Team Builders Wanted

The impetus for ODE was really that moment when I was at Nickelodeon, standing in the kitchen getting coffee when a co-worker I hardly knew walked in. We started talking and I quickly realized that we had a lot in common, that I had been there working with him for more than five years and didn’t know who he was. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could discover each other sooner?

I thought long and hard about it. Imagine if ODEs hung on the walls of conference room, or if there was a coffee table book you could read when you joined the team? What a gift this would be to your people, to honor them with a photograph and a profile. What if we shared each other’s stories? Wouldn’t this do more for unity and retention than snacks and outings?

More than anything else I imagined that ODEs would bolster team chemistry. I wanted to know not just where people once worked, but what they believed in, what they’d overcome. I can learn more about you from a quote, a lyric from a song, a line from a poem you chose than I can from your whole resume. What I was really hoping for was a way of truly being seen.

I’m looking to connect with those people who do team building. I want to work with Apple, Salesforce, Google, Facebook - companies where culture matters and where people are honored for who they truly are. If you know any such people, please tell me. I’ll do a free ODE for you if you help me make a meaningful connection.