What I know for sure about our team and this new year

2020 was a weird year for everyone. It was scary and hard for many of us. It was a year that we didn’t expect. We had plans, we wanted to visit places, we wanted to meet new people, go to events abroad and travel a lot more. This year made most of us reconsider our priorities.

2021 is a new beginning.

At stoica.co, in 2020 we remained healthy (some of us had Covid but without major problems) and that was the most important part. We grew a bit, started to work with a few new clients and we matured a lot. We learned what is important for us and what is not. Like a teenager becoming an adult.

2020 was the year we became an actual team. I cannot describe what happened exactly but at some point, we started to work as one. Each and every person in the team is exceptional individually but we all work even better as a team. It's not bragging if it's true.

Here are a few important ideas for us:

1. People first

We see our company as a group of individuals. The company is only a way to name this group of individuals, a container without mass. We build processes, content, services and products but without the actual team, the company doesn’t have any real value. Yes, we will build products, content, assets and processes this year as well but all these pale in comparison with the potential value of what the team can build on the long term.

Our team, learning something new every year and sticking together through all of it, is like an organic machine, like a forest that grows every day. No matter what happens next year, we are a team that grows together. We will protect each other. We will challenge each other, learn together and stick together, like a family.

2. Healthy is better than fast

Building a healthy business and team takes time and since we only have a few hours a day, a few days a week and a few weeks every month, it will take time over a few years. There are no "yesterday" deadlines in a healthy team. We will reevaluate any task that has a "yesterday" deadline, plan realistic deadlines and do our best to deliver. Good things take time and we know that. We'll be efficient but will take the needed time to build and learn.

This year, we will take time for our families at home and for ourselves as well. We will take time to read, to spend with friends and to work on any hobby that we may have. It's important to take time off and actually be there.

When at work, in front of our laptops we will focus and try to be as efficient as possible. We will do our best to deliver really good results for our clients and we will help team when in need.

3. Pick one priority (one)

There is always too much to learn, too much work and not enough time. In 2021 we will take one task at a time. Keeping everything structured in a project management tool as a repository for all information related to what we create and a clearer team accountability system will help for sure.

We will also try to specialise a bit more. Being a small team meant each one of us had to be a generalist and able to work on almost anything that needed to happen and switch fast from one task to another. I started some days working on a design project, wrote a few emails, signed a contract with a client around lunch and implemented some development changes on a website in the afternoon. Same for the rest of the team. Because we want to be better we will need to pick our strengths and build on that so we can be better, faster.

4. Learn from others

We will be curious and ask questions. We learned this past year that we don't have to do everything by ourselves. We will ask for help from our colleagues, partners and even clients. It's only important to be opened, communicate the challenge we are facing and let other step in or guide us in the right direction.

We will read a lot, observe, follow people that have a lot more experience than us and learn from them. We will search for mentors, stars, heroes we can follow, copy and ourselves compare with. We will learn from better individuals, we will work and focus our efforts, together, and we will be even better than them at some point. It will take time but we will get there.

Hope you will have a great year as well. I know we will.