, admins, project managers (yada, yada) believe they can accomplish ridiculously hard tasks under ridiculous deadlines. That is why they succeed.

Matrix Group is competing in the Arlington Green Games, a competition for the commercial office sector (property owners and tenants) in Arlington, VA to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

When we first signed up for the competition, the office was all gung ho. We formed a green team, we filled out the benchmark survey and we got to work on our green initiatives. Turns out, it ain’t easy being green. Here’s why:

• Little Control Over Major Systems. At home, my husband and I ultimately control our energy consumption. We upgraded our HVAC system to a high efficiency system; our house is cold in the winter and warm in the summer; we just upgraded our windows to be triple-paned, argon gas-filled and super efficient; we installed dimmers; we wash our clothes in our cold water; yada, yada. But at work, our options are much more limited because we can’t control many of the systems that generate the most greenhouse gases. For example, as a tenant, I can’t exactly upgrade the windows on the 12th floor and we didn’t install the HVAC system that heats and cools the building.

• Being Green Costs More. As any news article on green technologies and lifestyles will tell you, being green just plain costs more. The Green Games website recommends that we purchase green credits to balance our CO2 emissions. We can also make sure that all of our purchasing (office supplies, equipment, furniture) is green, which can be considerably more expensive.

• There’s Little Incentive to be Green as a Tenant. I once asked a friend if she had switched her light bulbs to compact fluorescents and she said, “Why should I? I don’t pay for my electric bill. My building does.” As a tenant in a commercial office building, it’s hard to see the effects of our energy-hogging or green ways.

So what’s the green path and how are the Green Games making us better?

What I’m appreciating the most about the exercise is twofold: 1) we are focusing on obvious practices like composting our Keurig grounds and making sure the recycling is going into the right bins and actually being picked up by the recycling contractor and 2) we have initiated a conversation about real policy changes at the company that will result in meaningful greenhouse gas emission reductions.

For example, we currently subsidize half of employee parking fees and Metrocheck cards. But we don’t have incentives (financial or otherwise) for the staff who walk or bike to work. What can we do for these staff beyond giving them $50 a month that will mostly get eaten up by taxes (whereas parking and Metro subsidies are tax-free)? Can we alter the IT policy of leaving our computers on at night so that security patches can be installed; can we at least turn them off on the weekends? And how much of our company profits are we willing to forgo in favor of purchasing green products and credits? All tough questions that we don’t have answers to but that I look forward to exploring this year.

When I was in college and taking a course on aid in the developing world, my professor urged us students not to think about what one person can do in a day, but what a community of people can do over time. The Green Games are hopefully helping the business community in Arlington chart a course for real green practices and change in Northern VA. While it ain’t easy being green, the alternative ain’t much better.

How about you? What is your company doing to be greener? What innovative policies and initiatives have you come up with? What’s worked? What hasn’t?

With all the hiring we’re doing right now, my team decided that we better revisit all of our orientation guides.

When we started reviewing our existing guides, we found that the majority of them were too sparse. If you were lucky enough to do orientation with an earnest old-timer, you got lucky; otherwise, lots of things were missed.

So a bunch of sat down, revisited topics, and came up with 2-4 page guides for each topic.  Each topic has a sub-topic and talking points + specific things to cover.  The guides are working out very, very well.

One new thing we decided to create is a “Matrix Underground” guide, or the things you should know but nobody every tells you. We realized that it’s things on this guide that tend to trip people up or leave people bewildered.  For example, there are expressions that we expect people to know, acronyms,  and Joanna-isms that a person could take years to figure out.

Most things on the guide are funny, but some are dead serious.  Some examples:

• Sumner is the part-timer on the MatrixMaxx team who works in the afternoons (recent hires said they spent six months trying to figure out who the heck Sumner is).
• When Joanna says “can you do me a favor?” or “I need something from you,” it means “she needs something done NOW, not tomorrow, not next week, now.”
• When someone says “the cheese has moved,” it refers to the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” that we read as a company several years ago and it means “dude, the situation has changed, let’s move along and get over it.”
• You should always be super-nice to the network administrators, who just might be the most powerful people at the company (because you know, they can read your e-mail and they can help you recover your new Windows password that you changed yesterday and promptly forgot.)
• You should never, ever, ever say “I’ll try” to your manager, Joanna or a client.  Do or do not. There is no try.

