#25: Connected Teams, Better Teams
How a creative manager used Folklory to bring his team together
đđ˝ Welcome to The Folklore, our weekly newsletter about our journey of building Folklory, a startup that helps you turn family memories into podcasts. Weâll share weekly updates, wins, and learnings, so sign up if you want to hear from us.
Last month we met with Rajiv from Media Brands Content Studio - our very first business customer. Terence and I went down to his office to meet him to talk about how his experience has been so far and in todayâs issue weâll share more about what we learned and how we envision Folklory helping companies build more connected teams.
The Brief
Through the pandemic, just like many other companies, Rajiv saw many changes within his team. With a lot of people joining and working remotely, he noticed that while people spent many hours working with each other, they didnât really know their colleagues. He wanted to solve this in a creative way and go deeper into who each person was, beyond their job functions. The motivation behind wanting to solve this was very clear. By bringing his team together, he believed that they could all perform better and deliver better results for their clients, thus helping the business grow.
âThe more connected team are, the more productive they are and the more creative we can beâ - Rajiv
The Process
Over 4 weeks, we spoke with 12 members of Rajivâs team to bring out each of their stories - who they were, their motivations, what creativity meant to them, and more. All the recordings were done remotely and without requiring any prior preparation. From what we heard, some people did have questions before on what the purpose of this was and Rajiv had to explain. But once we finished recording, the feedback across the team was that it was an âamazing experienceâ, so much so, one of them found it âtherapeuticâ. Surprisingly, we hear that term much more than expected đ¤
After the recordings were complete, Rajiv recorded a custom introduction to be played before each episode. He said that he didnât only want to use these Folklories internally for the team, but also wanted to share them externally with clients - for them to get to know the team theyâll be working with! We never thought of that being a use case but it makes so much sense. For anyone working in client service, building a strong relationship with your customer is key, and it turns out that Folklory can help in that process.
Reflections
Looking back at our visit, 3 things stood out for us -
Terence! How are you, man?
As Terence and I walked into the part of the office where Rajiv and his team sit, we suddenly heard someone shout âTerence! How are you, man?â. Suddenly more faces and waving hands for Tereance - as if he was a lost brother. You see, Terence was the folklorist for the entire project and had spoken to each one of them, and even though he had only spoken to them once, it was like they had known each other for much longer. It was really nice to see the power of a simple 30 minute conversation.
Folklory in a post-remote world
Walking through the office, it was hard to ignore how big it was. It spanned multiple floors and each of them was large. There is no way everyone knows each other, despite all being part of the same organization and working towards the same mission. This is particularly a problem at fast-growing startups where the team size doubles all of a sudden and now you donât know everyone who works at the same company. This affects culture, productivity, and the growth of the organization. So even without remote work, we see Folklory playing a role in helping teams come together and perform better.
Champion Manager
Lastly, we realized that having a Manager as a champion is critical. Weâve spoken to the HR at many companies about Folklory, but havenât had much success. Working with Rajiv, we realized that managers are different and have a problem to solve (dare I say a âhair on fireâ problem) - they need their team to come together and work as a tight unit. In Rajivâs case, the first step was making sure everyone knew each other at a deeper level. Our takeaway is that in order to get more companies to try out Folklory, we need to reach out to managers (not CEOs, not HR) who are looking to do something new and different to bring their team together and as a result perform better.
If youâre a manager and would like to chat about how Folkory can help you and your team, go ahead and pick a time to speak with us
Until next time
The Folklory Team
If you have feedback or ideas or just want to get in touch, write to us at theteam@folklory.com or DM us at @thefolklory on IG. We would love to hear from you â¤ď¸