Our Story

Founders

Hey, I’m Ann. I started ay! with my partner in 2018 after nine years of working at an enterprise software company, where I learned a lot about UX, design, communication, and working methodologies – especially around agile and teal organizations.

Problem-solving and using creativity to help people around me is what drives me, understanding their needs and how they work to create the best workflows and infrastructure for them – while keeping well designed and appealing.

I’m an ideology-driven person and passionate about making a positive impact on the world, from veganism and environmentalism to social issues. This is why ay! offers collaboration deals with organizations focused on environmental or social values and vegan organizations.

I also enjoy video editing, motion graphics, music, acting, and all things creative.

After completing some local projects and gaining experience in different industries, I legally founded ay! in 2020 with Yanick, my partner and creative specialist, and Guti, our copywriting specialist. Together, we created a group of freelancers working in different areas with whom we collaborate on different projects.

How we work

From the very beginings of ay! we knew we wanted to create an organization that responded to Teal principles: one that would grow organically and dinamically as living beings do, one that could become the envionment for the people comforming it to learn, feel, and work together, one that would be alive and encourage all of us to be present as humans, to try, to change, to understand and to create.

We were deeply inspired by Reinventing Organizations to extend an invitation to rethink about how your organization behaves and to dare to embrace change.

Through the colors

When the strongest of the pack
has to lead all through the cracks,
and protect them at all costs
from betrayal and attacks,
Then the Red of Power comes
to invade the whole horizon,
and the smaller ones might feel
like an ant against a bison.

When you deeply appreciate
the value of rules and ranks,
and believe that discipline
separates what’s good from bad,
Then your Amber Values shine
while you grace the god you follow.
But every step in Her path
can leave you feeling quite hollow.

If you understand the world
as something that can be learnt,
a well oiled machine, at times
you can dominate to advance,
Then the Orange strength of Work
will show the next step to climb;
But in your way to success
you might find you miss your life.

When you finally find love
and embrace the ones around
like a family who grows;
It’s your place that you have found.
But the structure is still there-
most families have their “parents”-
and among the good Green Merits
Orange pyramids hide silenced.

And then you stop for a second
and look yourself in the mirror.
What you see is one with nature,
changing, alive, and feeling.
One organism with others,
all growing towards the sun,
learning and teaching each other
the Teal Longing to have fun!

Put your organization to the test

Let's figure out where your team stands in terms of organizational evolution.

The next questions are focused on how your team currently works, and how evolved it is on the Teal scale.

It is possible that many of the answers are not an exact fit to your situation; please select the one you identify as the most similar.

When a new person needs to be added to the team, who makes the decision?

We have a whole mechanism in place that allows for applicants to go through, including tests, interviews, etc.

I don't really know what the hiring process entails on who makes decisions - but I tend to trust that whoever does it knows what they are doing.

Once the managers select the best applicants, we all have a meeting with them to get a feel on how we click together.

The team manager does. They receive all applications and make the choice that best fits the current needs of the team (although they probably just give the job to their nephew)

If anyone on the team identifies a need for a new person to enter the team, they take responsibility for describing the kind of roles they should fill to meet the gaps, and the team follows the workflows to have different stages of interviews.

If a new cool opportunity becomes available for your team:

The organization has processes in place to analyze every angle of the opportunity. Once a decision is made, a strategy is planned and carried along.

The person that came across the opportunity takes the responsibility of following their instinct - except someone on the team is really opposed to said instinct. The team is ready to rethink the decision at any point.

We all discuss it together, sharing our views and arguments.

Those decisions are made by the board or the top managers.

I'm not very aware of when opportunities arise. We have a sales team that handles clients and stuff like that, and managers are in charge of strategizing.

If a client is unhappy with the outcome of a project:

The team comes together to understand what went wrong, apologize to the client, and develop possible solutions.

The person who was responsible comes forward and apologizes to the manager. The manager takes responsibility facing the client.

We find the culprit. The boss will probably shout at them or punish them in some way.

The person in charge of communicating with that client talks to the team to understand what happened, the team proposes possible solutions and enhancements to workflows so that the issue does not happen again. All of that is documented for the client.

The team transforms the issue into a requirement, and we have the workflows in place to solve the issue.

During team meetings…

Everyone participates, gives their opinion and ideas. We are all encouraged to plan what's to come, but many times, no real action is taken from what was discussed in the meeting.

Everyone is encouraged to show up as humans with their actual feelings and perceptions. We collaborate together on ideas and learn from each other, and document everything that comes out of the meeting defining who's responsible for each task.

What meetings? Only managers participate in meetings.

We review objectives set in previous meetings and measure effectiveness to optimize our work. We set new objectives and set timelines.

