Community Service Day

The conversation with the leadership team a couple of days before had been tense as we worked hard to decide if we should keep the ‘Do Good’ hackathon on schedule. The timing had proven especially tricky, given that it had only been a week since we delayed half of the RedBrick work and cut salaries by twenty percent.

“I think we should cancel the hackathon,” Ahmet said. “Everyone is bummed and stressed because of the pay cut. How can we possibly ask them to donate their time to something that isn’t going to help us secure more work?”

“I agree,” Steve chimed in. “My team members are pretty upset. I’m not sure this is the right time.”

Martha cleared her throat to speak. As she appeared on the screen, I could see she looked tired. And for a good reason. Because of her role and her personality, she had taken on everyone’s questions and concerns for a week.

What she said next turned the entire conversation around.

“Actually, I think this is exactly what we all need. When we tell them the hackathon is still on, they might gripe a little. But we need something that will pull everyone together and remind them why they love this place and why they love what they do. Using their skills to help others is just what the doctor ordered.”

“Are you sure?” asked Rachel.

“Well, as sure as I can be. And lord knows we have the time on our hands since we’re doing less work for RedBrick right now,” she said.

Ahmet said, “Some people do, yes, but I could use that extra time to work on a few new business proposals. Anything we can do to help win new business right now would help.”

“I think we’re all missing the biggest reason we need to run the hackathon,” said Martha. “These nonprofits are counting on us to help them! We made a commitment to them and they need support now, more than ever. We can’t abandon them because the going got tough. That’s not who we are. When this is all over, we want to feel good about the way we behaved. Let’s keep sight of who we are. The company I remember wouldn’t think twice about going through with this event.”

If there was a mic in her hand, I’m pretty sure she would have dropped it.

As heads nodded around the video chat, I finally spoke up. “Guys, everything you said was on point and true. But Martha’s right. We need to do this for the nonprofits, our community, and our people. And we need to do it with grace by using it as a way to connect with and check in on our team.”

We spent the next half hour talking about how to manage this the right way. By the end of the call, everyone was on board, and we had a plan.

Key point: Strive to find ways to bring your values to life even in painful or inconvenient times. Living your values is even more vital during times of high stress, and it offers a positive way to stay connected to team members you’re seeing less.