Culture
A culture where everyone is a director at their own desk
Common sense, flexible work frameworks that accommodate life, autonomous & responsible work processes, and good social offerings. This is Morningtrain’s recipe for a good work life.
Morningtrain is part of the parent agency, Mornings, which you can read more about here.
Vision
We contribute to a world where kindness is healthy business
For us, kindness means treating the entire value chain with a focus on sustainable long-term decisions. Mornings doesn’t need to win anything or beat anyone – we just want to be here in 100 years.
The culture as a whole
We believe that when we meet our surroundings with kindness and decency, it attracts colleagues, customers, and partners with the same mindset. And when good people meet, extraordinary collaborations are created, which provide healthy business for all parties.
This creates a self-reinforcing balance, where kindness leads to healthy business, and healthy business creates a foundation for more kindness. We think this is just common sense.
“Kindness is actually just the headline for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We believe that as a company, you should choose the category that you impact the most in your value chain, and then focus on treating it with a view to the future – for Mornings, that category is the labor market, as we are a people business”
Thomas Østerkjerhuus, CEO, Mornings ApS
What if every day was a party?
At Mornings, we don’t cut down trees, extract cobalt, or pollute wastewater… instead, we consume the labor market. And despite the fact that the aforementioned issues are important, we want to make an effort where we can have the greatest impact.
When we take on the obligation that we want to “contribute with kindness”, it translates for us into
creating the workplaces of the future, where a culture is based on meaningfulness and on having a great time when you go to work. That is our common goal, and that is meaningful to us.
Mornings is fundamentally built on a desire to be a good place to come to work, which has fostered an internal mantra in Mornings that goes:
“What if we always had some form of party?”
The mantra is about creating a challenging and fun everyday life for our colleagues, which provides a fantastic foundation for well-being and self-development for everyone on the team.
This vision obligates us to have supportive behavior in everyday life.
Initiatives to Create Colleagues in Balance in Everyday Life
- Coaching education for leading personnel to support behavior where we not only solve colleagues’ challenges but instead give them the tools to solve them themselves.
- Paid sports during working hours to create colleagues in physical well-being.
- Morningclubs with social offerings in the form of clubs where you can pursue a sport or hobby together with colleagues.
- Clear personal profiles for all colleagues, making it easier to understand the colleague you are talking to.
- Encouragement of power breaks: When you need a break – take a break. Play table tennis, go for a walk, play PlayStation, take a nap, or have a cozy chat in the lounge. Breaks are not scheduled, counted, or similar. As long as you deliver your part to the whole, take the breaks you need when you need them.
- You manage your own workday within the set frameworks as long as it does not compromise the quality of your work or the collaboration with your colleagues, and it does not have negative economic consequences.
mission
The director at their own desk delivers the extraordinary
By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.
The tool to reach the goal
The mission below contains the ingredients for how we will achieve our vision of building the good workplaces of the future.
There are many ways to interpret ‘a healthy culture’ or what ‘kindness’ is. So to provide a common ground, we have written our mission as a kind of “recipe” to be followed closely. The mission also tells us which management levers we use and what needs to be in play before we can say that we have succeeded.
🧡 Mornings mission:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.”
The order is not random, and all words are carefully chosen. There are clear contrasts built in, which often can seem like “opposites” to each other, but we have included them in our overall mission to give a nuanced picture of what needs to be considered on both sides of a scale in balance.
Below, we have deciphered our mission so you can taste the love for the words and exactly what we mean by them in our context.
Culture first
The first part of the mission is:
🧡 Mornings mission explained – part 1:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.”
Culture comes first because it is our primary tool. When we want to change something, whether it’s behavior, economics, or something else entirely, we start here.
So when you look at the mission to get tools to achieve the vision, you are reminded that at Mornings, you start here.
Self-management and Relationships
We continue with:
🤸 Mornings mission explained – part 2:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.”
Both ‘self-management’ and ‘relationships’ are two words that are easy to subscribe to, but for us, they are commitments, and they both require a lot and can stand in contrast to each other.