Everyone receives a set of orders from the person above, and reports on how they are doing with current tasks.

If you are close to a deadline and you see you will not be able to meet it:

The person or people responsible for slowing things down will probably be punished in some way.

We join as a team and reach a consensus on how to move forward, keeping the client updated.

We evaluate what caused our predictions on timeline to not be met, but we try to be very open with timelines rather than setting strict deadlines. We review workflows to make sure everyone has the time they actually need to make their best work.

A chain of anger will come down from the top. Teams at the bottom might suffer some consequences.

We do not miss deadlines. It is true that sometimes the quality of the work is not our best because of timelines, but we as a team are very good at understanding timelines and setting reasonable expectations with clients.

When someone in the team is unhappy with their position or general work environment:

They should communicate it to everyone so we can openly discuss the issues as a team and try to agree on how to make them feel more comfortable.

This is work, nobody needs to know how you feel about it.

They should think themselves how to resolve their dissatisfaction, and then present alternatives to team managers.

They should bring this up by calling a meeting, and either themselves or someone else takes the role of being responsible to take action into solving the present issues, touching base periodically to see how it evolves.

They should talk to HR so they can handle the issue.

When someone leaves the team:

They were not able to handle the tasks that were given to them.

It probably means they were fired.

It is possible that the people in the role of finding their purpose in the organization realized they could not fulfill what they were meant to do in this team, and give them the opportunity to either change the team or help us make place for their role.

They were not the right fit for the organization, and they'll probably be better off somewhere else.

If they quit, that's a pretty big hit to everyone. We cared for them deeply and feel like a part of our family is now missing.

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You are Red in the Teal organization's evolution scale.

RED

Red organizations have concentrated their power in one person (or a very reduced group of people). They usually make most decisions, and your relationship with them will greatly affect your work environment.

Structurally, they work similarly to Mafia hierarchies. People are encouraged to follow orders from the boss, and roles might not be as clear.

They are based on division of labor and top-down authority.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Name *

Email *

AMBER

These organizations are structured as pyramidal hierarchies and based in faith on the knowledge of superiors and managers. Everyone knows and is expected to respect their place, and workers limit themselves to do what they have to do.

Their principles are stability and certainty, and they intend to build stable organizational charts.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Name *

Email *

Orange

Orange organizations tend to view themselves as machines, and their integrants as engines. Each team plays a part in a studied mechanism with strict rules and processes to ensure all developments go as expected.

Their values are innovation and meritocracy, and workers are expected to take accountability for their actions.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Name *

Email *

Green

These newer organizations perceive their teams as part of their family. They tend to emotionally involve workers, and expectations are set at a personal level. They try to make decisions based on consensus, but it is unclear where consensus is in fact reached, or if the boss ends up taking the lead.

Their principles are empowerment, and a value-driven culture. Personal fit is very important.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Name *

Email *

Teal

Congrats! You've reached the Teal evolution level.

Teal organizations see themselves as alive organisms that should grow, learn, and change dynamically. At the same time, team members are expected to show up in a human, vulnerable way. They tend to use roles rather than fixed positions, understanding that interests and focuses may vary and change over time, and encourage everyone to find their purpose and make it visible as part of the organization.

Their principles are self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.

Want to work with another teal organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Name *

Email *

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OUR STORY

Founders

How we work

Through the colors

Put your organization to the test

Let's figure out where your team stands in terms of organizational evolution.

The next questions are focused on how your team currently works, and how evolved it is on the Teal scale.

It is possible that many of the answers are not an exact fit to your situation; please select the one you identify as the most similar.

Red organizations have concentrated their power in one person (or a very reduced group of people). They usually make most decisions, and your relationship with them will greatly affect your work environment.

Structurally, they work similarly to Mafia hierarchies. People are encouraged to follow orders from the boss, and roles might not be as clear.

They are based on division of labor and top-down authority.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

These organizations are structured as pyramidal hierarchies and based in faith on the knowledge of superiors and managers. Everyone knows and is expected to respect their place, and workers limit themselves to do what they have to do.

Their principles are stability and certainty, and they intend to build stable organizational charts.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Orange organizations tend to view themselves as machines, and their integrants as engines. Each team plays a part in a studied mechanism with strict rules and processes to ensure all developments go as expected.

Their values are innovation and meritocracy, and workers are expected to take accountability for their actions.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Their principles are empowerment, and a value-driven culture. Personal fit is very important.

Interested in evolving your organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

Congrats! You've reached the Teal evolution level.

Their principles are self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.

Want to work with another teal organization? Drop your info here, we'll get in contact.

2023 | created by ay! design