Every culture has its customs. Every country has its constitutions. The same applies to organizations. Looking back at the last quarter of growth, we wanted to take some time to consider how we can build a credible brand, one where everyone can put in their best contributions and go after Learn For Cause’s mission together. The result is a new set of operating values — authentic to where we’ve been, and instrumental to how we’ll build going forward.

We live by these tenets every day at Team Cause — whether we’re making tough calls, raising the bar when it comes to providing quality education, or interviewing future teammates. We want to share them with you here today because we think of them as a public contract between our whole team and our community.

As Learn For Cause scales to do, even more, we’ll continue to revise these values and update our ideology here. Part of this process is staying flexible in how we work while staying intact to what we’ve learned. We hope this piece gives you an idea of what we stand for as a team, and how we think about the future of Learn For Cause as a brand.

1. We Are The Leaders Of Our Mission

Team Cause is on a mission to build a world without borders for developers. We find exceptional talent in underserved markets, train them to be at par with global peers & get them jobs in top companies across the world. This access to global opportunities puts their career into a very different trajectory (5x increase in salary on average) & makes them work with top talent around the world.

We believe in creating value for our community & we believe in continuous automated processess. Based on the data we get during the training, we’re able to efficiently predict which candidate will be a fit for different roles.To do this, we want to build a team that’s inspired by this goal — folks who subscribe to the Greek concept of “eudaemonia,” seeking fulfillment from hard work and constant learning.

With all of this in mind, we:

• Put our mission first. We pay close attention to the problems people want to solve with better approach and system, and follow their lead. If we don’t do a good job of that, we shouldn’t exist.

• Tend to the garden. In a growing company, there are always many things to fix and improve. If Cause is a garden, we’re all gardeners. We all pull weeds and clear pebbles as we notice them.

• Optimize globally. Teams are not territories. When we face tradeoffs, we choose what’s best for Cause’s mission as a whole — not what’s good for one person or one team.

• Trust each other to own and pull through. When working in a team or collaborating, we give each other freedom, because we know we can rely on one another.

2. We Are Pacesetters

We know we’re newbies in many respects, even though we aspire to the big leagues. As a startup, our best advantage is enthusiasm, agility, and speed of execution & change iteration. We want to set the pace in the industry by providing the same level of product continuosly with the same or better efficiency. This is why we:

• Bias toward action, especially when the decision is reversible. Most decisions can be backtracked and improved over time. Optimizing for speed allows us to learn quickly about the industry and our shortcomings, and arrive at better solutions. We don’t let perfect be the enemy of done.

• Build a culture that promotes work urgency. In a world of unpredictable outcomes, what we can control is executing with speed in mind. As a company, we always ask ourselves: how can we move faster?

• Inspire our teammates. When everyone is a pacesetter, the combined energy changes the cadence of work and creates positive momentum.

3. We are Truth Seekers

In a favorable conditions, the best ideas should always win. But as we scale up, a lot of things can get in the way of that, like brand complexity, inertia, and short-termism. Our “truth” is our mission and the system’s needs. Discipline, focus, and open-mindedness are our guides. Seeking truth means we:

• Always start with our target audience. We constantly ask ourselves: “Is this actually useful for the target audience? Is this what our audience say they want, or what they actually want?” Behind the metrics, it’s humans who are a part of our community.

• Hardcore brainstorm from first principles. The quality of our decisions reflects the amount of homework we’ve done. By exploring many options from the first principles, we’ll arrive at stronger choices. We don’t underestimate the power of a good pro-con list.

• Have the courage to make hard tradeoffs. Most results come from focusing on very few initiatives. We’re skeptical about how we should implement our resources and are ok saying no.

• Debate to make progress, not to win. Good ideas can come from anywhere. We check our egos at the door and stay open-minded about everyone’s opinions so we can get to the truth together (This Apple video made a big impact on us).

4. We Build A Culture Of Kindness & Clarity

Kindness isn’t holding back criticism. It’s helping our peers get better at their job. When people are afraid to give direct feedback, ideas aren’t explored, trust isn’t built, respect isn’t earned, and we don’t learn as fast. On the other hand, we want to co-create a culture where people feel safe and supported to share their ideas, and we maintain that rare human touch in all we do.

At Team Cause, it’s important we strike this balance, with these in mind:

• Being kind is not the same as being nice. Diluting opinions is not helpful. Being kind is about taking responsibility for our impact on the environment around us, and being aware of how our contributions and presence can affect others and their growth.

• Keep a positive intent in others. In a world of quick Slack messages and Notion doc comments, words can easily be misunderstood. We want to work with people who default to assuming positive intentions. We also try to give constructive feedback in the team meetings and as well as on an individual level so it becomes easy for the team member to understand the point we are trying to make.

• Always be open for direct feedback. Everyone comes from different diversity, which shapes how we give and receive feedback. So, it’s up to us to be sensitive in our delivery, listen with self-awareness, actively seek feedback for ourselves, and be quick and candid about small things before they become big things.

As we move into a new quarter, we want these values to set a foundation for the future. So that years from now, when folks look back on their careers, they can confidently say that Team Cause is the place where they did some of their best and most meaningful work — that’s the vision and company ecosystem we strive to create.

If you’re someone who’s looking not just to do your daily task but creating an amazing impact on the way, then Team Cause is the place where you belong. Find out more about the opportunities available at Team Cause from here. Apply for the current openings at Team Cause here.