05.07.2012 By Chris Widner
Investing In The Future Through Interns
When you’re growing fast, it’s important to be thinking about the future and the most important part of that process is your people. The key to Dyn’s success has always been its people: finding them, growing them and growing with them.
This doesn’t apply only for full-time employees, but our interns as well. By recruiting star interns, we’ve been able to develop them into amazing talent who work here full-time.
In the five years I’ve been here, interns have played a big role in our success: a reason why we had our first ever Intern Day in March where we brought in 40 potential interns from colleges like WPI, SNHU, Northeastern, UNH Durham, UNH Manchester, Saint Anselm, Boston University and even a couple of folks up from Duke.
Read More04.30.2012 By Chris Widner
Dyn Culture: When Change Comes, Will You Be Ready?
This quote brings me back to a conversation I had as we were setting up for a DynTini in Las Vegas a few years ago. I was amazed by the growth and change we had at Dyn up to that point so I asked two of our VPs, “Is it normal for things to change so often?”
“Chris, it’s fine. In fact, it’s good. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”
I had no problem with the changes I was seeing, especially considering the opportunities they had provided me. I found it to be thrilling and it satiated my appetite for new experiences and things to try. However, I had some people around me warning me of impending doom. To them, change was a bad thing.
How can two people view the same change in a completely different manner? Only some people realize the opportunity for growth that change provides. In fact, the harder the change, the more opportunity for growth.
When it comes to change, people find themselves in one of four buckets.
Read More03.14.2012 By Chris Widner
Culture Change Through Storytelling: Give ‘Em Something To Believe In
This is a guest post. Expect to hear some exciting news about Dyn Culture very, very soon!
Change is the new constant.
You might think it takes more than just a good yarn to gain people’s trust and commitment. Yet, storytelling is the key to transforming your culture. People have stopped believing in the same old stories — especially when it comes to inspiring, motivating or mandated change.
Read More03.05.2012 By Chris Widner
Married With Children: How Family Events Can Bring Your Company Together
Each quarter, Dyn holds a Family Day that brings our employees and their families together away from the office for a few hours. It’s a great opportunity to get to know each other better, meet fellow spouses and children and see relationships develop through these events.
Holding it at places like My Gym like we did this past weekend also gives us the opportunity to wear the kids out on a Saturday, something all parents can appreciate. But in reality, the day represents even more than that. It represents how much Dyn has grown as a company but how we have all grown as individuals as well.
When I first started here almost five years ago, it was common to see a big group of co-workers go out for dinner and have a movie night at the office. (I will never forget Sean Connery’s thumb in The Presidio.) It was a great way to unwind after a long week and created relationships outside of work that are still strong today.
Unfortunately, we no longer have Friday movie nights at Dyn. Why? Both Dyn and our employees grew up.
Read More12.16.2011 By Chris Widner
Culture-Con Preview: 8 Ideas For Enhancing Culture Via Positive Change
In the nearly five years I’ve been at Dyn, I’ve seen a lot of change. We’ve gone from offering DNS and email services to home consumers and small businesses to supporting some of the biggest names on the web in our evolution into a true Internet IaaS leader.
When you’re employee #16, you and everyone else wear a lot of hats. But as you grow, you start bringing in more specialists and you have to learn to give some of those hats away. If you’re not careful, you can isolate employees and leave them feeling undervalued.
With the first Culture-Con coming up in January, I wanted to pass the microphone to Bob Faw from the Matchbox Group, Chief Ignition Officer and one of the co-organizers of the event, for some thoughts on how to move forward with change in a positive way.
- Chris Widner, Director of Culture & Talent Development
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12.07.2011 By Chris Widner
Culture-Con: What It Is, Why We’re Doing It, Why You Should Come
After being named a “Best Company” for four straight years, Dyn recently entered Business NH Magazine’s Hall of Fame for best places to work and also were named one of Inc. Magazine’s top workplaces in 2011, But while awards are great, we’re more interested in sharing ideas to create and maintain a unique culture both here and with fellow New Hampshire companies and beyond.
With that in mind, we’re hosting our first-ever Culture-Con on January 31st at our Manchester, NH headquarters — an event designed to help companies of all sizes that are looking to improve their culture and get insight into how to do just that.
Read More06.23.2011 By Chris Widner
Five Things We Learned About Creating A Winning Workplace
I had the privilege of attending the Inc. Leadership Conference last week with our Talent Architect, Tanya Lacourse — three days of fantastic speakers and equally awesome attendees, all coming together to discuss what makes a winning workplace and why it’s so important to truly care about your employees.
And where better to hold an event like this than the great state of Texas? (Side note: Being in Texas to see the Mavs win it all was amazing for this longtime fan.)
Why were we there? We were fortunate enough to be one of 50 US companies to receive the 2011 Top Small Company Workplaces award (we ranked 6th!) so we wanted to see what this was all about. We wanted to know what the other 49 companies were doing that made them an employer of choice. We wanted to know how we can get better. And, let’s be honest, it was a really good excuse to eat some amazing BBQ, BBQ so amazing that I need to give them a plug. Coming from a Texan, that’s saying something.
So what did I learn?
Read More06.20.2011 By Chris Widner
Taking Ownership And Improving The Dyn Customer Experience
While everyone seems to understand the importance of the customer experience, not everyone understands how to improve it.
A number of people I’ve spoken with recently about this topic get stuck on the question of who owns it and until they can determine who should, they are unable to move forward and improve it.
The real answer is simple: everyone in the company owns part of the customer experience. Sales, marketing, engineering, operations, client services, legal, accounting…everyone. If that sounds difficult, it shouldn’t as ultimately the customer experience should be an outward reflection of your company’s culture.
Read More04.20.2011 By Chris Widner
How A Five Second Adjustment Saved Dyn 19 Days A Year…And Then Some
What would you do if you suddenly had 19 extra days in a year?
That’s the question our Client Services team is asking ourselves, thanks to some recent improvements in our ticketing system.
I won’t bore you with the details of the changes (mainly hardware upgrades and database optimization) but I will talk about what it means for us, as well as some other improvements we’ve made over the years to keep our Client Services crew fast and efficient.
This is how we took five seconds and converted it into a savings of 19 work days per year. There is some math ahead, but I’ll make it as painless as possible.
Read More03.31.2011 By Chris Widner
How Dyn Empowered Client Services/Support In Seven Easy Ways
Follow any conversation about improving customer service or support and you’re going to quickly hear someone mention employee empowerment. Empower your team to help the customer. Empower your team to satisfy the customer’s needs. It sounds great, but how do you empower your support team?
Here are seven easy and free ways we have empowered our client services team to deliver superior support.
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