Category: ABT Culture

If you have a simple question, you can ask your smartphone and get 20 relevant answers. But what happens when your questions aren’t so simple? Sometimes you want more than a quick answer—you want knowledge, a nuanced, intelligent discussion of a complex topic with people you can trust. Ideally, over a good beer.

Register for the next Thirst for Knowledge on Content Strategy for Large Organizations.

This was the inspiration for Atlantic BT’s new teaching series: Thirst for Knowledge. Every month, Atlantic BT will host a casual seminar and discussion on essential topics and best practices for companies in the digital age. Each Thirst for Knowledge will include a short lightning talk from a local expert, followed by free food from our favorite food trucks and craft beer from our taps. As CMO Eileen Allen said:

“One of my favorite things about Atlantic BT is how we understand the human side of using technology. If people don’t understand how to actually use the tech they have, even the best platform in the world won’t do them much good. I’m excited to see how our Thirst for Knowledge events can bring people together to freely share what we’ve learned. This is community-building at its finest.”

The topic for our inaugural Thirst for Knowledge on August 24 is the human side of cybersecurity, entitled How to Secure Your Workforce without Ruining Their Lives. ABT’s Senior Business Strategist and Research Manager Randy Earl will lead a casual discussion of how to promote best practices in digital security without hurting the morale or agility of an organization. Earl emphasizes that this will be a laid-back lesson rather than a dry technical presentation:

“We’ll cover topics like two-factor authentication made easy and promoting mobile device security, but I want this talk to be as fun and entertaining as possible. Expect lots of memes and XKCD comics. I want this event to give our clients and contacts a worthwhile and enjoyable reason to leave work a bit early on a Thursday.”

Next Thirst for Knowledge – Sept 21

The security talk begins at 4:30pm, and will be followed at 5pm by free drinks and games in the ABT Level One Lounge, in addition to free food from the Only Burger food truck. To register for the event, visit the Thirst for Knowledge page.

A culture of collaboration is everything. Moreover, that applies to more than just different departments—when it comes to projects with our clients, it’s essential that these clients collaborate closely with us in developing their solutions.

Over the past 19 years, we’ve found the following characteristics to be strong indicators of clients who will collaborate well with Atlantic BT to create highly successful projects and healthy partnerships. This is by no means a list of requirements to hire ABT, but your organization will work best with us if:

You want to be an engaged part of the process.

We are experts in digital solutions, but you are the experts in your business. That means we need to work closely with you to leverage your expertise for maximum effect.

You understand and appreciate team efforts.

We find the collaboration of many minds across disciplines to be the most effective path. As a result, we make teamwork part of the process—from workshops in discovery all the way through to deployment.

You appreciate an analytical, data-driven approach to developing strategy.

We always want to know what your business reality is, rather than making an assumption. This can be challenging, as it sometimes forces a re-examination of existing practices and policies, therefore, the next point is important…

You are open to change.

To be truly innovative, we have to challenge existing assumptions and practices. While change can be uncomfortable, it is better to drive data-driven change than passively react to market changes later.

You have a continuous process improvement mindset.

In today’s web environment and competitive marketplace, the only fixed truths are that change is constant and competition is fierce. A one-and-done approach will lead to a solution that could quickly become dated and ineffective. Instead, our most successful clients are constantly monitoring their key metrics, looking for opportunities, then leveraging new solutions for the opportunities they find. That done, the cycle repeats anew.

Like what you hear? Let’s work together.

When you watch our team in workshops, whiteboard sessions, and presentations, you can see all of the above in action. We are most excited by digging into understanding customer needs and providing innovative solutions. If you approach your project and your organization the same way, then we’re eager to get started on our partnership.

To get a closer look at some of our recent work, take a look at our collaboration on the official NC.gov website and the site redesign and rebrand for Campbell University. In addition, you can also experience our culture in action by joining us at our next Thirsty Thursday party on August 24. It’s a great way to meet our people, and enjoy good food and drink while talking shop.

Culture Club: Who We Are

When you hear the phrase “Culture Club”, you likely think of Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? or Karma Chameleon. At ABT, the Culture Club is a group of employees who have a monthly budget to plan and implement fun events for everyone. We at ABT follow a “Work Hard, Play Hard” mentality, and the Culture Club supports the latter. As president of the Culture Club, I’m lucky (and proud) to have helped the team organize company events for years. Our events range from our Pumpkin’ Chunkin’ at Halloween, to old-school egg drops, to team trivia, and to one of our favorites: the ABT Olympics.

