Trust-based teams
The culture I’m trying to create is one where every year when we celebrate another record result, I get up on the beer box and I say, “Thank you for doing all of the things I never asked you to do.” I don’t want to control. I want to create context. I want to create clarity of culture and strategic choice, but then I want people to surprise me. I don’t want a place where people are doing what they’ve been told to do because that stifles, that creates bureaucracy, that creates fear.
—Jorgen von Knudstorp, former CEO of LEGO
A lot of companies default to control because they don’t fully trust their teams. They require everyone to work in the office, pick tools for managers over makers, or force all decisions to run through the leadership team. These choices might feel safer in the moment, but they make it harder to tap into global talent, they stifle creativity and speed, and they sap motivation.
At Whimsical, we take a different approach: we operate as a trust-based team. We hire exceptional people and provide the context needed to make the right decision. We give our team the freedom and tools to do their best work. With trust at the core, we can move quickly, produce high-quality work, and collaborate well as a globally distributed team.
What this looks like at Whimsical…
- Hiring: It all starts with having exceptional people. In general, we try to hire experienced people who thrive with high amounts of responsibility and freedom. We look for clear communicators and self-starters who take their craft seriously.
- Async status updates: Clear and frequent communication increases trust. Our team leads post weekly project updates and team members post written check-ins throughout the week.
- Project leads: Every project has a clear lead who owns decisions, organizes the project, and keeps things moving.
- Candid feedback: We believe feedback (both constructive and praise) is a key ingredient to trust and is best when it’s candid, timely, and intended to make the team better. We encourage continuous feedback as it comes up but we also do lightweight performance reviews twice per year.
- Impact > optics: One of the beautiful things about async work is that it places more focus on output and impact over things that might signal productivity such as attending lots of meetings, sending messages in off hours, or having an “active” presence indicator.
- Freedom to fail: We believe that meaningful work requires experimentation, and true experimentation means embracing the possibility of failure. Instead of fearing mistakes, we see them as essential stepping stones to discovery.