Case Study: Pragmatic
How we helped this digital agency bring their purpose to life
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Why a strategy away day in the wild?Pragmatic wanted a different company away day, to bring everyone together away from screens and phones, to do something that was fun but that also had lasting benefit. In rapidly changing times, they have needed to think about their why. The CEO had been working on a new purpose: “to help our clients succeed, to create a better future”, and Pragmatic wanted to involve everyone in thinking about this. |
Their challenge
"How do we translate and apply our purpose in practice, and what does it mean for how we work together day-to-day?"
What we did
Most people at Pragmatic have met each other but they tend not to have a lot of contact with others outside of their teams. They are a young group of men and women - mostly millennials.
Our aim was to give them a great day and that they would leave with these outcomes:
Our aim was to give them a great day and that they would leave with these outcomes:
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We started with icebreakers to help people who didn’t know each well to find out more about each other.
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Then we ran a timeline exercise: since starting several years ago the company has grown from two to 50 people, and we wanted to give everyone a feel for how the company had changed and its history, to warm them up into thinking about the purpose,
They lined up in order so they could all see how the company had grown in numbers, and shared what it was like at various points in the history: very busy in the early days churning out websites, to a more considered way or working today!
Next we formed them into groups to participate in one of three different activities:
whittling, shelter building, and fire making.
We designed each of these activities to include elements of teamwork. The activities were framed in a way that kept the group thinking about the context for the day: part of the purpose: “to help our clients succeed” means helping each other succeed.
Immersive activities such as shelter building and making fires require everyone to work together to be successful, and the group identified some insights about how to work together that they could take back to the workplace, in order to work better.
One of the main benefits comes from just spending time together away from work getting to know each other as human beings rather than work colleagues - this has invaluable benefits when you get back to the office.
They lined up in order so they could all see how the company had grown in numbers, and shared what it was like at various points in the history: very busy in the early days churning out websites, to a more considered way or working today!
Next we formed them into groups to participate in one of three different activities:
whittling, shelter building, and fire making.
We designed each of these activities to include elements of teamwork. The activities were framed in a way that kept the group thinking about the context for the day: part of the purpose: “to help our clients succeed” means helping each other succeed.
Immersive activities such as shelter building and making fires require everyone to work together to be successful, and the group identified some insights about how to work together that they could take back to the workplace, in order to work better.
One of the main benefits comes from just spending time together away from work getting to know each other as human beings rather than work colleagues - this has invaluable benefits when you get back to the office.
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After the morning's activities, we made lunch together (one of the highlights of all of our programmes), then moved on to the afternoon’s campfire workshop and explored Pragmatic’s purpose.
We broke it down into four stages:
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What happened
We took the group on a walk n talk to start them talking about these questions, back at the fire, we built a group conversation from smaller to larger groups of people, which culminated with the whole group sharing ideas with each other.
People came up with lots of insights and suggestions including working more closely with clients, creating a charity website template, challenging each other to fulfil the values, and arranging walk n talks in nature.
We helped them focus on the ones that they could action, and they agreed responsibilities.
People came up with lots of insights and suggestions including working more closely with clients, creating a charity website template, challenging each other to fulfil the values, and arranging walk n talks in nature.
We helped them focus on the ones that they could action, and they agreed responsibilities.
What impact has the day had?
We caught up with Tom Chute, People Operations Director a few weeks afterwards, he told us what has happened since:
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They have also implemented these actions that are having a lasting effect on the culture of the company:
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What they said
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..It was good to find out people’s priorities, and what people really care about. The campfire workshop validated what we’re doing, and it broke down barriers and hierarchies. People had assumed the board want to keep strategic conversations to themselves, and this day helped smash that rumour. Everyone had a voice, and we came up with some great ideas together.
Tom Chute
People Operations Director / Pragmatic
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I often hear a lot about strategy, but rarely get a chance to discuss with the CEO, it was great to be able to make my voice heard and have a decent conversation with him, without notifications and crammed meeting schedule getting in the way!
Ryan
Team Lead / Pragmatic
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I was actually going to drop out due to having too much on. But once I got into the woods, it took 10 mins for me to realise a lot of it was just noise. In fact, once I got back to the office, I saw the things I was worried about in a different, more positive light.
Susan
Project Director / Pragmatic
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...enabled us to use nature to think about things from different perspectives
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