I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to admit we have an underground and that we need to help people get up to speed on it!  The Matrix Group Underground Guide is a work in progress.  The “guide” will be discussed during the walking tour that new hires get treated to during their first week.  The idea behind the walking tour is to familiarize new team members with our physical environment, you know, things like where to get the best sandwich, where the closest ATM is, where to get a good salad.  From now on, we’ll supplement the walking tour with a discussion of the Matrix Group underground!

How about you?  How does your company help new hires get up to speed on your underground?

For my son’s Spring Break, my family spent a week in San Francisco and we flew round trip on Virgin America.  After two flights, I am a total fan, so much so that I told my husband that from now on, whenever possible, we will fly Virgin.

Just what makes the Virgin America user experience so different?

Virgin America doesn’t use different or larger planes.  The airfare was comparable to other airlines when I was booking on Orbitz.  We had to pay $20 to check our bags.  The legroom on the plane wasn’t more than on other planes I’ve flown recently.  The food and alcohol weren’t free.  And I didn’t get a blanket or pillow.

What made Virgin America different was the entertainment and how food and beverage were dispensed.

• The beverage carts only  made one pass through the plane.  But for the rest of the 5+ hour flight, if we wanted food or drink, we used our touch screens to place an order.  If I wanted water, I touched water and a flight attendant came by within minutes with a bottle of water – for free.  When my son wanted cookies, chocolate or a sandwich, I swiped my credit card, and the flight attendant came by with his order.  So for the entire flight, instead of just the couple of times the carts come around, we had access to food and beverages.
• There was Wi-Fi on the plan! For about $8, I could get wi-fi and check e-mail and surf the Web!  Unbelievable!  And each seat had regular AC power so I could keep my laptop plugged in during the whole flight!
• I loved the free Dish Network. No kidding, I caught an NCIS marathon the way to SF and a House marathon on the way back.  Truly decadent!
• There were also first run movies for rent and an awesome library of songs. I was able to make my own playlist of songs and listen to some great music!
• Perhaps most important, my son enjoyed music and shows appropriate just for kids.  He listened to Schoolhouse Rock, played games and watched videos for hours!  Hours!  While mommy and daddy enjoyed their own shows!  Priceless!
• And did I mention the purple mood lighting in the main cabin?

So here’s what struck me about the Virgin America experience.  Virgin didn’t try to change all aspects of the flying experience.  They focused on changing just one thing — entertainment — and ended up transforming the whole user experience. They also managed to get me to spend a whole lot more money, willingly and happily, than I have ever spent during a flight.

How about you?  What one thing can you change about your customer’s user experience that could radically transform your company and catapult you ahead of the competition?

I want to offer a great, big, heartfelt THANK YOU to all the businesses that supported the auction. What strikes me about the list of donors is that the vast, vast majority are small businesses.  Once again, they answered the call when we asked them to support a worthy cause, despite the awful economy. And once again, they came through in a big way.

Abaca Imports, my favorite furniture store in the world, once again donated two Asian-inspired lamps.  Salon DeZen, where I get my hair cut every couple of months, donated a haircut and facial.  Signature Theater donated 2 subscriptions to their 2010-2011 season.  Marrakesh Restaurant donated dinner for 10.  Rosenthal Jaguar donated the rental of a 2010 Jaguar for the weekend.  Liberty Tavern donated a progressive dinner for 6.  Thrive Pilates and Yoga donated ten classes.  Amber Association Partners donated two front-row tickets to see the Wizards.  And on, and on.  (You can view the entire, amazing list on the Doorways Web site.)

Matrix Group works with several, prominent trade associations representing small businesses.  If there’s one message that resonates constantly, it’s this:  small businesses are a vital part of our communities because they are more likely to support local charities and groups. As one exec put it:  You never see a big box retailer’s name on the uniform of the local little league team; it’s always a small, local business that put up the money.

Don’t get me wrong.  The auction got great support from large corporations, particularly hotel chains.  Marriott, Sheraton and The Hotel Hershey were very generous.  (God bless these guys, they  must get thousands of solicitations each year.)  The vast majority of our donors, however, were small businesses.

So thank you to all the businesses that supported Doorways, a small, local charity doing great work.  And thanks to all the small businesses out there who support local charities and causes everywhere.

