We would love to have your students assist us with our goal of creating and nurturing a positive team culture even as we grow, specifically around Passion Projects.

Presently, our offices span across Canada, with team members in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Our team is growing rapidly (approx. 300% growth per year) and we want to ensure that the culture we foster is positive, scaleable, and right for all of our team members. Starting in mid 2019, various members of Riipen, across teams, started PACT, the People and Culture Team. This team was created to ensure that the culture was coming from within, that everyone felt represented, and that the events held were in everyone's interest. Ultimately however, PACT is just a small team of people who also have jobs to do, so we would love some guidance!

In the past, Riipen management implemented Passion Projects - projects that were designed to be outside of a team members regular work scope, which allowed them to utilize their skills and talents, foster their creativity, and get outside of their day-to-day work. These were designed to be smaller initiatives, but ones that were still in line with the needs of the company as a whole. What we found was that people were eager to take things on, but ultimately things were not finished and projects were left in the lurch. We would love to bring back Passion Projects, but are eager to find ways in which we can ensure accountability and sustainability, while still making the projects enjoyable and productive.

What we would like to explore:

• What kinds of Passion Projects work? - I know endeavours like this are something that companies like Google encourage
• Who manages them, and who is accountable. Does there need to be one centralized team (PACT for example) who 'doles' out projects, or do people pick their own? How?
• How do we ensure that passion projects are in line with company goals?
• How big or small should they be?
• Are there rewards?
• Are there external factors we haven't considered that will help contribute to success?