Once a week, our team gets together for a standing meeting in the middle of the office. We take turns chairing the meeting to share quick updates on our wins, challenges, our project milestones, personal good news etc. One of the best parts of the meeting is the sharing of Core Value Cards between team members There’s a total of ten cards, and each one relates back to one of Inertia’s ten core values.
When one member of the team has noticed another colleague doing something that reflects one of these values, they acknowledge them publicly by presenting them with a core value card. The card also has space on the back for a personal note. It’s a voluntary exercise but it’s pretty unusual for a weekly meeting to go by without a card (or several) being presented.
As an example, Ryan, who has just joined Inertia, recently gave a core value card to Kay, an engineer who has been with Inertia for several years. Ryan wanted to acknowledge how grateful he was to Kay for answering “lots of questions, without the slightest hint of frustration in his voice” about some of our design practices Ryan was still getting used to.
It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Getting acknowledged makes you feel good. It also goes also goes a long way to building strong relationships amongst co-workers, plus it makes the team stronger as a whole.
At Inertia, we put a lot of focus on building a supportive, progressive and fun culture. There’s no one single way to do this, but things like core value cards definitely help. You can check out our core value cards below and read more about our core values here.
