Can't We All Just Get Along?

We all know that when you try to merge Sales and Marketing people with Techno Geeks the results usually look like the end of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Here at InfoGrow we have highly functional levels of each type and an environment that is the opposite of that. We have intentionally created an environment that allows both the right brain creative sales and marketing people to live peacefully and in harmony with the left brain Jedi Master focused technology people. Sure we had to separate them on different floors, but what Sales person would like to hear the hypnotic drone of two database administrators discussing a stored procedure's execution plan? Fun times right? Likewise what Senior Level Programmer would like to hear a sales executive work their newest client - asking how the wife, kids, and grandma have been and when they are going to be hitting the golf course?

But seriously, we have intentionally created this environment to allow our people to excel at what they do. For the IT side we require no interruptions (unless it is an emergency) for at least 3 hours a day. What we have found is that this allows our developers to get into "the zone" with an incredibly high level of focus, cleaner coding and better efficiency. Our programmers and technicians love the zone high and output they can get done in those hours. They also let us managers know when we are not adhering to our own policies!

To keep everyone loving each other we also have introduced a program call "Free Lunch Fridays". Every Friday we gather in our main conference room or outside (very weather dependent in North Eastern Ohio) and do lunch. Lunch varies from takeout from the local create-your-own hotdog joint to chicken and jo jos. We do eat healthy as well, but those two are just a couple of my favorites. These are very casual meetings where we don't talk work, but get to know each other and what is going on in our lives. For a company that specializes in using technology within sales and marketing we seem to all be getting along quite well.

Learn more about InfoGrow here.