How ‘The Dash Way’ enables staff to mould the business culture

Yvon Chouinard’s ‘Let My People Go Surfing’ is probably my favourite book. He founded clothing and rock climbing brand Patagonia, whose 1964 mail-order catalogue advised customers “not to expect fast delivery during climbing season” because Chouinard and his colleagues would be 1,000 ft high in Yosemite National Park.

His ethos is about “doing things better, with great adventures in mind” and looks to challenge quick consumption, which is one of the main causes of our global ecological crisis. While we at Dash Water would love to go out for a mid-afternoon surf it’s less straightforward from our London office.

It’s a fantastic ideological lesson, however. One of the rare positives of Covid-19 is being afforded the time to focus internally on how we go about things as we grow, with one of the team leading a project called ‘The Dash Way’. The premise of this was create the structure to allow the whole team to mould the business’s culture. Some conventional ideas arose, for example further working from home, setting up a running club and extra paid time to volunteer at a charity.

Some left-field suggestions also arose, ranging from ‘Pee Time’ – taking the operation manager’s Dachshund (aka the Dash-hound) for a walk for a mid-afternoon break – to a month-long sabbatical. I recall speaking with a mentor about his sabbatical system, in which employees could take a month of unpaid leave after working for the business for 12 years. Another person I spoke to said their employees must use the time for “volunteering or self-progression”.

While both these points made sense, we as a team felt it should come earlier – after only four years – and people should be free to do whatever they choose during the sabbatical. After all, team members will come back with new ideas and a fresh perspective on things. We’re a young team and why should one need to wait until they’re 40 years old to go travelling around Nepal when they could go more carefree in their late 20s?

Of course the four-year mark was convenient as the person leading the project has been at Dash for the longest duration (three-and-a-half years, the same age as the business itself) but either way we feel it’s a great way of allowing team members the freedom to do that thing they’ve always wanted to. I’m already excitedly planning my sabbatical, scuba diving in Fiji.