An Antidote to the Great Resignation - Look To Your Culture and Values

2021 saw millions of people quitting their jobs voluntarily in a trend that was soon named ‘The Great Resignation’. Evidence shows that corporate culture is one of the most reliable factors to predict this attrition. And while for many businesses it is still overlooked, at Green Canopy NODE we are intentional and proactive in prioritizing our culture. Yet, culture isn’t simply about providing ping-pong tables, swag, or a free lunch. Employees resonate with a culture they can call their own.

Building an inclusive culture is embedded into our DNA and to us, that is pretty special. At its heart lie our values, co-created by every team member and defining how we are to interact and behave in the workplace. “Over the years, we have found that when values are inclusive, alive, and dynamic, the team feels more connected and whole, and the Company experiences greater resiliency through the inevitable ups and downs of organizational growth,” says Aaron Fairchild, Co-CEO of Green Canopy NODE.

Why pay so much attention to values?

Well, to start because they define how we show up for each other at work and constantly remind us of the kind of team we want to be. “They have enormous transformative power, being the vehicle for a cohesive and loving culture in which we can all see our fingerprints, setting up our team for success, and nurturing us to be more caring and aware,” remarks Ami Nieto, HR Director of Green Canopy NODE.

Our values also set the tone for how our team communicates. We have seen that the more effective we are in speaking with each other, the better we communicate with our clients, investors, subcontractors, community members, and other stakeholders.

Our secret sauce for co-creating values:

Our culture and values are some of the most powerful components of our company. We are proud of the process we go through to build and strengthen them and hope others can benefit from knowing more about what we believe is our secret sauce.

The key ingredient is being deliberate about providing opportunities for having meaningful connection. A key moment for our team to connect with each other is our yearly Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) retreat. We recently gathered in May for our 2022 retreat, in a space designed to bring together the unique and diverse perspectives of all team members, re-calibrate to our mission, vision, and co-create our values. A special byproduct of this approach is a sense of gratitude and ownership from our employees. “I appreciate the community that Green Canopy NODE builds, including how transparent the leadership is with the rest of the staff”, shares Green Canopy NODE employee.

If co-creating values is the first step, going beyond showcasing them on a poster in the lobby or on a website solely for branding purposes is the second. Values are key to articulating a shared language that facilitates effective internal communications. We accompany each value with a couple of mantras, as these short phrases are a dynamic way for team members to understand the context within the words and be constantly reminded of the spirit behind each value in our daily interactions. In other words, mantras help keep values alive. Plus, they also provide a framework for having hard conversations with our peers and stakeholders.

Finally, team members hold themselves and each other accountable to these values by going through a bi-annual 360 peer values review. Team members are not evaluated by what work they accomplished, but by how they accomplished it. In other words, on how they lived into the company’s values day-to-day

We’re excited to share with you our four new values and corresponding mantras.

Expanding Mental Boundaries

• Be curious to learn and fearless to unlearn

• Fall into discomfort

• Be willing to ask “how might we…?”

Vulnerability

• Bring your whole self

• Lean in, share, and learn from our lived experiences

• Give trust and expect transparency

Radical Ownership

• We fail, we succeed, we come with solutions

• Accountability, not blame, from beginning to end

• Own it all, together - the good, the bad, and the ugly

Empathy

• Seek first to understand

• Connect with each other’s humanity

• Create space, help each other grow

From our team to yours:

In the end, “our culture is about our connection to each other as a team and to what we are building as a company,” reflects Bec Chapin, Co-CEO of Green Canopy NODE. There is no better way to describe our efforts to weave an inclusive culture, rooted in co-created values, than to share some reflections gathered from different team members during our 2022 MVV retreat:

“It is a beautiful process to see a team come together with such ease, in a space of vulnerability, curiosity, and care for each other.”

“Not afraid to speak up because we created a space in which we can leave expectations out and show up with honesty.”

“A space in which we can explore our fear and hopes at the same moment,”

“Feeling both welcomed and excited.”

“In which we acknowledge how extremely inspirational it is to learn from the people we work with,”

“And appreciate the humanity that our group is showing.”

"This is our communal and artistic endeavor and what Green Canopy NODE's essentially is: the canvas upon which we all do our art to inspire and create a positive expression of the future we believe in pulling forward."

We encourage you to learn more about how our culture, values and work translate to impact by reading our 2021 Impact Report here!