How a Culture of Free-Will Can Excel!

What It’s About: Samer Saab, a leader who really inspires me, is the CEO of one of Canada’s most successful and admired companies, Explorance. They are a global learning analytics powerhouse, and growing like crazy: 740 customers, 45 countries, 96 percent customer satisfaction. They’ve also earned a spot on the Great Place to Work list for the past five years, coming in at 4th in 2018. A lot of times I write about what I hope and expect cultures to aspire to. It gives me great satisfaction to share a real working example of one.

What’s In It For You and Me: You and I are culture champions, and sometimes we need real world stories to propel us along. Please read a summary of Samer’s culture cornerstones. Enjoy, and I hope you become challenged and inspired too.

The Seven Cornerstones of Explorance’s Culture of Free-Will:

1. “‘Time off’ — to be, or not to be.

Our statement for time off is: ‘Take as much time as you need. Your manager or supervisor can neither say no, nor keep track of it.’

2. Layoffs — are we all in it together or not?

Simply said, we have had a strict no-layoff policy since inception. And it works great. This also helps instill conscious leadership where the collective responsibility in balancing our growth ambitions with the reality of our business is key.

3. Performance appraisals… What?

With a commitment to continuous improvement, there is not much place for individual performance management. At Explorance we believe that goals and objectives must be personalized and agile.

4. Challenging our leaders to adapt.

Highly successful Explorer leaders: are bootstrapped at heart, are great influencers, do as they say, are agile, and are always one step ahead of change… [They] display empathy and patience, are strong in culture, strong in strategy, and strong in performance.

5. Family.

I catch myself often referring to the fact that our families like Explorance more than us Explorers do. That was a bet we made early on, recognizing that we are only as strong at work, as we are good at home. It is only when we feel supported to be our best, every day, with patience and understanding, that we can achieve true greatness.

6. Giving.

There were times when I was disillusioned with business, and it was the giving part that kept me going. And the sole thought of elevated levels of giving, and a bigger footprint of good, pushes me further and forward, faster. And then it became only natural to share the joy of giving with all Explorers, so we found ourselves encouraging all Explorers to take part of, and even lead, causes they strongly believe in. Whatever they are. Wherever they are. We will support them by matching any contribution they put in, and more.

7. Celebrate everything.

This one is easy, yet its timeliness is essential. We try our best to celebrate everything and everyone, right there and then, when we should. Every successful implementation of our solutions, every new client win, every successful software release, as well as every first experience or achievement. At Explorance, we make every effort possible to acknowledge successes as they occur. It is the continuous flow of small successes that build up business success.”

Thank you Samer and Explorance!

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

Lorne

One Millennial View: Some might read this and feel as though it’s almost a dangerous amount of freedom. However, when you look at Explorance’s numbers and employee satisfaction, you can tell that it actually works. Too good to be true? Not in this case. That should be quite inspiring for many, and a kick in the pants for traditionalists who aren’t able to believe this can happen.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

How a Culture of Free-Will Can Excel!

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