The Olympics are for the Young

Although there are a few 30-something and 40-something athletes, the Olympics are dominated by elite competitors in their teens and 20s. After a dozen years of competing, their careers are over. I’m grateful that after 18 years in the online business, I still have many years ahead of me. Perhaps I’m a late bloomer, but I feel like it’s really only in the last five years that I’ve really hit my stride and seen Matrix Group really thrive and expand.

In Business, Teams Rule!

Although there are a few relay races, the Olympics are dominated by the talents and achievements of individuals. In business, you can’t complete projects of any significant size and scope without a team effort. Take any redesign project at Matrix Group; these projects involve a project manager, an information architect, multiple designers, at least one front-end developer, at least one developer, and at least one tester. The work of one person affects every other team member and if one team members screws up, the whole project is threatened.

In Business, You Want a Lot of Winners

It’s easy to compare the world of sales with the Olympics: lots of competitors, one winner. But I would argue that the true race or competition begins once the sale has been made and implementation begins. Paradoxically, at this stage, you don’t want any losers. You want the client, the vendor, the third party partners, and the customers to all win with whatever widget, Web site or product you are building.

In Business, I Get to Win Gold Every Week

If Shawn White hadn’t won gold in the Halfpipe competition, he’d have to wait another four years for his next chance. Sure, there are other competitions, but only one Olympics every four years. Me? I heard from two prospects last week that we didn’t make the final cut. But this week, we landed a new account and heard from another prospect that we made it to the next round. More important, we get to “win gold” pretty much every week when we launch new Web sites and apps or solve problems for clients.

The Whole World Isn’t Watching

Can you even imagine doing your job while millions of people watch? Imagine how it feels to be a figure skater and take a fall in front of a crowded auditorium and a worldwide TV audience. Thank God that my team and I get to do our work (mostly) without an audience.

I love the Olympics, especially the Winter Olympics. I’m a couch potato for two weeks as I cheer for my favorites, hold my breath and hope nobody takes a spill. When the Olympics end, I’ll be happy for the winners, and glad that I get to be a winner, in my own way, in my day job.

This got me to thinking.  What are all the ways, big and little, that we make it difficult for our customers and potential customers to do business with us? Consider these examples.

• A few years ago, my husband and I were shopping around for a mortgage.  I called three bankers.  One was only available between 7am and 3pm.  Another sent me 20 pages to fill out about our assets.  The third asked me when it would be convenient to call (7pm), asked me to send bank and 401(k) statements so that he could fill out all the paperwork.  Guess who got the business?  At that point, I knew each banker would give us a competitive rate, but Craig Miller from BF Saul made it easy for us to work with him.
• During the planning for our office move, I called several vendors about office furniture systems.  One never called back.  One asked me to send her the architect’s drawings and information on what we wanted (I didn’t yet know what we wanted so I didn’t call back.)  The third, Michelle Ferrari from Office Images, offered to come by with catalogs, look at the architect’s drawings with me and discuss our needs.  There was no contest.
• I called a company to get a reference for someone applying for a job at Matrix Group.  It took me 3 tries before I could figure out how to leave a message in the general mailbox.  I couldn’t even imagine calling as a prospective customer.
• I’ve had a relationship with Insurance Designers for a very long time.  Every time I have a question, I call or e-mail Neal or Wendy Cohen and they get back to me promptly.  One time, Matrix Group was applying for some new type of insurance and Neal’s office sent over a very long questionnaire, which I couldnot figure out.  I called Neal and he said, “don’t worry about it, let’s fill it out over the phone.”  I love the guy.
• I was looking for a specific Thomas the Tank Engine train for my son and I found it for less money (than Amazon) on a small retailer site.  I had questions about the train (because a certain 5-year old had a specific request) but, for the life of me, I could not find a phone number on the Web site.  I gave up, ordered the product from Amazon and prayed that I had ordered the right thing.
• I love that live chat is available on so many retail sites these days.  I can get my question answered asap, place my order and be on my way.

The lessons for all of us who sell products or services?

• Make it easy for our customers and prospective customers to contact us the way they feel comfortable doing so (phone, fax, e-mail, Web form, smoke signal).
• When a customer calls your office, make it easy to navigate the automated attendant voice mail system.  Better yet, have a human answer the call, find out the caller’s need and route the call to the right person.
• Call people back (yeah, I know, this one’s a no brainer).
• Don’t put too many any obstacles in the way of you sending a quote and closing the deal. I’m legendary in the office for not being quite human before 9am, but if a customer wants to do a call at 7am, I’ll be on the line at 6:55am.  I’ll be in my PJs, but I’ll be on the line.