What Are These Olympics All About?

On May 19th, we held our 7th Annual ABT Olympics— essentially a two hour field day for adults. The Culture Club decides on a number of games, sets the rules, assigns random teams, and our company competes for bragging rights and a custom trophy.  There’s plenty of fun debate over rules minutia, usually some shenanigans for the referees to have to sort out, and an entertaining combination of heated competition and whimsey. We always color-code our teams, and have some wearable object (t-shirt, wristband, etc.) to identify teams. For the second year in a row, we have used superhero capes. I cannot express the glee I have watching 50+ people in superhero capes playing team games!

What We Played This Year

Each year there is a mix of new and previous events. Teams can earn bronze, silver, or gold in each event. In 2017, this was the line-up:

Water Balloon Toss: Pretty much what you would expect. Teams of two throw a water balloon back and forth, getting farther apart from each other on every toss—as long as the balloon doesn’t break.

Rock/Paper/Scissors: A recent addition and favorite, a small-bracket tournament with fast-paced, head-to-head, hand-symbol domination.

Ladderball: We try and have a few games where everybody plays. Each person on a team has one throw, and the team with the highest total score wins. Simple concept, but not easy.

Sanskrit Scramble: An new ABT original.  We wanted a game incorporating a puzzle somehow.  Culture Club members created a two-person game where one person could see a set of sanskrit symbols, and had to relay the right symbols to their teammate who put tiles on a solution board.

Flip Cup: Another company “everyone plays” favorite. It’s a bracket tournament of standard flip cup. (Beer or nonalcoholic beverages allowed).

Final Relay:  A series of small events lined up in a relay to determine the overall winner of the Olympics. Teams that earned more medals in earlier events got a head start. The team flag is used as the “baton” that players pass as they complete part of the relay.  

2017 Olympics Highlights

As the ABT Olympics Emcee and assistant ref, I get a pretty good view of the events. As happens every year, we have a few highlights that stood out this year.

For the water balloon toss, each team has two pairs tossing balloons. Team Black (Black Beard Blazers) were both the best costumed, as pirates, and both pairs of athletes survived to the end securing their bragging rights for the event.

In Rock/Paper/Scissors, veteran Hap Wiggins of Team Purple (Eggplants) and recent hire Brian Smith of Team Green (Cash Me Outside) tore through the early rounds. They each dominated their first round and semi-final opponents. In the finals, however, Hap lost whatever psychological advantage he had built up, and Brian Smith came out victorious.

In Sanskrit Scramble, we had a slight referee snafu. (Happens most years, but we do our best to avoid these!)  We had one ref for each of the six teams, but unfortunately our answer sheets showed us only 10 of the 12 symbols in the solution. We had to resolve mid-event, but we’re confident that the teams that won medals did so legitimately. Team Red (Red Bull Alliance) was one of two teams ending up with a DNF claiming referee shenanigans. Their appeal was denied. This type of chaos is just part of the fun!

In the final relay, all six teams stayed pretty close to one another. There was a point that all six teams were on the plank skis at the same time, the second to last leg. With some impressive ski coordination, Team Pink (Rosé Raiders) took over the lead and ultimately won the Olympics. Team Yellow (Yellow Jackets) pulled up the rear by struggling with their flag at the end and letting Team Green ahead of them.

Thanks to Andrew Bartlett for shooting video and putting together this incredible highlights reel:

Looking Forward to 2018

After every Culture Club event, we gather feedback from the company so we can learn and improve for next year. The response was very positive again for the Olympics, and some great ideas for changes or new games were included. Now my only struggle is waiting another 12 months before we get to do it again!

I want this blog post to go out to all the talented folks in Raleigh who are looking for a job at a place that gets them. A place that understands what it takes to be productive in today’s workforce. A place that says, “Yes, it’s not just OK to play foosball at work—it’s encouraged.” After reading this post, I hope you’ll agree with me—that place is Atlantic BT.

The author (right) and his brother compete in a foos-focused outreach event at ABT.

Give Your Old Breaks a Break

Let’s start off with what happens at other places. Take my first job at a labor union. We had two break rooms, each consisting of a table or two, some chairs, a microwave, and a TV. Our lunchtime release was the last half of “The Young and the Restless” and then all of “The Bold and the Beautiful” because “The Bold and the Beautiful” was only a half-hour soap. (Shout-out to Steffy and Hope.) That’s not bad. It wasn’t good, either, and you better not get caught watching that TV during non-lunch hours. The labor union was great to us as workers and they were very adamant about breaks, but they only wanted those breaks to happen according to a schedule. It was like they were brokering with themselves for better workers’ rights but didn’t quite know how to be both sides of that deal.

