Week 1: CommonLit Culture
This summer I am interning at CommonLit, an edtech nonprofit that puts educational materials online for free. My first week was a whirlwind of trainings and learning how the website works, but I was also interested in the people I would work with and how everyone interacted with each other. The CommonLit team is small, fewer than 20 people, and although there are a few different teams (curriculum, sales, technology, etc.), everyone constantly communicates and works together, and people tend to take on different roles as they are needed.
The smallness of the company allows for changes and improvements to happen quickly as everyone needed to make a major change or decision is just a door or two away. The company is always looking for feedback and ways to improve. Each Monday and Friday they have staff meetings in which everyone is asked to write down anything from the week they want to celebrate and any challenges they may want addressed. In addition to these staff meetings, the curriculum team (my team for the summer) has brief meetings each morning so everyone can share what they will be working on for the day and ask for any help if needed. Everyone also has a weekly check-in with their supervisor to assure all projects are on schedule and to address any issues anyone may be encountering.
The company tries to ensure that everyone has a positive experience and has the resources they need to best contribute to the company. Everyone strives to get as much feedback as possible, so the company can continue to improve and expand. The collaborative work environment fosters close connections among the team, and I am excited to get to know more about my co-workers and CommonLit as the summer progresses.
Wow, what a benefit to be working at a company small enough to have so much face-to-face time with one another. Good job talking about the structure and the way in which folks communicate. Outside of the website, is there any technology you use (messaging apps, work flow software, etc.) or is everything really face-to-face? Sounds like though there were trainings, much of learning about the way in which the organization operates, its values, etc. is done by doing; by being part of the larger team and your curriculum team. I’ll be interested to learn if you find that some decisions have to be made in a more centralized way, without everyone’s discussion and contributions (perhaps you will find the this is not the case). Sounds like a really engaging environment.