When we work with self-management, we call it; “being a director at your own desk”.
But we don’t want all our colleagues to be so much into themselves that they forget about others (the relationships).
Being completely self-driven requires:
- A high level of consciousness
- The ability to give feedback
- Knowing your domains and roles
- Taking great responsibility and knowing your responsibilities
Relationships are written in the mission because we must never underestimate how far good relationships have gotten Mornings through the years. Therefore, they must not be forgotten when we make decisions.
That we want to focus on relationships answers, for example:
- Whether we should have a dial menu when calling us or just have a human on the line (duh – dial menus are not helpful).
- Whether we prefer physical meetings or virtual meetings.
- Whether we want a remote culture where only a few colleagues come into the office during the week.
- Whether we should do more to pamper existing customers rather than getting new ones.
And the list goes on..
A long-term and sustainable interaction
The sentence “…in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development…” tells us that we of course focus on being efficient, but it’s okay to slack on efficiency in the short term if we need to become smarter or learn something new.
⚖️ Mornings mission explained – part 3:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.”
The point is not to translate “Kindness” in the vision to “okay so everything is free”. It translates more to the fact that we are sometimes less profitable because we need/want to improve our skills, and that it is a consciously made choice.
At the same time, talent development must not be forgotten in the eternal pursuit of increased efficiency in the short term. Without both, we do not have a sustainable and self-reinforcing balance in the long term.
“Perfectly balanced, as all things should be”
Thanos the mad titan – Marvel cinematic universe
Our approach and area of work
The above interaction allows us to fulfill the next part of the mission:
💻 Mornings mission explained – part 4:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.”
And no, it’s not (just) sales talk. 😉
The word ‘effective‘ tells about the promise we approach tasks with. Before you can say whether something was effective or not, you need to know:
- What do you want to move?
- How do you know if it succeeds?
This is a unique approach that we have internally and with our customers. You will always be asked:
“What are we trying to solve, and how do we know that we have solved it?”
Only with the above mindset can we ensure that the conceived solution solves the right problem and in the right way.
At the same time, “extraordinary digital solutions” tells about our primary playing field – the digital – and that we expect of ourselves that we can go beyond the expected through ongoing investments in developing ourselves and our talents.
Start with the Customer, then the Numbers in the Excel Sheet Will also Work Out
The mission concludes with:
📈 Mornings mission explained – part 5:
“By promoting our culture based on self-management and relationships in perfect balance with efficiency and talent development, we create effective business development and extraordinary digital solutions that provide value for our customers.“
This serves as a reminder of who we are here for. When we create solutions, the success criterion is not to impress an owner group, management, or one’s colleagues.
It should provide value for the customer who pays for the solution – and if you focus solely on customer value, it automatically also provides value for Mornings.
We think this is just common sense.
Values
The values function as a “shot caller” when doubt prevails
We chase the ideal, and to help us on that journey, we actively use our values as a guideline to make decisions that bring us closer to the vision together.
The values are guests in our house
At Mornings, we consider and treat values as guests in the house. We choose them and invite them in, but they don’t necessarily stay forever.
We revisit our values every 4-5 years and taste whether it’s the same set of values that best continues to move us towards our vision.
The point is that as an organization develops, different focuses will come into play, where new values become more relevant than the current ones. This means that we have continuously over the years shifted focus from some values to others – depending on what the organization needed.
There will always be more values living in an organization than the few that are selected to be on the wall. The task is managerially to focus on the few that best bring us closer to the vision.
Thomas Østerkjerhuus, CEO, Mornings ApS
When a focus value is replaced, it’s not because we shouldn’t live the old value anymore. It’s more often about this value living in the best well-being on the backbone of the critical mass, so we don’t need the sharpened focus on it anymore, or because the old value is not as crucial anymore.
