The case: ENV Media

The situation.

ENV Media was founded in 2018 by Fredrik Brännlund and Martin Larsson. Fully remote, no offices, people in nine countries and as many time zones. When the pandemic came, Fredrik noticed the team slipping. Short-term memory, the eye for the bigger picture, focus. It wasn't a dramatic turn, but a slow, gradual drain, and it showed in the work and in the conversations.

So in the fall of 2020 he held a presentation for the team about physical and mental health, and invited them to an experiment. Voluntary, he stressed. No bonus, no recognition for taking part. The only currency was understanding yourself, together.

Two years later.

Was it the method that did all of that? No, of course not on its own. But ask anyone who was there, and they point to the same thing: what changed was the people.

The people.

One employee was on thin ice. He was put on a low-priority project with no great expectations. Through the game something happened: he stopped working to please the owners and started working for his own sake. He set goals, shared them, reported and reflected. Today he's the one driving the business forward, and the owners have been able to let go.

Another team member ran every day. The streak is still going. A third learned breathing techniques to fully let go of work at the end of the day, the thing that's so hard when the office lives in your home.

"All these highly successful people, they also fail sometimes. It was the key to being human together, instead of being my title versus their title."Felicia, ENV Media

"Maybe 2 or 3 people in my call were doubting it was working. They saw the proof in the others. To see the doubters becoming believers, that's the memory I remember the most."Robin, ENV Media

And the weekly calls, where the groups met and talked about how it went? One team member put them at half the value of the whole thing.

What Fredrik took with him.

Before this I had a fairly cynical view of people, honestly. I assumed most people look out for themselves. Watching what happened in the team changed that. It takes so little for us to start carrying each other, and it gave me hope for humanity.

— Fredrik Brännlund

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