Here at Cognota, we were pretty accustomed to collaborating remotely before working from home became an absolute necessity. Our team has been split between Toronto and Merida, Mexico for a long time, so we’ve always had a focus on digital collaboration.
But throughout 2020 and 2021, our team became even more dispersed. Not only did everyone begin working from home full time, we now have team members working from Europe and Nigeria, too.
So, like many other companies, we put a lot of thought into how we could maintain our unique Cognota culture and spend time together in remote settings. Our culture committee regularly hosts online social events and, when it came to our holiday celebrations this year, they went above and beyond once again.
In-Person Team Celebrations
Luckily, the COVID-19 situation in early December meant that teams located in the same area could still join together and celebrate in person.
Our teams in Toronto, Nigeria, and Merida all hosted their own celebratory holiday dinners. It was a great opportunity to see some familiar faces but also meet team members who had come on board during lockdown.
While the in-person dinners took place separately at each location, everyone was sure to share photo evidence with the whole team!
Cognota Digital Holiday Celebration
Even though we were able to do some in-person celebrating, we wanted to find a way to come together as a whole team, too. So on the night of the Toronto holiday party, the culture committee put together a digital portion of the evening so the rest of the team could join in from all over the world.
The Learny Awards
During the digital holiday party, we celebrated the results of our annual Learny Awards. These awards reflect our values here at Cognota. Everyone on the team can nominate a different team member for each of the awards. While lots of the nominations are read out, each award is given to an individual team member who particularly exemplified a Cognota value throughout the past year, including:
- Embrace Uncertainty
- Break Down the Walls
- Keep it Win Win
- Enjoy The Ride
- Be Better Than Yesterday
- Drive the WOW Factor
A Year in Review
While on the call, we also took the time to look back on all the wins we celebrated as a team in 2021 – and all to the familiar favorite of the 12 Days of Christmas! It was great to take the time to look back at everything we accomplished together in the past year.
Digital Team Toast
Finally, we wrapped up with a team toast and spent some time chatting and laughing before the Toronto team carried on with their in-person holiday party. It was the perfect way to acknowledge everything we achieved together over the past months and got everyone even more pumped to get back at it for 2022.
