Moonwalking designers in a Halloween parade featured prominently in my earlier post about the weird and wonderful culture of my own innovative workplace. I recently learned about a similar Halloween parade at Zappos, a significant sponging agent for my disposable income, and a remarkably innovative retailer in its own right.
Might there be a causal link between putting on killer Halloween parties and forging corporate cultures capable of innovation on a routine basis? Or does the causality flow in the other direction? Or both ways? Or is this merely correlation, and not causation?
No matter. I really dig the Poltergeist reference at the end of the Zappos video. Very nice.
I think the cool Halloween parties come from having a corporate culture that isn't afraid to take risks.
If the company is completely concerned about putting forth the "right" image at all times, and focused on not screwing up, they're definitely not going to let their employees have a fun Halloween party.
But when a company is open to new ideas and trying new things--even if there's a chance they'll look pretty silly--it makes a lot of sense to encourage employees to have fun on Halloween.
One thing I would agree on though: both Ideo and Zappos look like great places to work!
Posted by: Katie Konrath | 18 December 2007 at 01:44 PM