CASE STUDY - Birkman · 2017-10-10 · CASE STUDY Using The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich...

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CASE STUDY Using The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich Company Culture During Times of Rapid Growth

Transcript of CASE STUDY - Birkman · 2017-10-10 · CASE STUDY Using The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich...

Page 1: CASE STUDY - Birkman · 2017-10-10 · CASE STUDY Using The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich Company Culture During Times of Rapid Growth. INTRODUCTION MailChimp is not just

CASE STUDYUsing The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich Company CultureDuring Times of Rapid Growth

Page 2: CASE STUDY - Birkman · 2017-10-10 · CASE STUDY Using The Birkman Method to Preserve and Enrich Company Culture During Times of Rapid Growth. INTRODUCTION MailChimp is not just

INTRODUCTIONMailChimp is not just any email marketing service. Founded in 2001, it now has over 14 million users worldwide and an internal team of more than 500 people. In 2016, MailChimp CEO, Ben Chestnut, won the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® National Award in the media, entertainment, and communications category because of his team’s continuous innovation and success in their field. When MailChimp began experiencing very rapid growth in 2013, Ben and his team were faced with the challenge of cultivating the company culture and continuing to empower employees.

No matter how large the company grows, MailChimp strives to maintain its values of humility, creativity, and independence. The modern and lively office spaces, opportunities for learning and expressing creativity, and MailChimp’s in-house leadership development institution, MailChimp University, are just some of the ways they strive to be better, weirder, and more human. MailChimp uses Birkman to continue to be an authentic and people-centric company, even as they grow and impact businesses around the globe.

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PRESERVING VALUES A Challenge to Companies Experiencing Rapid Growth

In 2013, MailChimp partnered with Michael Sacks, an organizational development expert at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.Michael recommended that MailChimp use Birkman as a way to establish common ground among its employees in anticipation of all the challenging conversations that would likely arise at a fast-growing company. By looking at their behaviors and motivations in an objective manner, individuals are able to share their perspectives and viewpoints in ways that are easy to explain, yet provide great insights into the way they communicate and interact with others. MailChimp worked with Michael to develop an in-house team dedicated to managing Birkman assessments, reports, and related resources for the company.

Julie Remington is a talent mentor and development lead at MailChimp, as well as a Birkman Certified Professional. She aims to develop employees both personally and professionally, while establishing high-functioning teams.

Julie explains, “In order to maintain our values and continue empowering our customers, we want to help our employees better understand their individual strengths, work across differences, have better conversations, and continue to collaborate well. We thought that bringing Birkman into the workplace could provide the tools for better understanding of ourselves and our colleagues in order to foster a productive, self-reflective, and authentic workplace.”

“Birkman gave MailChimp a shared neutral language to talk

about diversity and help demonstrate that differences are

assets to be cultivated and handled with care.”- Julie Remington, Development Lead, MailChimp

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IMPLEMENTING BIRKMANAcross the Organization

MailChimp began by giving the assessment to all employees, team by team. All new hires fill out the assessment on their first day and are introduced to Birkman terminology on their third day. Within six to eight weeks of their start date, new hires meet with their manager and a MailChimp Birkman Certified Professional for a conversation about using Birkman as the framework for communication success.

Individuals use Birkman reports to better understand their unique strengths, challenges, and passions, as they grow in their current roles and careers. The teams at MailChimp use Birkman to encourage self-reflection and self-awareness. Birkman helps managers and direct reports get to know one another and develop more fruitful working relationships.

Most teams at MailChimp complete a Birkman team activity once or twice a year, and the more collaboration between departments and teams, the greater the increase in the use of group reports and activity requests. “We love customizing reports and focusing on the Needs of each individual duo, team, or department to help serve the conversations they’re having right now,” explains Julie. These activities range from simple feedbacks to problem solving activities focused on goals, projects, or Birkman Component scores.

Specific applications of Birkman at MailChimp include: • Onboarding • Team Building • Conflict Management • Career Development • Inspiration & Empowerment • Giving & Receiving Feedback • Personal and Interpersonal Growth

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGESof Using Assessments in the Workplace

“At first, we struggled with some skeptics towards the assessment, but decided to embrace them and the opportunities for constructive conversation. Leaders made it clear to employees that the only person’s data they are responsible for is their own. Employees are encouraged to own their report results and talk about their scores in whatever way they are comfortable with,” explains Julie.

Birkman gives people the opportunity to easily engage in deep conversations, and at MailChimp, they ensure that everyone knows Birkman reports are the jump-ing-off point for conversations. By having Birkman as a conversation starter, individuals are able to explain their point of view and how they feel they express their different behaviors and personality traits. Additionally, Julie expresses, “Birkman gave MailChimp a shared neutral language to talk about diversity and help demonstrate that differences are assets to be cultivated and handled with care.”

Birkman sheds light onto the positive aspects of personality and helps individuals embrace their unique strengths while developing awareness of thought diversity. Only when individuals own their differences can a company unleash its creativity and be “more human,” as MailChimp likes to call it.

“We wanted to help our

employees better understand their individual strengths,

work across differences, have better conversations, and

continue to collaborate well.” - Julie Remington, Development Lead, MailChimp

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GROWING USE OF BIRKMAN Throughout MailChimp

Today, Birkman is used or referenced in three of the seven courses offered at MailChimp University and as part of their training program for new managers. Recently, the MailChimp teams used insights from Birkman Stress Behaviors as part of a lunch and learn event held during National Stress Awareness month. The event helped 100 employees create stress management goals based on actionable suggestions.

Due to the popularity of Birkman among the employees, MailChimp has partnered with Study.net to allow employees’ family and friends to take the assessment and benefit from the ways Birkman enhances relationships. MailChimp is currently building a database to provide employees access to a menu of Birkman reports, best practices, FAQs, and team building session ideas, as well as a portal to submit custom team building activity requests. The goal of the database is to continue empowering employees by fostering complex, yet productive conversations.

At MailChimp, each employee receives an introductory debrief of their report, either individually or in a group. Over the last two years, they’ve performed three company-wide Birkman-themed lunch and learns, 30 new hire introductory sessions, 40 manager and direct report meetings, and an estimated 60 group/team Birkman workshops.

Birkman is one piece of MailChimp’s puzzle for preserving and elevating its com-pany culture. Through the ease of communication and mutual understanding that Birkman provides, it makes it easier to fit the other pieces together. Their strong company values and vision guide the use and implementation of Birkman throughout MailChimp each day, allowing individuals, teams, and managers to work with more understanding, humility, creativity, and independence.

60Team

Workshops

1 Birkman

Assessment

30 New Hire Sessions

539 Employees

using Birkman

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The MailChimp logo is used with kind permission of MailChimp.

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“At MailChimp, we ensure that everyone knows Birkman reports are the jumping-off point for conversations, not the end story itself.”

- Julie Remington, Development Lead, MailChimp