Then I worked at a copywriting agency. This is where things got tricky because our boss wanted us to have the ultimate flexibility to work anytime, anywhere … as long as we were working all the time, everywhere. You were supposed to be in charge of your own day, and in his mind, that meant we were in charge of our own breaks … and somehow, since we were in charge of our own breaks, we shouldn’t have to take any. There wasn’t anywhere to take a break anyways. Our break room consisted of a microwave-sized alley off our common area that featured a file cabinet full of writing samples that was nine times bigger than a microwave. It was cramped (especially considering there was actually a microwave in there, too).

What’s happening here? Well, in my experience, managers know they have to let us take breaks or we’ll pop/burn out/quit. But they’re deathly afraid that breaks will turn into lost productivity, lost cash, and lost respect toward the management team. Just look at what Bob Fox of FOX Architects has to say about it in a 2011 post he wrote about foosball for the online publication he founded, Work Design Magazine. He bought his employees a foosball table because he wanted to reward them for being hard workers, but right afterward, “the concerned, managerial voice in the back of my head was saying, ‘Keep an eye on productivity, Bob.’”

Can you believe that? He gets his employees something as a reward for working hard and immediately fears this will stop them from working hard. Luckily for Fox’s team, Fox kept an open mind and actually looked at the productivity numbers. “After six months, watching the numbers became a total waste of time,” Fox said, “Why? Because what I found was refreshing, surprising, and very impressive: productivity actually increased—and not by a little bit—by 10-15 percent.”

Two of our top programmers, Chris Duffy and Jeremy Wiggins, boost their productivity with foosball.

Make a Break For Better Breaks

How can that be? Here’s a small content stub and an infographic on gamification that prove with science what common sense already tells us: Games like foosball help us take breaks in a way that stimulates our minds, gets our blood flowing (because sitting at our desks all day does the opposite), and pumps up our dopamine and testosterone levels. The result is we leave the break room wanting to extend our foosball table winning streak to our work problems, our conference rooms, and our negotiation tables. Games at work also boost employee teamwork both for people on the same level of the company’s hierarchy and for people on different levels. Here’s Bob Fox again:

“Our staff started including more competitive individuals whose enthusiasm seemed to translate from the foosball table to the conference room table. …The playing field, so to speak, was even during those competitions … I was the boss, but couldn’t play to save my life … my employees loved that. …Business conversations would occur spontaneously over the foosball table. I realized that work was actually getting done while people were ‘disconnected’ from their desks. …But perhaps most importantly, I saw from a business standpoint that my team was building communication.”

Break Records at ABT

One of the things I like most about working at ABT is our management team is very much like Bob Fox. Unlike my old copywriting agency, we have a break room. (Two, actually: One on our third floor and an even bigger one on the first.) Unlike my old labor union, our break room is more than just a TV with daytime soaps on it: We have a foosball table on the third floor and an arcade, beer/liquor/wine bar, and ping-pong table on the first (Though we could stand to get some daytime soaps on the TVs, now that I think about it. Steffy and Hope aren’t going to fight over the same guy without an audience.). And listen to this: Not only are we in charge of our own breaks, we’re allowed to take them. Our management team understands that what looks like goofing off is actually a way for us to get revved up for more work, or to keep working on something that’s just not making itself happen at our desks, or to get closer to the folks we’re teamed up with on a big, tough project.

Our head of HR Jennifer Herndon plays foosball, and she wants you to do the same.

Let me give you examples from my own time at ABT (which, O talented folks here in Raleigh, is more than three years). Teamwork is the first thing I’ll cover. As an account executive, I’m expected to motivate people to get work done on time under budget with smiles on their faces—but I cannot command anyone to do anything because my role is not above those people. In this pursuit, building friendships and teamwork around the foosball table has been hugely helpful. I didn’t play foosball, however, for the first year I worked here. I didn’t even know how to play, but after watching the people I worked with having a lot of fun, I decided I wanted in.

