Exploring values in onboarding @ Mentimeter
Calling up Lisa Wetter is just pure, vitalizing energy. We have known each other for some time now, meaning that we have seen each other in Zoom calls now and then — but sometimes you just vibe. In the beginning of the pure panic that was the pandemic, us two and a few others got together to form a braintrust around employee experience…which never left the ground, but it meant that Lisa, who is now Culture and Learning lead at Mentimeter and I, we stayed in touch. So, throw yourself into initiatives, because even if nothing comes out of it, 3 years later you can have a fantastic conversation with a friend that you have never met. But, let’s not reminisce but jump in: #onboarding #values, that's what this experience is all about and it is a little bit of a Matryoshka bit. Let’s explore.
Values are vague, but become more concrete when you relate to them
The thing with values is that they can be quite hard to really understand, not the words themselves, but the meaning behind them and how the company employing them, actually understand them and actually acts them out. You know the joke: Our values? Yes, they are on a PowerPoint slide somewhere, and that is it.
The clever and, as I learned, humble people at Mentimeter have come up with an intervention during their onboarding journey that not only makes it clearer what the Mentimeter values (you guessed it, be humble is one of them) represent but also support their new hires to understand what their personal values are. This is the crucial bit. By relating your own values to the values of the company you can grasp what they mean, otherwise they are just words on a wishlist for you…work smart: sounds good, I will take it.
And yes, maybe you have a good understanding of what is important to you and by which principles you lead your life, but not everyone is, and it should not be assumed — remember this sentiment because it will pop up later and will show you how tightly connected this experience is with the Mentimeter values themselves. Also, as Lisa told me, values change. Getting into a new job is a good moment to reflect on how your values have shifted over the years without you really taking note of it, as in literally: having it written down.
That Lisa picked up a method from the Hyper Island toolbox and mixed it with some other frameworks for this is another testament to the Mentimeter way of doing: working-smart. You know the drill: 80/20, focus on what brings impact and don’t get stuck by tasks that are cumbersome but add little to the impact, or as they put it, knowing when "good enough" is exactly that; good enough. No need to reinvent the wheel if there is something out there that is concise and proven to work out.
Jumping through the 3 circles of influence
The whole thing happens in a 60-minute session with a cohort of new joiners. Lisa does that online, or offline, hybrid is not recommended, you want everyone on the same level of interaction.
It is a facilitated session, and technically, as we both explored in our call, one could do this as a self-paced individual exercise, but for the case of onboarding it makes sense to make this a cohort session to dig deeper, clarify, and of course, get to know your colleagues on a deeper level to build authentic relationships inside the company.
The session is built up in 3 stages that are inspired by the model of the Circles of Influence.
- Things that you had no choice in
- Things you have had a choice in
After each stage of individual reflection and note-taking, participants were paired in breakout sessions, allowing for intimate conversations and the opportunity to share insights with peers. These smaller discussions not only foster companionship but also provide a platform for deeper connections to form within the group.
- Your own values In the third round, Lisa gives the participants a bank of values where they can choose as many as they want. Then she makes them reduce to 5 values, which is already hard, and then in another step, they need to choose 3 of those 5 that are the most important to them. Again in breakouts, they share with the others why they chose those values.
And only after that sharing round, the group will start to talk about the Mentimeter values, which they already know from previous onboarding sessions. But now it is about how they, themselves, with their own values relate to the values of the company. Where do they align? What causes tensions?
Lisa does this in a group with everyone, that way it becomes a easier to see how the others are feeling about it and clarify with the other newcomer and experienced colleagues what lies behind those 5 core Mentimeter values. Not everyone needs to speak up and this discussion is also not very long; it is meant as a starting point.
Nesting values in action: do as you preach!
In this case: Embracing Humility! Writing this story, it really struck me on how many levels it represents humbleness. Humble, Humble: Not really a value that you encounter often in scale-ups and not unlike Kendrick Lamar as Lisa and I joked, but in a very Swedish way. Rooted in the strong sense of egalitarianism of northern European countries, it also means, respect the work of others, don’t assume to be better, don’t assume to know better, stay curious and investigate.
And this is where our Russian dolls come in. Not only does this experience help newcomers connect to the values and investigate concretely the values of Mentimeter, but also the attitude of why it was created and how it is facilitated also embodies the Mentimeter values themselves, further manifesting their approach to working together from the start of an employee's life in the organization. It’s a value exploration nested in an experience that closely follows those values. It is mind boggling and a brilliant way to achieve this. Chapeau Lisa. It helps a lot to be accepting and curious of the actions of your colleague when you know where this person has come from (1. circle), what choices that person took (2. circle) and what is important to that person (3. circle). Helpful? A bit of an understatement actually: essential!
Through this intentional journey of self-discovery and communal exploration, the onboarding session at Mentimeter transcended the traditional bounds of orientation. It lays the foundation for authentic connections, cultivated a shared and felt understanding of organizational values, and empowered each newcomer to embark on their professional journey.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments! What would you like to learn more about?
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