eROI Days Email Agency

Over the past three months, I met with all 34 employees in my company and asked them tough questions about the role work plays in their lives and ended up receiving more tough answers than I was prepared to hear. My e-marketing agency, eROI, is 4 ½ years old and has been growing fast and furious from the start. We’ve had growing pains and transition times before, but nothing like this. If you are a company owner or an employee of a growing startup who likes the company but are frustrated about aspects of it, then you will get a lot out of my learnings.

The following story is a transparent view into my company’s transition with growth. The story starts with preparing for our four-day retreat in the snowy Cascade Mountains in sunny Central Oregon. All the preparation and internal discussions took place in Portland, Oregon six weeks before the actual retreat happened in late May. The goal of the retreat was to go through an internal branding discussion to get internal alignment on who we are as a company, as a brand, and where we want to take the company in the next year. However, the preparation work produced information that I was oblivious to.

Preparing for our Annual Company Retreat
In early April ’07, I requested one-on-one meetings with all of my 34 employees. I asked them to answer in advance five questions in preparation for their meetings. The email that I sent out to the team requesting this was:

______________________________________________________________

From: Ryan Buchanan [mailto:ryan@eroi.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:00 PM
To: All Employees
Subject: fun + important exercise leading to Black Butte – personal branding + eROI

Team,
I know I talk to almost everyone a bit here and there on a daily basis, but I want to ask a few questions in one-on-one meetings with each individual person (you + me for 15 minute meetings next week) where your answers will remain anonymous. Collectively, your input will help inform a much larger branding discussion at Black Butte (all day Friday) around what eROI should be in the near future.

I’ll walk around now to schedule these 15min meetings next week w/ folks.
Thx,
Ryan

The day before I had my first set of one-on-one meetings, I started to hear from a couple vocal employees that they appreciated the email and had a lot to share with me. Something about how they said this made me a little nervous of what I was about to hear. My huge mistake, before this transition process started, was that I thought I was connected to the thoughts of each employee and each department by socializing frequently. Every other month, we treat the company to a “happy hour;” appetizers, pool, and a dozen or more fun gifts to team-players and individuals who really go above and beyond their job. Everyone has a blast and gets along together in social settings. Additionally, we have a fun, edgy annual company party and our annual retreat where everyone socializes heavily as well. I also walk around the office several times a day and check in quickly with each department.

While socializing and walk-around managing are good techniques, I was clearly missing an equally important element – carving out formal, professional meetings with employees to create a more private, intimate setting to hear what they loved, hated, or most often what they were frustrated with (i.e. processes, projects, or misinterpreted communication with other employees).