reason no. 928 why i love thoughtworks

thoughtworks constantly strives to improve itself. the neat thing is that improvement here is not measured by an rising bottom line, nor by growth in numbers or mentions in the news. it's not driven by external factors of what someone else expects from our company. the desire to improve comes from within.

we thoughtworkers are our own foremost and only true stakeholders. if someone within this company feels that we are not focusing enough efforts on bringing women and minorities in, they are free and they are encouraged to scrutinize our current approach, regardless of what role or grade they are. they have the forum to create the initiative to bring awareness to the issue and to gather a group to pioneer the change they want to see. if we retroactively realize we've hired somebody who breaches our values or blatantly exploits our "do-what-you-want-during-beach-time, we-trust-it's-something-good-and-or-productive" policy, we exit them immediately no matter how much of a technical hotshot they are. if we think opening an office in a developing country is necessary to the global impact we strive to make, we take that risk, make that expense, and we put our honest and good effort behind it to make it happen. we trust that the investment we make in the people who we think will make our company better will prove out.

sure, not every initiative or proposal for improvement goes through. sometimes they never even take off. other times, they do, only to fall flat. it ain't easy to introduce change across a company of 1,800 people distributed across 22 cities around the globe. it's sometimes even harder when all of those individuals are strong-minded and do not and will not see themselves in a hierarchy. but the importance is not necessarily in how much we grow; it's that the internal fire within the company that still burns brightly, the one that fuels new ideas and suggestions, the one that says we can do better, and here's how, now let's make it happen. we're open to what the world might expect of us, but ultimately, thoughtworks is very much its own driver for success and for change, and i think that's what keeps us unique and what makes us leaders in the spaces we inhibit. we are breaking out of the mold of numbers-driven improvement and instead are comfortably wandering around in the world of emotional, moral, common-sense-based improvement. the fact that we motivate ourselves from within to constantly become a better company is reason #928 why i love thoughtworks.