I taught myself to play, then played with and against application architects, software architects, .NET programmers, PHP programmers, other account executives, project managers (and our director of project managers, whom I love to beat), IT team members, and front end developers. That’s a huge swathe of the company with whom I now have a deeper understanding, a better work tone, and a better sense of mutual respect. I’m always tickled by this one front end developer because we kind of figured out spontaneously that we make a fantastic foosball team (as long as he’s on offense and I’m on defense). Do I like the guy more now simply for that reason? Do we get along because we’re proud of the wins we shared against “the other guys?” Is it much easier to get him to do work on time under budget with a smile on his face because we’ve teamed up? The answer to those three questions is yes, one hundred percent.

Let’s treat “working away from our desks” second. Bob Fox is right about these spontaneous conversations. We’ll be halfway through a game when the software architect jumps straight into a conversation with his teammate, a front end developer, about the progress he’s made on a structural task that the front end developer needs done before he can do his own work. I’ve had that director of project managers (the one I love to beat) jump right into a conversation with me about what we should do to unstick a problem on one of the accounts we share, and it’s easier for us to be totally truthful about what should be done because neither of us are worrying about the fact that his role is well above mine in the company. We’re just two guys trying to get the same thing done. We’re on a team even though we’re playing foosball against one another. I’ve started conversations, too, like with our IT team. We’ll be playing, and I’ll say, “So what happened with that site outage?” And for some reason, since we’re not at our desks or in the even more formal setting of a conference room, it’s much easier for the guy to say, “Yeah, I forgot to flip this one switch before running the site update. I figured out what I did wrong, fixed it, and ran it again. It worked.” And I say, “Hey, no problem, I’ll let the client know what happened and that we’re putting things in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” It could have been a tense talk if I were at his desk, but because I brought it up at the foosball table, we skipped the awkward emotions and went straight to resolving the issue.

Edwin and Jorma build trust in our break room.

This brings me to one thing I don’t see Fox talking about, and this may be because he’s at the top of his company and not a rank-and-file employee like me: Playing games like foosball can take the tension out of a strained workplace relationship. I don’t have space to go into detail here, but let’s just say I used an intensely competitive game of foosball to help me get to a better place with a coworker who was less than thrilled with me from our very first moment. He may still be less than thrilled with me, but at least now I feel more able to handle our exchanges (my winning that tough match might have helped). Over time, the way I approach him has changed how he approaches me. It’s a virtuous cycle put into place by a fun game, and that kind of virtuous cycle really happens thanks to our management team. ABT’s leadership knows that working through our relationship over a game of foosball isn’t a waste of time. In fact, it may be the best use of our time, especially considering we’re hashing things out in a healthy way away from our desks.

Break Me, I Dare You

The table is ready. I’d love you to come challenge me.

So, are you one of those talented folks here in Raleigh that wants to work for a management team that gets it like Bob Fox does? You’re welcome to challenge me to a game of foos right here at ABT, any time you want. I’m just as happy to take you on in chess, ping-pong, or any of our arcade games. Shoot, I’ll thumb wrestle you if that’s what you want. Once I’m done breaking your back, I’ll build you back up with tales about the cool work we do and the fun things we do, like Culture Club events, Thirsty Thursdays, Pumpkin Chunkins, and more. I’ll even help you fill out an application to join us, especially if you’re an account executive. Why? Because I welcome the competition.

Why don’t you take a look at what’s open right now?

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Stewart Arthur Pelto is an account executive. Taking foosball breaks helped him draft this post.

SOURCES:

Fox, Bob. (2011, Feb. 2). Back to the Foosball [Blog post]. Retrieved Jan. 13, 2017, from

The Gamified Brain: A Study of the Effects of Gamification On the Brain [Infographic].

Holtzclaw, Eric. (2014, Nov. 11). How Playing Games Increases Workplace Productivity [Article].

Retrieved Jan. 13, 2017

At ABT, learning is a vital part of our work. But beyond keeping tabs on the latest trends for our technical work, our team strives to open our minds to new ideas that fire our professional imagination. From novels to nonfiction, from thoughtful documentaries to binge-worthy TV, from smart podcasts to pulse-pounding rap, here’s what the awesome people of ABT are reading, watching, and listening to:

READING:

Townsley Minton, Senior Account Executive – Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

This quick and easy read is essentially Chick Lit meets Who Done It. Readers are taken to a beautiful beach community in Australia where events culminate in a murder during a fancy fundraising night at the local school. Town gossip fuels the plotline, and I found at least one character to whom I could easily relate. Larger issues of bullying, domestic violence, and social perception are explored, giving the novel a bit more heft than the normal beach read. I’d highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a piece of fiction that will distract from normal life.

