Building Culture with Tuesday Meetup

This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter, BL&T (Borrowed, Learned, & Thought). Subscribe

Borrowed

“Most companies that talk about culture don’t have one, at least not a good one. Culture doesn’t come from a mission statement or a CEO’s webcasted lecture. Culture is encouraged from the top but is actually built from the bottom—on the factory floor or in the cubicles where the actual work gets done.”

From Lessons from the Titans: What Companies in the New Economy Can Learn from the Great Industrial Giants to Drive Sustainable Success by Scott Davis, Carter Copeland, and Rob Wertheimer [Book]

Learned

In past newsletters, I’ve mentioned the challenges we’ve faced with new business this year. With that, my priority has been evolving our services and keeping convos going with prospects while working with the team on growing current client relationships. While building momentum in these areas can be a huge win for our culture, I also believe that keeping our team connected and engaged is just as important.

Lately, my attention has been on improving our team meetings. Without an office to come into every day, our weekly 'Tuesday Meetup' is the one time we all come together, making it a key opportunity to shape our culture. But I'd been feeling like these meetups had become formulaic—one person talking, the rest listening. Engagement was low, and it felt like we were just checking boxes.

My goal was to increase engagement and learning by embracing flexibility. Here's what I mean:

When I led the Design team, I looked forward to exploring relevant topics or trying out new workshop ideas for our weekly meeting. These sessions were rarely planned far in advance, which kept them relevant and interesting.
I later applied this thinking to 3-2-1 Growth, a session I led monthly in Tuesday Meetup until recently, which, after a slow start, gained positive engagement and feedback.

When I thought about the future of our meetups, I wanted to build that same flexibility, giving people something to look forward to each week.

But what would happen to the content we used to cover in Tuesday Meetups?

Last week, we moved many of those activities into our August Monthly Team Meeting. This meeting was already structured as a presentation with multiple presenters, so it was a natural fit.

Monthly Team Meeting agenda:

Announcements: anything 'newsworthy' at Barrel (holidays, birthdays, events, etc)
New Biz Report: updates on new business opportunities across prospects and current clients
Launches + Site Demos: showcasing recent launches, but now we include site walkthroughs and recent debriefs takeaways
Kickoff Roundup: highlighting recent project kickoffs.
Team Share: a space for the team to share anything relevant, whether a presentation, new process, or anything else.
Exemplar of the Month: recognizing an outstanding performer each month.
Barrel Trivia: fun questions about our team, clients, and Barrel itself.

With this shift, our Tuesday Meetups are now more casual and focused on discussion. Instead of one-way presentations, we’ve created a space where everyone can engage, share, and contribute. We’ve started incorporating workshops and discussions on topics that matter to us—or just for fun.

The impact has been immediate and energizing. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the level of openness from everyone on the team, which, over time, can foster stronger collaboration and ownership.

Some recent workshop examples:

A couple of weeks ago, we reflected on our company values and how we’ve seen them in action over the past month. It was powerful—not just because it highlighted the awesome work being done across the team, but because it reminded us of our standards and why they make us better together.
In another recent meetup, we discussed an excerpt from the book, Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. We talked about how we can create an exceptional client experience that goes beyond satisfaction—turning our clients into true promoters of our work.

We’ll continue to experiment but I’m excited about where this is heading. I’ve enjoyed working closely with our People Ops Manager, Allison, on this and other team rituals. She's been a great collaborator and sounding board—always down to explore something new.

I'm confident continuing on this path can make us more connected, intentional, and ultimately, more effective as a team and look forward to the journey.