6 ways Dragon Army is not your average company

At Dragon Army, we tend to think about things differently. Just take our name.

“Dragon Army” is the team that Ender Wiggin runs in the book/movie, Ender’s Game. They are forced to tackle problems from new angles and out-think the enemy. Everything is questioned. It’s why we refer to ourselves as creative problem-solvers.

So, we’re different. And I’d love to share some of the ways we’re different :)

#1 – We have a Purpose, and we live it every day.

Many companies talk about having a Mission or Purpose. Very few, I find, make it the center of everything they do.

At Dragon Army, our Purpose is to Inspire Happiness.

We Inspire Happiness through positive relationships, impactful work, and doing good. We have a Happiness Committee that works hard to help our dragons be happier and more engaged on a daily basis. And we strive to do good in our community with our work and our hands.

We’ve also flipped the idea of employee performance reviews completely. Instead of saying, “Here are the things YOU have done well and could improve upon for the company,” we ask, “How has Dragon Army made you happy or unhappy over the last quarter? What could help you be more fulfilled and engaged? How can the company help YOU?”

And we do things all the time to bring happiness to our team members, including…

#2 – We take our dragons on an annual cruise.

Yup. We do that. In fact, we pay for our team members AND their +1’s. Check it out.

#3 – We run our company like a sports team.

Ever heard of The Great Game of Business? We run a variation of that program which we call, The Great Game of Dragon Army (GGoDA). Essentially, at Dragon Army everyone knows our annual goal and we’re all rewarded the same way for achieving it. For example, in 2018, every dragon can earn 7.5% of their compensation as a bonus. We talk about our progress each week in our Scorecard meeting, and brainstorm together ways to achieve the goal.

The key is that everyone understands the game, knows the goal, is aware of how we’re doing against the goal, knows how they can affect the outcome, and we all win or lose together. If you’re interested, here’s more on the Great Game.

Oh, and a key component of the GGoDA is…

#4 We have open financials.

Everyone in our company can see, in real time, our current financials. Other than individual employee salaries, they can see our revenue, expenses, profit, etc. We believe in trusting our dragons, and that knowledge is power. The more everyone understands our business, the more we can succeed together!

Also, we work hard to build trust amongst each other. Having complete financial transparency helps to show everyone that we’re all in this together, and we can trust one another.

#5 – We pay a $5,000 referral fee to our team members for referring new employees. Every time.

Any time a team member refers someone that we end up hiring, and once that person passes the 90-day mark, the team member gets a $5,000 check. And they get that EVERY TIME this happens.

Why do we do this? Because our culture and team are the most important things to us. And ensuring that we’re adding the right new dragons to the mix is of the upmost importance. The thinking is, everyone knows some incredible people that haven’t found their work home yet, and who better to ensure a culture fit than people already in our culture.

#6 – We end our monthly company meetings with Acknowledgements.

We have monthly company meetings where we talk about important issues and have open, honest conversations. Anything is on the table and we don’t shy away from tough topics.

At the end of these meetings, I open the floor for any dragons to acknowledge their team members for exhibiting our values over the last month. I can honestly say its one of my favorite moments, and yes, sometimes there are tears :)

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And if any of that sounds interesting to you, we do have a lot of open positions :)