As a CEO, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier to say “yes” to Matrix Group.  We sometimes stumble, but for me, the important thing is to constantly look for ways to make life better for Matrix Group clients.

How about you?  What site or retailer do you love to do business with and why?  And who makes it impossible to do business with them?  Got any horror stories?

We tend to think of traditions as part of our personal and family lives.  But if we look closely, most companies have traditions as well and they bind staff to the company and to each other. Here at Matrix Group, over the past ten years, we’ve amassed a set of traditions.  These traditions include: a pumpkin carving contest during Halloween, funny awards and a white elephant exchange during our holiday party, pie during the June birthday celebration, naming each server after a Star Wars character, and creating a special glass after an especially important launch.

The traditions have become part of our lore and our culture.  It’s part of what we as staff have come to expect, and they bridge the gap between staff of differing seniority.  I, for one, think that we ought to recognize these traditions, no matter how small, and celebrate them, for they make work a better place.

How about you?  What traditions does your company observe?  What do they mean to you?

Happy Thanksgiving!  And may your holiday be full of Thanksgiving tradition, family and togetherness.

Then I attended a presentation by Barry Deutsch, CEO of Impact Hiring Solutions, an executive search firm.  Barry’s presentation had such an impact on me and my company that Barry Deutsch is now a verb at Matrix Group.

When a job announcement is not pulling in the candidates we need, I tell my staff to “Barry Deutsch” the description.

Barry says that the top hiring mistakes companies make are:

• Failing to define the job properly, i.e., not defining what will represent success in the job.
• Falling victim to first impressions, i.e., the candidate looks good, talks well, she must be terrific.
• Desperation hiring, i.e., making an offer because you think it’s better to hire someone, anyone.
• Not asking deep and penetrating questions during the interview. This happens because managers don’t know how to conduct success-based interviews or lob softballs at the candidate because they “like” them.
• Failing to check references deeply. Many companies skip reference checks or don’t properly validate the claims by candidates. And if a candidate can’t provide references, RUN!

Ultimately, we all want to hire and retain top talent.  Here is what Barry has to say about top talent:

• Top talent is working; it’s rare that they’re unemployed so don’t pin your hopes on the resume database of a job board or rely on a recruiter that doesn’t have access to working candidates.
• Top talent is usually already well paid and working on amazing projects so don’t believe that paying more money is going to be enough to shake top talent from their current employers.
• Top candidates look for 3 things in order to make a move: Is the new job a better opportunity? What kind of impact will I have on the company, on the clients, in the world? What will I become if I take this job?
• Top candidates ultimately take new jobs because: the opportunity is terrific, they will be working for a boss they can respect, and the company is one they can respect and admire.

Barry has a whole methodology for finding top candidates, interviewing them, checking references, making the offer, etc.  He even has a great, funny, insightful book that I highly recommend: You’re Not the Person I Hired.  It’ s a must read if you are involved in your company’s hiring process in any way or if your company is struggling with recruiting.

So what happened to our open Network Administrator job? We completely rewrote the job announcement and instead of listing minimum requirements, we made the job aspirational. We talked about the opportunities and challenges of working with so many technologies, managing a diverse hosting environment, and the crazy launch schedules.  We even gave the job a new title: Network Admin Superhero. We rewrote the interview questions.  And we spent a lot of time on the phone with references.  The result?

We got amazing candidates within a few days and we filled the job in three weeks. (I am not making this up, just ask Deb, my IT Manager.)  My staff will tell you that I swear Barry Deutsch changed my life and he really did.  We continue to use the Barry method and recently made an offer to an amazing candidate for the MatrixMaxx Project Manager/Brewmaster.  We also recently hired a Project Manager/Cat Herder/Master Juggler.

How about you?  What kind of hiring challenges does your organization face? Do you need to Barry Deutsch your hiring process?

Here are some sample cards that demonstrate what we were trying to achieve.

Here’s my card.  The front is purple so it’s easy to find on a cluttered desk or stack o cards.  The corners are curved because Alex says the Matrix Group brand is curvey, node-y.  The prominent elements are my name and title and the company Web address.  You’ll also notice that my card has all the ways you can contact me:  phone, fax, e-mail, blog and Twitter.

