2020 really took its toll on our company culture as I'm sure it did for many of you.

It's not like we weren't already a flexible, remote friendly delivery team. It's just that being forced 100% remote meant that we suddenly became what felt like, a company full of 1 person silos.

Collaborating and pairing are my happiest places to be, but as our work pivoted to meet the demands placed on it as an airline during a pandemic, the pressures of delivery meant our team was fractured – people were head down, under pressure, delivering in isolation.

Where did the fun and laughter go?

Fun is often an overlooked yet valuable ingredient in delivery teams that produce exceptional output (both in terms of quality and speed). As a Dev team, that's always been a very important part of who we are and why people choose to work with us. Moving our Dev team rituals to Google Meet wasn't as successful as we'd have hoped. The silence and lack of frivolity was jarring and instead of fun it was, do the business, get the thing over with and get out of there. These once enjoyable routines fast became chores, and engagement waned. Work no longer felt like the fun place it once was and that meant showing up was hard.

Bringing back the energy

Last week we had our first Hack week for nearly 2 years. I'm trying to put my finger on why it was the most successful we've ever had, and if I was to choose one reason why, I think it was that everyone was all too familiar with the pain of feeling disconnected.

I can't speak to how it was organised, because I wasn't involved this time round, but I can talk about how it felt from a participants perspective - a perspective that was shared across the teams.

Here's how it happened:

• Call for ideas/proposals
• Tech Leadership group review
• Choose your own team/idea
• Clear instructions/expectations communicated
• Organic/teams have full autonomy
• No winners/losers

Of course there's no magic in any of this. It's worth mentioning though that there is a palpable amount of psychological safety and trust in our 30+ delivery team. This is both remarkable, and also key to things running so well.

Call for ideas/proposals

A spreadsheet was circulated to gather any and all ideas, along with what types of skills would be needed to get the job done. There were no bounds imposed at this stage. Anything and everything was valid.

Tech Leadership group review

The tech leads reviewed the ideas to weed out proposals that were deemed:

• Too BAU (ideas that were snuck into the list to get business as usual work further along the delivery roadmap)
• Not really achievable (in some way)

These ensured the ideas that remained were exciting, fun and within reach.

Choose your own team/idea

Some teams were big, some were small, UX/design peeps were shared across teams. We were free to choose to work on anything that resonated with us personally in some way.

Clear instructions/expectations communicated

The tone of all communications were friendly, light, and lacked the usual hackathon competitive tone. I felt informed, knew what to expect, had the opportunity for Q&A. All ducks in row.

A few days before the event we were given a high level running sheet. There was no anxiety, nothing left to chance, everyone felt included and heard.

Organic/teams have full autonomy

Whilst there were a few optional checkpoints during the week, the week's organisation was loose and teams free to self organise.

The checkins:

Monday (AM):
Google Meet Kick off - welcome and overview of what to expect during the week.

Tuesday (AM):
Engineering Manager check-in with participants to see how things are going (informal and via DM), light touch, mainly to collect ammunition for jokes in hindsight.

Teams presented logo/name and general idea/approach via Google Meet. Loaded with jokes/joviality.

Friday (PM):
Team presentations/awards

Throughout the week:
Regular updates in #delivery slack.

Getting the band back together

What was remarkable to me, was seeing the energy rekindled. Our enthusiasm for building smart, customer centric, value imbued products! Every team produced amazingly innovative results and in just 5 days.

I'm not sure exactly how it was possible, but I'm certain, that the open, friendly, trusting, and optimistic energy that was part of the inception of ideas and communication style permeated through the entire event. In stark contrast to our Google Meets of late there was also a focus on being silly, irreverent, and laughing A LOT.

The challenge of running a remote hack-a-thon unexpectedly didn't seem to be a thing. It all just worked. Slack/google-meet and pairing via VSCode Liveshare meant for a very easy week and our trust in and ability to converse online firmly established.

Final presentations were given via team slides and live-demos in Google Meet. Remarkably, all of the teams approached their presentation in the same way (without consultation). Each of the team members took their turn to present a component of the work they did. No-one was left behind. The teamwork and collaboration and community was back.

I'm sure the execs were aware that this wasn't a cheap investment. But the outcomes were far greater than simply the products that were built (or not built). Harmony, cross team collaboration and communication are the backbone of getting shit done efficiently. A 5 day investment in fun and innovation produces something that money just can't buy.

It feels like we're on track to being back baby!