CPG Agency Values Team
By Steve Friedman, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist
As an Experience Design and Internal Engagement Agency, CPG helps clients grow their business by connecting their people. We believe that great culture and engaged stakeholders move the needle for an organization – and that, of course, includes us! One of the most effective ways to ensure that we practiced what we preach was by creating our Values Team.
The Values Team is a rotating group of employees who volunteer to serve for 12 months and represent all levels and departments of our agency. This autonomous team performs many important roles for CPG including serving as a conduit between senior leadership and line employees provides a pulse check to help resolve issues. But even more, they are charged with creating an office atmosphere that drives engagement and reflects our six core values: Integrity, Communication, Curiosity, Growth, Passion and Fun.
One example is fostering community service. The Values Team picks a local charity for whom to raise money through creative initiatives. This typically caps off with a giant team-building exercise before we make the final donation to the charity together. Last year, we focused on a nearby charity in town that provides hygiene kits for the needy, and this year we focused on an urban harvest charity that grows organic, delicious food for the needy on the rooftops of downtown buildings. In addition to a cash donation, the CPG team spent a morning tending to the garden and harvesting crops to be distributed later that day.
The Values Team also oversees a recognition program where, each quarter, team-members nominate coworkers who best live into our values and give the winner a comp day and some money to spend on their day off.
And they routinely surprise and delight the agency with fun, team-building events and programs. Here are a handful of activities that build positive culture and keep the team engaged throughout the year:
Walking Wednesdays to stroll through the surrounding neighborhood together at lunch
Beer Cart Fridays to add that extra lubrication for creativity or celebrate a productive week
Spinning a wheel on Fridays to determine where to eat lunch in the area
Team building by escaping the room with our colleagues
Navigating the Missouri River together on our annual float trip
Gathering in November for a potluck "Friendsgiving"
We also take Halloween pretty seriously with a killer costume contest and party
The team develops all their own ideas and then presents these with budgets to the agency COO who serves as the liaison between the team and senior leadership for budget approval.
With their efforts, the Values Team makes sure that it’s easy to feel excited to about being a part of the CPG family!