The #1 tip for IT professionals (or anyone) to advance their career as described in “3 Ways to Advance Your IT Career,” is to Be A Team Player. Eric Grevstad explains that “you’re part of a bigger team – the whole company – and you’re judged on how much you contribute to the business’s bottom line.
The driving force behind “being a team player” is collaboration. Here are some fabulous real-life examples of how collaboration supports everyone’s success:
Is your organization looking for ways to improve communication and collaboration? Contact me at peggy@starrybluebrilliance.com to discuss how we can work together to create masterpiece communications.
When’s the last time you experienced great collaboration at work?
When I heard about Bonfyre’s Lunch and Learn program, I just had to find out more about this fabulous example of collaboration so I could share it and inspire others to be more collaborative at work.
This month, Chris shared with me how Bonfyre’s Lunch and Learn program increases collaboration among his employees so they learn from each other, learn about each other, and continue to be inspired to help their clients create increased collaboration in their organizations.
Bonfyre employees collaborate on white-boarding and visual communication during their monthly Lunch and Learn program
Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC: How does your Lunch and Learn series support your business goals? Chris Dornfeld: The Bonfyre Lunch and Learn program accomplishes three objectives for our team:
(1) Exposing people to new ideas and knowledge.
(2) Getting to know one another. Employees present on a broad range of topics. Most are in some way interactive.
(3) Reinforce our culture of collaboration and learning.
These outcomes help us build a more engaged, innovative and collaborative team of people.
PB: How does your Lunch and Learn series promote collaboration and a positive company culture? CD: Occasionally, we bring in an outside expert, but most of our Lunch and Learns are organized and presented by employees. Some of the topics are directly related to our business and some are just things people find interesting and they want to share. People take them pretty seriously and do an excellent job making them interesting and engaging.
Recently, one of our graphic designers did a Lunch and Learn on white-boarding and good visual communication in meetings. After the first 20 minutes, we divided into pairs and created visual stories for one another. Not only did we learn about visual communication, but we learned a great deal about people in other parts of the company.
PB: Tell us more about your Lunch and Learn series program. CD: We try to conduct a program once a month. The topics vary widely from how stock options work, to travel slide shows of exotic places, from client events, to hacking Bonfyre design ideas. We have also hosted authors, motivational speakers and experts in their fields.
PB: What is some of the feedback you’ve received so far on this series? CD: Incredibly positive! It’s always nice to get a free lunch with your co-workers, but learning more about things you are interested in is even better. The topics are pretty diverse, and attendance is voluntary. Everyone participating is engaged.
PB: What are some other collaboration activities or initiatives you’ve launched? CD: We build technology to help employees around the globe love their job, so we are constantly thinking and testing new technologies, ideas and programs to improve the work experience.
Bonfyre employees team-build during a human foosball game.
We have company team building events like human foosball and escape rooms. We encourage cross-department brainstorming/hackathons to help solve problems. We have project tables for Lego and “maker” builds. And of course, we have Bonfyre communities for everything from project teams to “foodies,” so we can stay connecting and collaborating, no matter our location.
Bonfyre’s collaboration techniques inspired me to create a new series called Collaboration@Work, where I’ll share more examples of fabulous collaboration at work. Stay tuned!
What are some examples of fabulous collaboration you’ve experienced at your organization?
The best part of my adventure was spending time with people who valued collaboration and having fun! I’m grateful to everyone who shared their time, expertise and insights with me. Connecting with good people creates good energy! 🙂
I was especially happy to have met in person these collaboration experts featured on my blog in March and April:
Collaboration is what ties culture and best practices together.
Mobile is a best practice for employee and customer communication, but in “Infographic: Why Every Organization Should be Using Mobile,” Text Marketer reports that “unbelievably, there are still some people out there who still think mobile is a fad and are still not using it to market their business!”
In my profile of Chris Dornfeld, President and Co-founder of Bonfyre, he explained that “people to people communication is where engagement, trust, collaboration, empowerment, sentiment and innovation are all affected the most. A social mobile platform like Bonfyre is specifically and uniquely designed to support people to people communication – the source of company culture.”
