By Mike Lessiter, President
Lessiter Media | mlessiter@lessitermedia.com | 262-777-2403
Recent travels to see Lessiter Media customers have opened my eyes to the workplace accoutrements companies are investing in. I saw a replacement parts warehouse whose front lobby spaces rivaled that of some advertising agencies ... A feed company’s offices and conference room that oozed a bank-like professionalism, credibility and stability ... And modern equipment dealerships whose entryways and signage are replete with a friendly, decidedly positive customer experience.
I’ll admit I used to be a bit of a Grinch when it came to sprucing up the workspace. Maybe it stemmed from my college years when I learned my best paper-writing occurred in a dark closet. And while I had nice and spacious offices earlier in my career in Chicago, I couldn’t keep the offices clean. So you might as well put me in a well-lit box with a broad desk for numerous paper piles. Work was work, and I felt I could do it anywhere as long as the IT worked.
Along the way, and in part because our small company was always busting at the seams despite taking on more and more space, I became a heads-down type who rarely spent any time, thought or dollars on the staff experience, just the work. And I assumed everyone was the same. Wrong.
When we moved into much bigger and more modern and freshly renovated digs nearly 10 years ago, there was an insistence that none of the cobbled-together office furniture or curious collection of wall-art would be making the trip. We started over, and I’m glad some expenses I was inclined to question weren’t shown to me until the project was completed.
Buddy the Elf
All this was on my mind this week while on the road, after reading a blog by Lisa Chase, on the impact that a well-designed and creative investment can have on a work setting.
Chase, who’s known as a “brand ambassador” at Amplify Graphics & Branding, used a timely Christmas movie analogy to make her point.
“Remember Buddy? He was the cheerful and creative elf from the movie Elf who walks into a department store that’s completely ordinary. But Buddy has a special gift. He doesn’t just see a store; he sees the magic of what it could be. He transforms the entire space into Santa’s Workshop — a colorful, festive, and exciting place full of joy and wonder. He doesn’t just decorate, he completely reimagines it, making it an experience that’s fun, memorable, and alive with the spirit of Christmas.”
If you know the movie, you’ll remember how everyone celebrated Buddy’s creation, well, except for his paranoid Gimbel’s manager. There was high-stepping, smiling and uber-productivity, just like the real Elves and in the real Christmas spirit. That energy was revealed through the change in setting. And Buddy got the girl in the end ...
Chase’s article focused on reimagining workspaces to make all who enter the space feel the special energy that each unique culture brings. Workplaces should be functional as well as exciting and memorable, she says.
Our Office Walk-Through
The article caused me to make a mental inventory of our 12,000-square-foot workspace. But first a few words about our culture and what we were “going for.”
Refined during our Strategic Planning 2.0 process, our passion at Lessiter Media is “Hardworking people equipping hardworking people with knowledge for success.”
Nothing was particularly new about that wordsmithed slogan, but the setting now also reinforces it. Our Core Values are posted in every workspace, conference room and common areas, as is our “Company Flywheel.”
The culture-reflecting elements I see in our workspace includes the chalkboard wall, the bell of success (we gather around to “ring up” or celebrate a notable achievement), the “LMTV” in the lunchroom and the photos on canvasses that hang purposely throughout the offices, usually featuring images that our team shot themselves out in the field.
Practicing What We Preach
As a media company, we tend to be, at our core, a gaggle of opportunity-seeking marketers. That is, we’re looking for solutions and best practices to address subscribers’ specific problems, to connect suppliers and buyers with the right products, and bring our creativity in all formats -- print, digital, video and in-person. More so than ever, we’re practicing what we preach about the journey (not just the finish line) and how to leverage our own creativity, problem-solving and accountability to achieve “outside of the box” results.
To Chase’s point, a company can bring its physical presence to life with graphics and messaging that is motivating and reinforcing. For us, having a large-format printer is a definite plus, as a new canvass or glass- or floor-cling can be ready in minutes.
If you want to give your work culture a boost and wish to spice up your workspace with signage, blown-up photos or whatever you can dream – from vinyl to canvas to 9 feet long – let us know. We like to keep our printer running. And we’d be proud to help you unearth your own workplace culture. That too is part of the mission here.
Merry Christmas from all of us at Lessiter Media!
Chalkboard Wall in the Lunchroom. The full-wall chalkboard not only serves as a place to post quarterly goals and results but also fun questions (like one’s “walk-up” song, favorite movie, inspiring quote, best book and how one met their spouse).
Bell Ringing! Here’s how it works. Receptionist Audrey Woods pages everyone to quickly gather around the bell to await the news of the latest success story achieved. Examples of bell ringers are editorial, design and video awards; exemplary examples of teamwork; meaningful cost-savings and newly launched revenue streams. There are always a few embarrassing words, different styles of bell-ringing (including ear-piercers) and the always-to-be-counted-on applause and fist-bumps.
Points for Fun. The youthful spirit of our Digital Media crew is evident in the lunchtime puzzle work progressing each day on a dedicated table in the department. Well, dedicated that is until DM Director Michelle Drewek’s girls have a day off from elementary school. Then, the puzzle table “double-duties” as a fully fortified reading and gaming nook.
LMTV – Hear it Here First. The large screen TV in the lunchroom that initially served to entertain my young boys’ movies on Saturdays is now home of “LMTV” – a series of multi-media messages that is released a couple of times a month. It broadcasts company performance notes, fun Pop-Culture trivia, little known facts about your co-workers, the Friday Treat List and a “Core Value of the Week.” Each new “episode” slows the team down long enough to encounter a co-worker grabbing a coffee. The result is random, unplanned conversations, an update or two on a project and hopefully some trash-talking on college sports teams and a joke or two. (Mutual mocking is an unpublished core value at LM.)