Let us introduce: SATS
Mornings ApS’s set of values has been given the catchy acronym SATS, which makes it a bit easier for all employees to remember the values. It’s a small communication trick that rhymes and verses are easier to remember.
In addition, we SATS on our colleagues and our culture, and we ask people to SATS on themselves. If we are to succeed together, we must dare together.
⭐ SATS explained
Collaboration (Samspil) – “You know when to play solo or together in sync”
Accountability (Ansvarlighed) – “You take ownership by solving challenges or passing them on effectively”
Trust (Tillid) – “You approach the world with curiosity and faith in good intentions”
Self-renewal – “You have a desire to be guided in your development towards becoming the best version of yourself, for the benefit and joy of yourself, your colleagues, and our customers.”
However, it’s quite important to us that our values actually live and are not just on the wall in our canteen. Therefore, we have implemented several initiatives to ensure that our values are understood and lived.
Among these:
- Monthly value barometer meetings where different situations are brought up. It could be because something went really well, or maybe completely wrong.
Here, the incident is analyzed and processed in plenary by the team involved, focusing on how the values have been in play (or not) to give a common understanding of a shared set of values. - Feedback routine, where colleagues provide “maintain” or “develop” feedback, following the correct formula, so it does not become mere information or criticism.
Feedback must be loving, concrete, and constructive. Thus, we have provided all colleagues with a tool for conductinggenuine - Feedback routine, where colleagues provide “keep” or “develop” feedback, following the correct formula, so it doesn’t just become information or criticism.
Feedback should be kind, specific, and constructive. Thus, we have given all colleagues a tool to build trust in each other through honest communication. Because everyone knows the same format, we require that each person takes responsibility for giving feedback to colleagues rather than letting conversations run in the corners. - Podcast, where we share, without filter or script, what’s happening in the executive room. The idea is that for us to have good collaboration, it requires all colleagues to know what we’re working on together and where we’re heading.
Konceptet hedder ‘ Øster I øret ‘ og her får man indblik i både lette som svære emner for Mornings. In the name of trust, we invite colleagues in as guests, that can ask our CEO Thomas Mailund Østerkjerhuus questions without any filter. - Luxafor lamps that signal when one doesn’t want to be disturbed because they are concentrating or in the middle of a creative process that requires peace. It’s an important part of good collaboration that we know when we can approach people and when it’s a disturbance.
- Tjek ind og tjek ud rutine hvor man i et møde kan “tjekke ind” og “tjekke ud”, hvor man kan fortælle, hvad man kommer til mødet med, og hvad ens forventninger er m.m.
Det er tillidsvækkende , når folk ved hvor man taler fra. Samtidigt så er det en del af selvfornyelse, at man generelt har en højere selvbevidsthed omkring hvad man bære ind i rummet – og hvordan det kan påvirke rummet og beslutningerne. - Domains and roles come before titles, which means that colleagues have full autonomy within their respective domains. We decided this to increase accountability in the office.
Because if colleagues are to take responsibility, they also need to know what they’re responsible for – and they should be allowed to make decisions autonomously. With our structure, it’s competence and not hierarchy that dictates decisions.
Our history
To understand who you are, you need to understand where you come from
What started as a failed entrepreneurial adventure ended up leading to the fundamental principles and culture behind the success of Morningtrain.
Four young entrepreneurs came together to create a company. They wanted to sell their newly developed software platform to radio stations – putting radio on the internet! To kickstart the adventure, they went to the USA with big ambitions and unbreakable optimism.
But reality quickly proved to be something else. The USA, with its grand gestures and promises of success, didn’t provide the support they had hoped for. There was a constant feeling of alienation, and as if the love for their product was diminishing.
In the failure lay a fundamental insight: Creating a company wasn’t about their software platform as a product. It was about doing something cool – together with the people you get along with best. It wasn’t enough to build something big – they needed to build something that felt right, something that felt like home.
And that became the start of Morningtrain – a company built on one important value: “The feeling of being at home”.