Allan Maule, Senior Writer/Content Strategist – Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy

As someone who spends a lot of his workday writing, I really love books about the craft of putting stories and words together. Thrill Me is this kind of book. Percy breaks down all kinds of techniques for building suspense in a story, defining a setting, and establishing characters. Besides being a fun read, this book is giving me some new ideas for how to plan and write content for ABT and our clients. After all, great content marketing is just large-scale storytelling.

Stewart Arthur Pelto, Account Executive – Realityland by David Koenig

This book follows the Walt Disney Company from Walt’s plane flights over undeveloped Florida wetlands to the construction of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (and maybe a little more, I’m nearing the end). Reading this is teaching me to champion smart production schedules and good, healthy language at work.

Jennifer Herndon, Chief People Officer – The Best Place to Work by Ron Friedman

In The Best Place to Work, Ron Friedman uses psychological research and data to determine what motivates us at work. Here are a few things I’ve learned: allowing failure can promote innovation, being respected by your peers feels better than a raise, and having autonomy at work is a basic psychological need that naturally motivates us. I highly recommend this book for managers, leaders, or emerging leaders. Friedman follows up each chapter with action items that will help create a work environment that allows people to do their best work.

WATCHING:

Jorma Pelto, Internal Support Engineer – Jiro Dreams of Sushi

I recently re-watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, my all-time favorite documentary dealing with Jiro, a now 91-year-old 3-star michelin-rated chef and his son, Yoshikazu. If you enjoyed Chef’s Table on Netflix, the executive producer is the director of Jiro, which is a must-watch. The film follows Jiro’s career, as well as the preparation required each day to produce sushi on that level. I was struck by a quote from Jiro at the very beginning of the film about work ethic. He put into words how I feel about work and life in general, my need for constant improvement and dedication to see something through to the very end as thoroughly and as best as I can. It’s an ideal I hope will become more prevalent in today’s workforce:

“Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably.”

Rachel McKay, Office Administrator – Grand Tour

As a dedicated Top Gear fan for the last 10 or so years, I was deeply depressed when it was announced that my favorite British trio would no longer be appearing on my regularly scheduled programming. Luckily, it seemed that Amazon Video felt the same way and decided to do something about that, cue, Grand Tour.

Grand Tour is the twin brother to Top Gear: full of country-wide car rides accompanied with odd tasks, facts about the hottest luxury cars, the test Ebola track (now done by “The American” instead of “The Stig”), and of course the constant insults and pranks from Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. The fun, new part about this version of Top Gear is that it changes locations each week, and thus you get to learn about that particular place’s “car culture”, which is a neat little feature. In this show you will get great comedy, lots of car eye-candy, and even a couple of explosions. I would highly recommend it to just about anyone.

LISTENING TO:

Matt Deal, Senior Digital Strategist – Lore

One of the reasons I like the podcast Lore is the purposeful storytelling about the supernatural. Aaron Mahnke (the creator) has a cadence that draws you in and creates an experience and makes you feel things. That’s what I always hope to achieve with marketing. Not just hawking things, but creating experiences that make people think.

Eileen Allen, VP of Experience and Strategy – A Tribe Called Quest

Music can affect mood, creativity, and focus. To me, A Tribe Called Quest’s latest album We got it from Here…Thank you 4 Your service does all that and more. It’s nostalgic, socially relevant, and dynamic in the variety of samples and instruments. From beginning to end, the album carries you as a great novel would. In the same way, at ABT we want the work we produce to carry users through an engaging and dynamic user experience from end to end. The album is timeless. As I approach 40, it’s encouraging to see “older” musicians proving once again they are masters of their craft, making fresh and vital art. I can listen to it on loop and continue to find nuance as I hope users find in our products.

Kendall King, Senior Digital Strategist – Metallica

You’re damn right I’m listening to Metallica!  The biggest metal band to roam this earth, and one of the most influential bands in my life, is finally relevant again!  Their newest album, Hardwired….To Self Destruct, is a throwback to the style of hard-hitting, speed-riff metal they showed off in the albums Kill’em All and Ride The Lightning. This album sounds like the Metallica many of us fans have craved for over 25 years (since 1991’s black album—some might argue since ‘86’s Master of Puppets).   

With today’s technology and social media pushing hoards of new songs, artists, and music genres in our faces, it feels great to be reminded of where my musical influences started. And even though I recently saw Beyoncé in concert (And it was incredible!), my musical soul is still deeply rooted in rock ‘n roll.