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Here at Delivra, we are serious about our Teams and our Team spirit. We're proud of the fact that we manage by consensus - there are no silos of information at Delivra. We fully leverage the size of our staff to remain as nimble as possible, often making decisions in hallway discussions or sitting around the white board in a Manager's office. We'll gather all the affected people up and make our decisions rapidly - without a lot of fan fair and certainly without the overhead of "pre-meetings" and "wrap-up sessions". There is a power in this kind of management style: you'd be amazed at the time savings. You'd also be surprised at what it does to morale. If anyone can just call a quick gathering, toss ideas on the table, and then make an informed decision, without all the hassle of getting on several people's calendar for an hour - when all that's needed is five minutes! Obviously, there is some risk in this style as well. Fortunately, we're not dogmatic about not having meetings (in fact, the Management Team has a few standing weekly meetings) and everyone on staff knows when it's time to make a more formal gathering and allow some preparation for attendees.

Of course, with all this focus on the Team and with all the joking and laughing our Technology staff does, an outside observer might think that we are quick to gloss over problem areas in design or in ideas presented to the group: nothing could be further from the truth! This was illustrated last Friday when one of our lead Developers came into my office with a few sheets of paper and an idea about the new "trash can" feature we're adding to the media library (to allow users to un-delete something that was deleted on accident). He talked me through several points of consideration and we differed on one small aspect of the design in particular. Well, I knew that we weren't going to get anywhere fast - so I hollered through the wall at our Development Manager (Chris Broshears). I figured the Developer would want some backup and Chris and I are known for our epic debates. Chris came over to my office, immediately saw the conflict and jumped right in on the Developer's side.

As often is the case, Chris and I got a little heated and even a little loud - we're very passionate about our users and the user experience of our UI (User Interface). It didn't take long before our lead Developer walked right up to the door and yelled "Manager Fight!" The whole room cracked up. Needless to say, I eventually came around to seeing the Development Team's point and we met in the middle with a fantastic new idea that we never would have thought of without that conflict. Our Team knows us well enough to know that we're quite close friends - you'll often find us out on a lunch break GeoCaching together! Immediately following our debate, though somewhat heated, neither of us left with hard-feelings. At the end of the day, we're looking out for our most precious resource - our customers: and I'm always up for a good debate about how to take better care of you! In the end, everyone wins.

Contact us today and see how serious we take customer service!

Chris Nelson | IT & Security