For what’s the point of doing something cool if you don’t feel good on the journey there? Therefore, we wanted to create a workplace that felt like home. A place where shoulders are lowered, where you thrive, dare to be yourself and think for yourself. A place where you don’t worry about how you look, or if people like you, and where you know that everyone around you wants the best for you – just like the feeling of coming home.
We have always had a vision that no matter how your morning has been, you will always come to a place where you can find peace, and end up having had a good day. It’s not just a job, it’s a community. A home where you are more than just who you are at work.
For us, the destination has never been the most important. It’s the journey, the community, and the way we do things that matter. We have built a home where we can develop together – a place where we support each other every step of the way, and where we are never alone on our journey.
We surround ourselves with people who want the best for each other, and who will always prioritize moving forward together rather than going quickly alone. We succeed. Together. Because the destination is never more important than the way we do things.
This is Morningtrain. It’s a place that feels like home.
Organization
The structure that powers ‘the self-directed colleague’
For us, the organizational structure doesn’t define who’s in charge, but who carries which responsibility. When everyone knows their domain, everyone can own theirs and make decisions within their area without creating blockades and bureaucracy.
The most skilled person for the job has the domain
We have always had a competence hierarchy, which we have tried to refine the framework for over the years to ensure that the most skilled person in an area also gets a corresponding decision-making mandate.
This doesn’t mean in the traditional sense that the most skilled production employee gets promoted to production manager. Instead, it means that we have defined that leadership comes in many sizes and forms:
- Personnel management
- Leader management
- Professional management
- Business operations
Each of the four above requires different competencies. It also means that we have decentralized leadership by assigning several different roles to “domains”, so more people can carry their part of a total management and decision-making responsibility.
Domains explained
A domain is a described area in a colleague’s role or contract, where one either has a ‘responsibility’ or ‘co-responsibility’.
If you have the responsibility, it means that you are responsible for making decisions and ensuring that we move forward within the domain – but you are also responsible for ensuring that the right people are consulted.
Colleagues who are co-responsible for a domain should be consulted when something needs to be decided within the domain.
In this way, we ensure that colleagues who need to lead other colleagues are skilled personnel managers, while technically experienced colleagues make technical decisions, etc.
We must not take the person most skilled at a piece of work and make that person a poor leader for those who now have to do the job.
Peter Thomsen, COO, Mornings ApS
The Structure and Domains in Broad Terms
| Group | Reports to | Domains |
|---|---|---|
| The owners | Set the owner strategy, which frames the vision, mission, values, and economic framework. Additionally, major investments are approved by the owner group. Being an owner in Mornings ApS has no influence on your employment relationship. This means that the owners’ individual domains depend on their roles in the organization. | |
| The executive board | The owners | Ensures that an overall direction is set over 1-3 years, which fulfills the owner strategy. The Executive Board’s domains are overall finance, legal, adherence to the vision, and setting the management and their domains. |
| The management | The executive board | Has the overall responsibility for operations in the various departments with an eye on one year at a time. They have full autonomy to run their departments, as long as it aligns with the direction set by the Executive Board. They have personnel responsibility for Heads of, but also specialists and tech leads in situations where there is no Head of in their capacity. |
| Heads of | The management | Has responsibility for a professional area, as well as personnel responsibility for Tech leads and specialists in this professional area. If there is no Tech lead in the professional area, the Tech lead’s professional responsibility will automatically fall to the Head of role. |
| Tech leads | *Heads of | They are professional beacons who are responsible for ensuring that we move forward professionally within their area. They are also responsible for the general quality and level of the solutions we deliver. |
| Specialists | *Heads of | They are responsible for delivering the product or solution that solves the real problem or fulfills the potential that is the goal of an effort. They are responsible for staying professionally updated within their field and continuously putting forward ideas to Tech leads and Heads of with suggestions for improvements to a way of working. |
Incredible – you have now read roughly 3,500 words about our collective love story for Mornings, much of which has been tooting our own horn. THANK YOU for reading along.
You deserve some love 🧡🧡🧡