The Dojo4 offices have been open to friends and family for co-working and socializing since the company was founded in 2009. We operationalize the respect we have for people being able to do their work with focus and welcome the connection that comes by inviting our community into the inner workings of our business.
This key hangs on the wall by the front door to our office at 2030 17th St., Boulder, CO 80304:
We also have a cadence of meetings to help provide rhythm and reliability to our communication.
Daily standups happen every weekday at noon. Everyone at the dojo stands up, generally in a circle, and gives a quick summary of what they are working on that day(s). Participants include both employees and contractors. It’s a chance for everyone to find out what everyone else is working on and where they may want/need to sync further. If you are not onsite, please use the Google Hangout (use this address: http://standup-meet.dojo4.coop/ to join the meeting.
We've been doing a unique Friday standup at Dojo4 for over a decade. It's open to whoever happens to be at Dojo4 and is a meaningful part of what makes Dojo4 what it is. We almost always follow this standup with a community lunch (see below). This weekly standup happens promptly every Friday at 12:00pm and rarely takes more than 15-20 minutes. Our weekly standup is meant to allow us to gain a better understanding of the people we work with and what is important to them. We spend endless hours and emails relating the practical details of our work projects to each other, but it is rare that we get a chance to relate to each other in a genuine and candid way about what may (or may not) be meaningful to us. Granting a little time to cultivating that understanding with each other can feel incalculably more valuable to each other and the health of our business than any other way that we could spend 15 minutes ‘meeting’. There is also a chance at the end of the standup to make any general announcement (e.g. taking an upcoming vacation? or having a baby? this is a good time to let everyone know).
Our weekly standups look something like this:
- The standup starts with everyone doing a bow and a clap, and ends with the reverse (clap then bow).
- We start with a minute or two of quiet, allowing everyone to slow down a little and arrive.
- A different person brings a question every week, that each person then has a chance to answer.
- The guidelines for the standup are:
- speak from the heart
- listen completely
- don’t think about or decide what you are going to say while someone else is talking
- say only what needs to be said
- don’t withhold from saying something that needs to be said
- it is not necessary to speak
- don’t talk while someone else is talking
- each person goes only once
- anything said during the standup is confidential
There’s a ‘talking piece’ in the middle that each person can pick up and hold if they are inspired to say something. Who is going to bring the question the following week is decided at the end of each standup. Announcements are made by anyone who has one. We end with a clap and a bow.
Project leads and business managers meet once a week for 30 min to have take a pan-project view of the human resources status of each project. Notes are posted to the co-op member channel. Resource allocation happens at this meeting. Sales are also discussed.
Project leads lead a weekly meeting (generally on Tuesdays) for the project team and client to meet, discuss the status of the project and plan upcoming iterations. This meeting is generally kept to a maximum of 30 minutes. This is a high level meeting - any details that arise are scheduled for a separate discussion with specifically relevant people. Notes are taken in a running Google doc and posted both the the Dojo4 chat channel and to /news on each individual project.
Dojo4 has a tab at the inimitable and delicious Boxcar Coffee Roasters at 1825 Pearl St. Get yourself a coffee on us every day of the week! Just tell the barista that you are with Dojo4.
We almost always order take out from a local downtown restaurant for the team on Fridays so that we can enjoy a meal together after Friday standup. Friends and family are invited, but be sure to let the person ordering lunch know who's coming so that there's enough to go around.
We’re not making any promises, but we find that providing a few cold ones and something to munch generally makes the office kitchen a popular destination.