Here’s Maki’s card.  The general format of the card is mostly the same, but Maki’s card has his PGP key ID, which is a public key encryption that allows anyone to send an encrypted e-mail to Maki; only Maki has the decryption key.  You’ll also notice that Maki has two titles: one in English and one in Japanese.  Everyone at Matrix can have a serious title, a fun title or both. Maki’s fun title is Shogun of Lunch in Japanese.  Other fun titles at the company are: Digital Cowboy, Idea Launcher, Master Juggler/Cat Herder, .NET Rock Star, Go To Guru, Server Sensei and Marketing Maven.

Here’s Sumner’s card.  Sumner’s card is most like everyone else’s card.  He’s got contact information (phone, fax, e-mail) and simply a fun title.  Because Sumner is a longtime Linux contributor and he programs in Python on a Linux system, he’s a Penguin Tamer.  Tux the penguin is the Linux mascot, fyi.

Here’s the back of our business card.  The full Matrix Group logo is displayed prominently, along with our tagline: Strategy. Execution. Results.  You’ll also notice that we list the URLs for our Twitter and Facebook pages. Finally, while the front of the business card is smooth, the back of the card is uncoated and white, so that it’s easy to write a message. I’m famous for writing notes on the backs of business cards that I give away.  I write things like “met at ZZZ conference, call about Web design RFP” or “call for lunch.”

I have to admit that the process of redesigning our cards was a bit tortuous, especially since every person had the option of adding a fun title and several of us have a different front.  However, we think the new cards are pretty snazzy and consider them to be bold, mini-brochures for the company.

How about you?  What does your business card say about you or your company? Do you think we were successful with our card redesign?

With those few words, Ray turned my afternoon around. All my tension slipped away as I burst out laughing.  I gave him a couple of calls to return, promised to make calls from the taxi, and headed on my way.

If you Google “sense of humor in the workplace,” you’ll get all kinds of posts about how humor is often NOT appropriate in the workplace.  But I challenge anyone to tell me their dry, humorless office is a great place to work. Personally, I don’t think I would have survived the early MatrixMaxx software releases without Tanya’s dry sense of humor.  And Eric made the recent recruiting process for a Project Manager enjoyable with his hilarious stories from working in a casino.  Thankfully, at least one blogger, Elaine Ambrose, says that “(a) sense of humor will save your job and probably your life.”

A sense of humor won’t get you hired at Matrix Group, but it’s certainly not going to hurt.  And if you can keep me laughing during an interview or Web site launch going south, I may just decide to keep you on the team.

How about you?  When did a sense of humor at work save you?

Then it hit me: the company had gone through a fairly large downsizing recently.  The corporate culture was one I was more likely to find in a much larger organization because the culture had not adjusted to the new realities of the smaller organization!  Ick.

Then I realized the opposite can happen as well.  As an organization grows, the culture, communication channels and corporate underground may be more appropriate for a small company, not the realities of a larger one. In fact, it’s happened at Matrix Group, although we’re certainly not large (under 50 staff) and our growth has been slow and steady.  I used to rely on word of mouth to communicate with staff about all kinds of things.  I would chat with a few folks, who would pass along the news.  I would also hold “town meetings” and invite anyone who was available.  Turns out that when we hit the magic 40-staff number, my informal communications style didn’t work as well anymore.  I now have to over-communicate, send out lots of all staff e-mails, direct the Directors and Project Managers to reiterate news and decisions, and hold multiple meetings to get feedback.  Guess what?  I still get complaints every now and then from staff who feel they weren’t consulted or didn’t know a specific decision was made.

I’ve realized something really important as well.  The corporate underground and communications channels always lag behind and must be coaxed and directed to meet the needs and realities of the current organization. And just because I say I have an open door policy doesn’t mean people believe me (even though it’s true!)  So these days, my communications mantras include:

• Assume imperfect communication between staff.
• Send out regular e-mails about the most important things even when I think everyone already has the information.
• Use staff meetings as a means for disseminating news, decisions, policies, new technologies, cool projects.
• Rely on the Directors and Project Managers to reinforce the communications.
• Post as much information as possible to the intranet.
• Solicit feedback directly, especially from people I’m not hearing from.

How about you?  How is your company’s underground working?  Does it fit the size and needs of your current organization?