Dear Team,
As most of us know, silverorange as a whole is a pretty cool/unique/great company. Some say we’re doing radical things here that have never been done before. Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t. What has gotten us to where we are today has been dreams, plans, painful honesty, cockiness, stubbornness, desperation, risk, dedication, hard work, harder play, passion, talent, and camaraderie. These things have taken us through good times and bad. Through times of little and times of plenty.

In preparation for our 2005 summit I have spent the last few weeks thinking about silverorange. Where we’ve come from. What we’ve done. What we fail at and what we succeed in. In particular I tried to think (and look) back to the ideals and processes that have gotten us to where we are today. I have tried to examine what those outside silverorange would call our “magic”. What makes us tick. What made us survive and thrive when other companies like us did neither.

Coincidently during this process of examining us I came across some material from a book called “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” In this book the author outlines the five dysfunctions that cripple teams. I looked at silverorange through the lens of this material and found that we were not magical at all. We were not lucky. We were not better than others technically, design wise or business wise. We had nothing going for us other than one simple truth. We have built a great team. Without getting into the nitty gritty details of the book here is why our team has worked, and has worked very well.

1. We trust each other. I cannot speak personally for anyone but myself…. So i will speak from my own perspective. I trust the other people in this room implicitly. I trust you each not just in your specific area of expertise but as a person. I’d trust you with my children. With my money. With my shortcomings and achievements. . Maybe I’ve got my head in the sand and am foolish to trust everyone here…..but I don’t think I’m alone. We are friends and teammates. For the most part we even like each other!
2. We are not scared to fight. For those of you who missed the epic battles of days gone by you will have to trust us when we say that silverorange is rooted in conflict. This is not a negative thing. We learned early on, before there was money and before there were clients, how to bash around ideas without personally hurting each other. It worked and it became a part of culture. We are not scared to bring forth our ideas and we are not scared to get passionate about defending them. But we are willing to see the idea as something outside of ourselves and if it isn’t accepted it doesn’t follow that we are not personally accepted.
3. We are committed. There isn’t much I need to say here. We all can remember at least one time where one of us has stayed late, done work they hated, dealt with issues that were horrible, bit their lip in a meeting, dipped into the line of credit, made tough phone calls, drove or walked to the office in a snowstorm, checked the intranet while on vacation, or worked the morning before an exam.
4. If we goof up we admit it. As individuals and as a company we never claim to be infallible. We also have the culture of holding each other accountable for our errors and talents.
5. We pay attention to our success and our failures. When we do good work we realize it. When we goof up and fall on our collective ass we realize it. We look at why we succeed and why we fail. We learn together. We are smart.

As far as I’m concerned that is how silverorange in five years went from being a group of guys with an idea of being one of the best web development firms in the world to actually being one of the best web development firms in the world. And for that we should be very very proud.

As we go from here, 2005, we are different than when we started on August 11, 1999. There are more people. We have more to be responsible for – personally and collectively. We have more money. We are more talented. We are more respected. We are more cocky. We are more sensible.

“More” is a magnifier though. As more is added to us in the form of clients, fellow slices, buildings, projects, fame, and fortune our nuances will become larger. The good things and ways in which we operate this company will get better and better. But the things we haven’t addressed or those things that we are just not good at will become larger and larger issues. Eventually, if left unchecked, those things will cripple us personally, professionally, and worst of all, as a team.

It may seem silly to be “doomsday like” and cautious when things are going so well for us. Even I think it is a little silly. But I also think it’s necessary to tackle issues while they are small. While they are still at a point where we can identify them and easily manage them out of our team. If we wait until the problems build up and manage the crisis that ensues we will lose momentum and morale. We should treat our team like we treat our code, our sites, our servers, our buildings, and our finances. Preventive planning, maintenance, and design should be a systemic process in silverorange.

What are these small things? What things could rear their ugly heads as more is added to silverorange? We’ll never identify them all, but here are the key ones that I feel from my position have the potential to significantly hurt us in the long run if not managed out and eliminated. I’m listing them in no particular order.

