At Einstein Academy, We Love What We Do

We recently participated in a webinar about organizational culture, which focused on intentionally developing and fostering the kind of culture that you, as an organization, want, seeing culture as a living, breathing, and vital component to the success of an organization.

The argument the presenter made was that culture doesn’t just happen; as with any important element (such as financial stability, working facilities, and a quality program), organizational culture must be considered and worked toward on a daily basis.

As part of the webinar, we were asked to come up with a tagline of sorts to describe our culture. After thinking for a minute, what came to mind was, “At Einstein Academy, we love what we do.”

While this seems relatively subjective and hard to assess, we all know the organizations and companies where people love what they do. There was recently a viral video, for example, about employees at Trader Joe’s breaking into song and dance to soothe a crying toddler. They love what they do. Google receives an average of 2,800 resumes a day because people really want to work there. They love what they do. According to CareerBliss, Adobe often ranks as one of the happiest companies with employees saying things like, “The atmosphere is highly collaborative and energizing. People have always been friendly and helpful; very professional.” They love what they do.

And while it’s important for the well-being of the employees that they love what they do and where they do it, when people love what they do, it has a major impact on the company as a whole. According to Forbes, “Companies that keep employees happy aren’t just helping their workers—they’re helping themselves, since satisfied workers are more productive. In fact, a mutual fund that invests in companies with positive workplace ratings, Parnassus Endeavor, has beaten the market handily over the past 10 years.” Companies where people are happy and love what they do are more successful in objective measures as well, promoting the success of the company and all involved.

While we are still a school in development and have yet to welcome our first student (much less teacher) through our door, loving what we do has become our guiding principle for developing our culture, and while it currently is most relevant for us two founders, on a daily basis, we consider how to involve our students, parents, and teachers.

We’ve spent much time considering how we will be hiring and supporting teachers, for example. While we recognize the value in training programs and teaching experience, we also recognize the value in hiring teachers who love students, are passionate about our mission, and want to grow. We want teachers who will be actively engaged in our community, contributing in a variety of ways and acting as team players and thought partners. We want teachers who are passionate about changing education and ensuring students are kept at the center. We want teachers who love what they do and will create environments for students to love what they do as well.

And this idea extends to our parents and students. While we cannot force a student to love coming to school, we can create an environment where all students are valued, have important roles in our community, and play active roles in their education.

The same goes for parents. While we cannot force parents to love our school, we can create an environment where parents are valued partners, their voices are heard, and we are all committed to creating the kind of learning environment we know is best for our kids.

At Einstein Academy, we truly love what we do. We love creating a school that is best for kids (all kids!) and can foster a lifelong love of learning. We love considering how to empower students to make a difference in their communities and the world today (and not have to wait for when they are older). We love collaborating with those around us to grow and learn and push ourselves so that we are better each day than we were the previous day. We really do love what we do.