Values
Values
Our company values are rooted in Indigenous knowledge and our business decision-making is guided by our values. Specifically, the 7 Grandfather Teachings from Anishinaabe culture inform our relationships with clients, partners, employees, contractors and other collaborators.
Humility
Humility means being of service and asking for help. It means admitting mistakes and understanding our place in each project. While we bring a wealth of expertise from our field to each project, we humbly acknowledge that every client and contributor with whom we collaborate brings knowledge, expertise and experience from their field. We recognize that every collaborator knows something that we don’t and as a team, being humble means that we always seek feedback and strive to learn.
Truth
Truth means understanding ourselves and understanding our team. We see ‘truth’ as the internal cousin of ‘honesty’ - while they often work together, it’s important to remember that they are not the same thing. Understanding truth means understanding and honouring lived experiences; it means looking at all scenarios not with cold objectivity, but understanding that it sometimes means either weaving together multiple perspectives, or holding differing perspectives together at once.
Honesty
Honesty is about respecting and sharing truth. You can know and hold truths without being honest about them - our team strives to do both. We strive to always be honest with ourselves, each other, our community and our clients. In a practical sense this means holding each other and ourselves accountable to our words, actions and promises. It means being kind when we share feedback, asking questions and recognising each others’ strengths in challenges.
Wisdom
Wisdom is about sharing and seeking knowledge. It is an understanding that each person knows and keeps their own wisdom. All of us are learning from each other and we are grateful to continually have opportunities to learn. We seek wisdom from each other, clients, partners, advisors and mentors. We strive to act as lifelong students in our respective roles as we watch and listen for opportunities to learn. We strive to do better on each upcoming project. We acknowledge that in order to gain wisdom, we sometimes need to make mistakes and reflect upon those mistakes to learn.
Respect
Respect is what teamwork is built on; respect means thinking outside of your own perspective and understanding the perspectives of friends, coworkers, clients and partners. For us, respect is about honouring the value of ourselves, our team, our clients, our environment, and our work. Respect is treating others the way you like to be treated. Respect requires balance in honoring yourself and others.
Courage
Courage at work is doing what is right over what is comfortable, fun, fast or easy. Courage is practicing our values, rather than simply listing them on our website. This means saying “no” to projects, clients or partners that do not align with our values. Operating as an Indigenous digital agency in the technology space is not something that comes with a roadmap - our team is drawing the map as we move. We make decisions as a team and it takes courage from every team member to speak up and make their own voices heard whenever those decisions are being made.
Love
Love is the binding that holds together all the other values. One cannot know or understand love without humility, truth, honesty, wisdom, respect and courage. Love is the value that allows us to work cohesively as a team and with our broader partners and clients. In this context, love is about acknowledging the value we each bring to the team and about supporting team member ideas and pursuits.