Seattle's Corporate Culture - Growing pains
There were those days when everything was wrapped in plastic, packed in plastic bags and served in and on styrofoam and we were happy. There were those days when a snowy winter in Seattle was obsolete. Times change, now we have snowplows and a plan, now we have bamboo water bottles and sugar cane shoes, corporate culture has also advanced.
As I ponder our world and I ask myself why are Seattleites so agreeable and distant. What's with the coffee date that never happens? I created a story for myself, I thought, With the weather over 40 degrees and under 80 degrees 11 + months out of the year, Seattlites don't actually know what extremes feel like, freezing cold, shoveling snow with your neighbors or running from the scorching sun as the AC breaks down. On another note, this can work well when it comes to innovation, creativity and listening to each other's stories.
Why should we endure discomfort and harsh communication when we could be finding harmony and flow. Back to Seattleites, a stable medium is where you'll find that the Seattleites open up, become productive and activated. Seattlites love to complain when it's too hot or too cold. The perfect gage for measuring the health of office culture.
On my Linkedin news feed, there is a great deal of change going on, how teams are lead, how corporate culture lets go of certain ideas and allows for feedback from employees, embraces the feedback and even sets time up for it. There is time set aside for volunteering, for possible projects that could advance the company, food from around the world, and some companies even have a masseuse come to the desk. All of this in Seattle.
These same Companies outside of Seattle, in other parts of the world, hold different priorities. This is a statement, not an accusation. Time is short, competition high, things are done as they always were and groceries are packed in plastic bags as they always were. Seattle is always striving for better and knows how to take the time to innovate and explore the possibilities, let's celebrate these new ways of doing things, recognize the steps taken and the ones unfolding and then share them, let's do something very un Seattlite like, and share the secrets discovered through workplace awareness with the other branches worldwide, even in the places where it seems impossible. There are always a few who will know how to lead by example. Corporate growing pains are real and they are a sign of change. Change is merely the natural course of our existence, resilience comes from accepting the changes and being the change. Thank you Seattleites for being so sensitive to extremes.