If there’s one thing I believe, it’s that my team should strive to make a difference wherever they can. This is one of the core principles I’ve instilled and one that I use to guide them. We want to make a measurable difference, but the best way to that isn’t always the obvious one.
Proactively reaching out to other teams across the company is our way of spreading the word about the good work we do, where our analytics expertise might be relevant to other business areas.
The internal pro bono experience
“Don’t limit the reach of your skills by sticking purely to your business area.”
I openly endorse the concept of my team working outside of our formal responsibilities. The company supports us in our day-to-day work, so I see us as having a reciprocal responsibility to support the company as best we can. Making the most of our skills can increase the performance of our company as a whole. Teams can be looking for ways to improve their performance in measurable ways, and we can often help by sharing our skills around selecting KPIs for intangible improvements such as hiring talent, driving sustainability or improving niche product design.
What’s the return experience for employees going pro bono?
“Pro bono work can give junior team members the opportunity to collaborate with clients at very senior levels of management, which in many other teams is restricted to only the most experienced people on the team.”
It also gives teams opportunities to explore new areas outside of their remit, in our case brand marketing, helping them to create a better understanding of the overall business and thus making them better able to derive insights from the evidence we discover.
Are there any negatives to this collaborative approach?
The short answer is no. If, as a result of this, a member of my team decides they want to work in another area, I don’t really feel as if I’ve lost them. The way I see it, is that my investment in them is helping to spread the influence of digital analytics across the company so it’s a real win-win situation.
“The sense of contributing to the shared success is what drives each and every one of us to contribute even more.”
The extended benefits
Working outside of our official remit gives us all the chance to make friends throughout the whole organization.
“There’s nothing better than being able to say you enjoy coming to work because you find the other people there cool and fun to hang out with; and this often extends outside of the office.”
This for me is key to creating a sustainable team culture, fueled by our shared passion for the brand, for sport and world-class design, all expressed through our personal connections as individuals with our friends and colleagues.
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