Hi all, Maneesh here!
I’m psyched to start contributing regularly to the Live in the Grey website about one of my favorite topics - company culture!
Some of you may already know that in addition to Live in the Grey, I am the founder of MKG, an award-winning, experience-focused marketing company based in New York City. I started the company 10 years ago so I could go to work at a place that made sense for who I am and what I loved doing.
As I began hiring employees, it was important to me that they love coming into work as much as I did. So company culture became a huge focus for me and even now, a decade later, I make sure that every day I’m doing something to make MKG an environment people are happy to come to. After all, it makes work fun and leads to better work!
Since Turkey Day is just around the corner, I wanted to share what we’ll be doing in our office. Maybe it will inspire you to come up with ideas on how you can take action and ‘grey’ your own company culture (and don’t worry, if you’d like to borrow our ideas, have at it - just be sure to tell us how it works for you!)
Thanksgiving at MKG
One of my main goals at MKG is to make sure everyone brings his or her personality with them to work everyday. What we’ve got planned for Thanksgiving this year allows them a fun, new way to give us a “taste” of their personalities. Introducing … the MKG NotTurkey Potluck.
Don’t get me wrong, we love turkey over here, but come Thanksgiving time, there’s A LOT of it everywhere you turn! So in lieu of a traditional Thanksgiving potluck that you might find at most offices (or elementary schools), we’re encouraging our employees in both NY and LA offices to bring their favorite lunch or mid-day treat. It’s the perfect way to blend the personalities of my MKGers (and what a collection of personalities we have!) with the holiday meal.
How it works:
- The office provides the plates, cups, etc. and employees bring the goods. Each person brings a snack, meal or sweet that they would normally bring, but they bring enough for 5-7 people.
- We spread the word to everyone via email about a week in advance (and we make sure to talk it up so a good buzz gets going around the office). Here’s a line from our email that I love:
Just bring in a snack, meal or sweet that you enjoy and would bring normally, but for about 5-7 people. If you love it, we’ll love it. Because we love sharing and we love you. And isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?
- During the event, we’ll take photos of everyone enjoying the potluck. We love social media and always try to share what we’re doing on our Instagram (check us out!)
We’re having our celebration on November 26th, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. You could also do something like this towards the end of December when everyone’s feeling jolly.
As the LITG philosophy says, ‘Learn from others. (We’re all teachers.)’ So please, tell me what you do in your offices during the holiday season? What works for you and what doesn’t? Feel free to ask questions and share tips below in the comment section!
Happy Thanksgiving!
