This month's MVP was a winner.
Yuka Hatanaka from the production department.

Hello. I'm Manabe, the head of the Production Department.
This month's MVP award went to Yuka Hatanaka.

I've only been a manager for three years, but with the launch of the Food Hub Project and other projects, I've come to work with a considerable number of members. (I'm good at increasing the number of people, haha.)
The happiest moment is when a member who is searching for the direction of their career or struggling to progress suddenly breaks through. The joy of being able to witness such moments may be the best part of being a manager.

I think Hatanaka, who won the MVP this time, has had a really difficult year since joining the company.

After working as a service delivery manager for a certain multifunction printer manufacturer, Hatanaka decided to change jobs because he wanted to work as an editor or writer. After thinking about it for several weeks between a major publisher and working at Monosus, he moved to Monosus after Golden Week last year.

The reason why I decided to join Monosus, a small company, even turning down a job at a large publishing company, was

Monosus seems like it would give me more variety in my experiences.
(But I definitely want to work as an editor or writer.)

It was like this.

Monosus is a company that focuses on web production such as coding, but our production department also handles a wide range of non-web-related tasks.

Our responsibilities include planning and running events for clients, editing and producing graphic tools such as catalogs and leaflets, planning and directing video production, planning and producing websites, managing social media, etc. (We are also in charge of planning and managing this "Monosasu Site.") The general manager is starting up a strange agricultural company in the countryside (laughs), so the Production Department is like a "jack-of-all-trades production team."

When we were deciding to hire her, the Google B2B team we were involved in was in the midst of looking for team members to support a large-scale annual event called Google Atmosphere Tokyo 2016 (from 2017, Google Cloud Next '17 in Tokyo).

Although she had a strong desire to work in editing, from a production perspective, an "event" is something that condenses a variety of different things, just like a "wedding," and I thought that "that's also editing," so Hatanaka was sent to Google with barely any time to work at Monosus.

The suffering they endure at their destination.
I continued to grumble about it for about a year.

According to Uemura, who heads the Google Cloud team:

Although he has a natural intelligence that allows him to handle things skillfully to a certain extent, when something arises that he cannot handle with his own skills, he is skilled at asking various people for help and communicating in a way that allows them to cooperate willingly. Also, because he is the type who always checks things carefully, he is able to prevent big mistakes before they happen.

That's her characteristic.

Wherever he is sent, he always "does what he has to do."
In the projects they were assigned to, they gained the trust of the clients and drove the projects forward at a high level from the very beginning.

On the other hand, Hatanaka, who originally wanted to work in editing, had repeatedly said in interviews and other occasions that he wanted to be assigned the editing job he wanted to do. Although he didn't want to leave Monosus, he had a clear idea of how he wanted to approach his work, so he must have been perplexed by the gap between the current situation he was in and the environment he wanted.

Creating a good working environment.

In the midst of all this, I think there are a few factors that have caused her to stand out.

1. I was entrusted with a super heavyweight editing project that I wanted to do, and I was praised for completing it brilliantly.
2. With my senior colleague, Uemura, assigned as team leader, it became easier to see the content and results of the work.
3. I was able to build a relationship with the client where they took into consideration the direction of the work I wanted to do.

I think 1 and 2 are common, but 3, "clients being considerate," is not so common.
(I think this is also a characteristic of the company Google.)

At the event "Google Cloud Next '17 in Tokyo," which was supported by a team including Hatanaka, the following words were heard during a presentation.

"Innovation does not come from a single genius.
Innovation is born from maximizing the power of a team made up of diverse people .
To achieve this, a culture that allows for autonomous working styles is important."

The most important factor supporting a culture that allows for this independent working style is "1. Psychological safety."

I won't go into detail here, as it would take too long to explain. (For more details, please read the book " Work Smart - Increasing what teams and technology can do" by Mizuki Iwamura.) At Google, regardless of whether they are employees or subcontractors, they directly praise each other for small project results as team members. This ensures psychological safety within the team.

Psychological safety within the team. I think it was a big factor that the team leader I worked with on a project at Google put this into practice.
Encouraged by Google's great corporate culture, she also worked hard to improve her environment in order to maximize her abilities.
I believe that those achievements and growth have led to me being named MVP this time.

Even though there will be some bumps (laughs), I hope that you will continue to use the "autonomous work style" you learned this time to cooperate with diverse team members and bring innovation to Monosus. Congratulations on receiving the MVP award!