Culture: our secret ingredient for delivering great creative

If you talk to any taxi driver about their taxi they’ll tell you one thing: how well they look after that taxi. Whether it’s checking the tyre pressure, keeping up to date with oil changes or how regularly they get it serviced. Why? Because every taxi driver knows that when their taxi isn’t working, they’re not working.

In the professional services industry, our people are our taxi. Every conversation they have with our customers, every project they deliver, deadline they meet and extra mile they go, is vital to our success. If our people aren't feeling great, connected to our purpose, clear about their roles, motivated by our leadership, included, and treated fairly, then our business simply won't thrive.

It's no wonder then that it’s such a no-brainer for professional services organisations to invest in and deliver a people-first strategy, so we’re chuffed to be ranked today by Great Place To Work UK as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting & Professional Services.

At Something Big we take our role seriously when it comes to driving our culture. That’s in part because our people are our product, but it’s also because for 25 years it’s simply always been at the heart of our approach. It runs through our values, and now as an employee-owned organisation and certified B Corp, we’re more committed to our people than ever.

In the creative industry, our culture is perhaps especially important. Our success relies on delivering the best creative work to our clients. Creativity thrives in a positive and inclusive environment, where every idea is valued, where we know that even bad ideas and failures can lead us closer to great ideas and success. You only have to think about the person who suggested that a family of meerkats were going to help rocket insurance provider Compare the Market to instant success. That person had to feel pretty safe and free to bring their slightly whacky idea to the table!

So, what are some of the things that sit at the heart of being a Great Place to Work and one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting & Professional Services?

Psychological safety

It might sound like a buzz word but in the creative industry, feeling safe to explore radical ideas without the fear of being shot down is pretty critical to delivering our clients great work. A bit like eradicating blame culture, creating psychological safety isn’t something you just announce you want one day and magically you have it. It’s like a golden thread that has to run consistently through everything you do and say. It’s the way you behave when things go wrong, it’s the way you listen and empower, it’s the action you take as a result of people speaking up, and much more. At Something Big, we see creating a safe environment where everyone can be heard, respected and taken seriously as core to delivering our product of creative solutions.

In it together

Being employee-owned genuinely means that when we do well we share the profits together, and equally when times are hard we all feel it. This takes teamwork up a notch, it means everyone has to know the part they play, the contribution they make and the strength and skills they need to leverage to make the whole team succeed.

Balance 

In an industry known for its demanding schedules and tight deadlines, we’ve taken a more balanced approach. We like to think we fly high on performance but not at any cost. Working from home should be just that, not living at work. Midnight deadlines shouldn’t be the norm, in fact, they can often be avoided with decent planning and scheduling. We operate a very flexible working approach so that everyone can make conscious choices about how much of their lives they want to devote to work versus their families. This approach to flexibility and balance is critical to our wellbeing strategy, it doesn’t matter how great a creative you are if you’re burnt out and miserable. Protecting our people and their health also protects the quality of our creativity.

Doing the right thing

Whilst it might sound like another buzz phrase, becoming a certified B Corp helps us turn ‘doing the right thing’ from sentiment to tangible actions that we’re held accountable to through the governance of the B Corp assessments. Having ethical standards isn’t just something that impacts the way we manage our team but also how they feel about the business they work for, you can hear how they feel about it here.

These are some of the things we’re doing at Something Big to keep our taxi on the road and running smoothly. I'd love to hear from other professional services organisations, how are you looking after your culture?