Learn more about the benefits of mobile communication platforms as Chris Dornfeld and Jennifer Pruett, Director, HR Communications, Express Scripts, present “Leveraging Social & Mobile Communications Internally to Build Community, Camaraderie and Culture” at the Strategic Internal Branding Conference, April 19-21 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
With a workforce of over 28,000, spanning across 80 communities around the country, Express Scripts supports employees’ efforts to help shape and champion a changing and robust culture. During their presentation, Chris and Jennifer will share how social and mobile internal communications are catalysts for culture change and community building, and how to:
Implement social-based communication tools in the workplace
Pull data from social communications to provide key HR insights and intelligence
Engage employees where they are, on their time, based on their interests, to transform and build culture
Registerfor the Strategic Internal Branding Conference. Together we’ll learn about using authentic internal branding communications to create brand champions, build culture and engage employees to live and deliver on the brand promise.
Since I’m a conference supporter, just mention Starry Blue Brilliance when you register to receive a $200 discount. 🙂
Please share this information with your networks. The Twitter hashtag is #ALI_IntBranding.
Welcome to Brilliance@Work, a series of profiles about stellar collaboration professionals and their best practices at work.
Chris Dornfeld
Chris Dornfeld is President and Co-founder of Bonfyre, a mobile, social engagement platform used by people, brands and companies around the globe. Prior to Bonfyre, Chris served in executive roles in several start-up companies, including a venture-backed health services start-up that grew to over 500 people in 18 months.
Join Chris at the Advanced Learning Institute’s Strategic Internal Branding Conference, April 19-21 in Scottsdale, Arizona as he presents “Leveraging Social & Mobile Communications Internally to Build Community, Camaraderie and Culture.”
In the meantime, read on to learn more about Chris and the importance of collaboration in transforming organizational culture.
Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC: What are you most interested in and speak most enthusiastically about? Chris Dornfeld: Reinventing the corporation and the development of Human Resources Business Intelligence. There is an incredible change happening as companies evolve their business models, organizational structures and their strategies to empower instead of managing people. Working with corporations to communicate, measure and understand this change is really interesting.
PB: What are some of your past and current projects that you are most proud of? CD: Past project: While CIO for the City of St. Louis we created a government performance program that created millions of dollars of savings and productivity benefits. It was the first step in creating a better culture in the day-to-day operations of government and has positive impact on hundreds of thousands of people.
Current project: Although we are small, Bonfyre has an incredible culture and team. I am really proud of how incredibly our team performs every day and all the innovation occurring in every area of our company.
PB: What role does a social mobile platform play in transforming organizational culture? CD: Companies are beginning to understand there are three areas of internal communication:
Company to people
System to people
People to people
Most organizations focus on the first (company to people), but do not realize people to people is where engagement, trust, collaboration, empowerment, sentiment and innovation are all affected the most. A social mobile platform like Bonfyre is specifically and uniquely designed to support the people to people communication category – the source of company culture.
PB: What will people gain from attending the Strategic Internal Branding Conference? CD: I am excited about the Strategic Internal Branding Conference for three reasons:
The topic is timely and relevant to companies.
The size of the conference is intimate so you can create meaningful connections with people.
There are some incredible thought leaders attending, so the information, case studies and learning opportunities are excellent.
PB: What is most important for people to understand from your conference presentation? CD: The power and potential of building an inclusive process to align culture and transform an organization.
PB: What is your contact information for questions, comments, ideas? CD: Email me at Chris@bonfyreapp.com, follow me on Twitter @dornfeld, or join Bonfyre for the conference and start a conversation.
Registerfor the Strategic Internal Branding Conference. Together we’ll learn about using authentic internal branding communications to create brand champions, build culture and engage employees to live and deliver on the brand promise.
Since I’m a conference supporter, just mention Starry Blue Brilliance when you register to receive a $200 discount. 🙂
Please share this information with your networks. The Twitter hashtag is #ALI_IntBranding.
Photo: Pixabay
Starry Blue Brilliance 