Chaos Monkey: We look at Shopify’s new ‘culture of focus’
Deann Evans, of the EMEA exec team at Shopify, gave SiliconRepublic.com an update on how the new meetings policy is going down among staff.
Less time in meetings means more “maker time” – that’s how Shopify sold its new meetings policy to employees at the beginning of this year.
The policy was given the memorable name of Chaos Monkey, and its introduction was accompanied by fairly emphatic statements from some of Shopify’s top execs.
Meetings were not banned outright, but staff were told to cancel all recurring meetings involving more than three people. Wednesdays were to be made entirely free of meetings, while large meetings with more than 50 staff must now be held in a six-hour window on Thursdays.
Both Lutke and Nejatian strongly hinted that these changes were being implemented to give employees more time to work on their own projects and get more work done.
With Chaos Monkey in effect since early January, SiliconRepublic.com spoke to Deann Evans, Shopify director of EMEA partnerships and expansion, to find out how it is going so far.