• Fear of not having enough money – We move more money now than we ever thought we’d be moving. Money is a result of what we do. The more we fear not having enough the more likely it is that we will not have enough. Scrambling for cash, worrying about cash, doing work for cash and cash only, selling our souls for cash, and sacrificing our ideals for cash exhibits an attitude of scarcity. There is always enough. Money has appeared at times to have been tight but looking back we’ve always had it when we needed it. We’ve always gotten that great project when we needed it. We’ve always gotten a raise when rent went up at our apartments. In reality and relative to most others in the world, we’ve had an abundance of cash. I cannot for the life of me remember when a single good idea has ever been sacrificed because we didn’t have the money to do it. Money should always be an afterthought. Money is an enabler. We own the money. The money does not, will not, and never will own us. This is not an excuse to not be prudent, wise, and responsible with our money. This is simply saying that being prudent and responsible out of fear is as good as wasting it on useless things.
• Fear of conflict – Holding in emotions, thoughts, anger, resentment, and bitterness. When we stop saying what we feel. When we no longer see conflict as positive we lose out. When this happens our team will die a slow confusing death. We have ups and downs. Jobs change. Promises are sometimes left unfulfilled. Mistakes are made. People get offended. We need to continue to have conflict. We need to sometimes almost come to blows during a heated argument. We need to be held accountable to each other and our promises. We need to be a living breathing hurting and healing team. We need to say the things in the pit of our stomachs and trust the team to deal with it fairly.
• Fear of failing – The reason for our drive and work cannot be the fear of what happens if we fail. We will not last long if the reason we all come to work is to ensure that we get our paycheque to pay the mortgage payment or tuition. The reason for us coming to work should be to build something cool. To find a cool project. To sort out that problem with that design. To present that idea to the group that you’ve been dreaming up. To be with your friends. To tell the CEO he’s a idiot. To watch the Madden Bowl. To admit to the group that your heart’s not in it anymore. To find the passion that once was there.
• Not playing together – We’ve historically done this well as of late we’ve lost touch with it a bit. We need to play as a team. Computer games, Frisbee golf, paint ball, it doesn’t matter what the game is, it’s just important that we all join in.
• Not Accepting that we’re old and married – Ok, not everyone is. But if we don’t realize and accept that the personal lives of those involved in silverorange are changing and maturing we may regret the amount of time they’re spending at the office, or the time of day they’re at the office. Part of our plan with silverorange has been to build a platform from which we, as individuals, could live life. Part of this is how we mature and evolve in our relationships, marriages, education, and geographical location. We, as a team, need to realize and accept that we will all change over the years. The more flexible we are the better the chances are of our survival.
• Not Resting– We do not take enough time off. We have been gradually tiring over the past few years. Each and everyone of us has. We need to take as much time off as we each need to recharge. This will change for each person each year and that’s ok.
• Bureaucracy – The moment we start to have programs and systems to manage people we loose trust. The day we start tracking vacation and sick days we loose our souls and freedom. The day we punch in and punch out is the day the doors might as well be locked for good.
• Pride – Personal and collective pride will undo us in the long run. If one of us feels we are more important, more popular, more influential, more crucial than any other on the team our team will start to misfire on all cylinders. Likewise, if we collectively think we are too good to deal with “petty” client problems, or look down on that up and coming company we will all fail together, publicly.
• Guilt , shame, and resentment – If we as individuals feel guilty for our lack of skill, or lack of contribution to the team as a whole this will cripple us. We should not be trying to be better as individuals only because we feel we owe the team something or have let it down. Also, on the flip side, no one should resent someone else on the team for their success, or stature. We are a team. No one is more or less important than the next. Being a team means having different kinds of work and each of us having our days in the spotlight.
• Lack of Equality – If we don’t continue to operate on the premise that we are all equal participants in this team and this company then we will tear each other to pieces. Everyone should be equal. From the CEO to the junior programmer.
• Corporate and individual lack of philanthropy and charity – No matter which way you measure it, we have a lot. We have been lucky/blessed/successful or whatever you want to call it. It is our moral and human duty to distribute what we can to those who have less.

Over the past few weeks as I sifted back through memories, old intranet posts, and emails I realized how amazing our team really is. How amazing each one of you really is. I am honestly humbled and truly glad to be part of such an amazing group of people. I’m honored to be part of this team and what we’ve done to date could not have happened without what each of you bring to this team day in and day out.