Check-ins
Check-ins are a way we provide and gather feedback. They can be formal or not; topical or unstructured; or just a simple chat about what someone is currently working on. A single check-in may have a particular goal, but the general purpose is to keep everyone on the same page, address concerns before they become problems, and keep an open line of communication.
Please work to establish a 15 minute check-in (or equivalent) each month with your primary point of contact or project manager. The check-in frequency should increase as the workload increases.
Main points to address:
- What’s working
- What’s not working
- Challenges
- Future opportunities (Anant)
- Future capacity (Contractor)
- Skills update (Contractor)
Anant’s internal philosophy related to check-ins
Feedback is one of the most important parts of being in a team, especially at Anant. The more feedback we give each other, the better we communicate our strengths and weaknesses, and the more issues we can identify. This applies to team members as individuals, and the organization as a whole.
Each Friday we hold a Casual Cowork session, which will include a company Kaizen. The kaizen, (a Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, etc), is an opportunity to get and receive feedback about how was as a company are doing. During the Kaizen, each core employee briefly goes over notable things that happened during the week.
The Casual Cowork is not the only time we like to do Kaizens though. We will often do a Kaizen after big meetings, sometimes with our clients as well. Over time, this approach has helped us to streamline projects and processes, and deliver better, more concise results. For example, we will do a Kaizen after client Kickstart sessions to get a feel for what the clients see is valuable (or not) about the process. Another example is when we do a very rudimentary Kaizen after managerial meetings where we rate on a scale of 10 how we thought the meeting went, and if we rate it below an 8/10 we explain why, in order to improve for next time.
Feedback and input to your manager will inform these internal discussions. Please make sure to establish check-in cycle with your supervisor/POC at Anant to facilitate this exchange of ideas.