Pingala Podcast Season 2
Welcome to the second season of the podcast “From 10 to 100 with the culture as the oasis”. These episodes feature the colleagues in Pingala Dubai and how they experience the culture. The first season, focusing on the Danish colleagues, can be found here. Be aware that it is in Danish. In this podcast series you will hear several Pingala Dubai colleagues describe – amongst other things – the culture, the values, and the flat hierarchy. And you’ll hear about their reaction, their cultural work, and how the customers react too.
Episode 1 – Is this going to really work out?
In 2017, Pingala opened their office in Dubai. The ambition was not to outsource work from Denmark, but to establish a self-propelled office with a strong culture, built on the same ideas of freedom, transparency, self-leadership, trust, and a flat hierarchy. Same guidelines, but in a Dubaian context.
“Is this going to really work out?” This was the response from Lekshmi Panakkal, a Senior Functional Consultant in Pingala Dubai, when I asked her about her first meeting with the Pingala culture. Her question nicely sums up the skepticism many people have when they first hear about the Pingala culture.
Episode 2 – Freedom at work
What does freedom mean, at work? Freedom is an essential part of the culture, and in this episode we dive into how this actually is handled. Freedom to choose your role on a project. Freedom to choose when and where you work.
But it does not come as a free ride. With freedom comes responsibility and accountability. And it takes two parts to make it real: An organization that really listens to you and provides the freedom of choice, and that you as a human being are vocal about who you are and what you want.
Episode 3 – The values and how they become real
Freedom, transparency, honesty, respect, trust, and equality are the values that the Pingala culture is built on. How does that resonate with the employees? And how does that fit with being a human being?
The human factor is considered in Pingala. The people at Pingala Dubai quickly connects the values with personal anecdotes that exemplifies and underlines the values, as they unfold in practice.
Also, the values affect the collaboration, the self-leadership, and the work that they do with the customers. Freedom, self-leadership, and decision-making is highly connected, as we will hear in the episode.
Episode 4 – The flat organization and distributed decision making
In Pingala there are no middle managers. The people in Pingala can make the decisions themselves. That requires self-leadership. And lot of mutual understanding, a lot of trust, and psychological safety.
But why go in that way? An evolving world requires adaptability. “And I don’t see you can create the necessary adaptability in a very mechanical organizational setup”, Søren Rolander Langkjær says.
Empowerment is key to this kind of approach, and it takes two parties to establish that: One that gives empowerment, and one that is willing and capable to take it. This requires trust, advise, and direction.
The results are better solutions and stronger connections. It just makes sense to Pingala.
Episode 5 – Working with the customers
How does the Pingala culture fit with the customers? How do they work and collaborate? And do the customers react to the Pingala culture that is flat and transparent, and with focus on respect and freedom?
“I have seen a lot of surprise with the customers”, Vidya Menon says.
The Pingala culture is carried with the employees to the customers, and that is both challenging and rewarding. Technical AND soft skills must both be in place for that: Communication, negotiation, and connection skills are needed.
“People understand we’re genuinely honest and want to do a good job”, Søren Rolander Langkjær ends the podcast with. Its not just Pingala preaching about the culture. It’s how they function. They walk the talk.
Episode 6 – How do you mobilize the people to be part of the Pingala Oasis?
Pingala Dubai is a multicultural organization in a multicultural business world. How do they do that? What kind of challenges are built into that kind of setup? How do you create the oasis? And how do you onboard people; how do you motivate and mobilize people to KEEP focusing on that kind of culture?
The people at Pingala brings with them a lot of national and organizational differences. The diversity is high in Pingala. To embrace that they insist on their values, also towards the customers. They build professional relationships and make sure to create a belonging.
“The best part is, that we all are together.” Pingalas purpose is to be an oasis for the market's most talented Dynamics 365 and BI people for the benefit of our customers in a lifelong cooperation. Pingala wants to be an oasis.
They create the oasis by focusing on their values. They are actually creating psychological safety. They also set requirements to each other, but first of all they think about the human being.