Universal Workplace
Ultranauts’ work environment is intentionally designed to work for all brain types, which we call a Universal Workplace. Originally developed for cognitively diverse teams of humans, the underlying goals of our universal work practices — reducing friction, optimizing cognitive load, and establishing a shared understanding — are just as relevant today for hybrid human-AI groups in every organization. While the concept of a Universal Workplace has evolved over time, it is underpinned by several Management Principles that have remained constant and continue to guide our decisions and actions to this day.
Management Principles
At Ultranauts, our efforts to create a Universal Workplace are informed by six Management Principles:
Continuous Learning as an evergreen priority. To continue to evolve our capabilities and deliver superior value for our customers, we prioritize, invest in and enable our team’s ongoing learning & development.
Mental Health as a business imperative. Protecting the mental health and wellbeing of our team is as important to us as delivering value to our customers and generating returns for our shareholders.
Flexibility as the default choice. No single way of working, from where or when we work to how we communicate, is optimal for all of us, so we develop policies and practices with flexibility at their core.
Neuronclusion as a design principle. To create a neuroinclusive work environment, we don’t just rely on good intentions we strive to design processes and systems that remove the barriers preventing our teammates from fully engaging in their work.
Transparency in decision making and work as a mutual expectation. As we differ in how we think and work, being open with each other, sharing context for our decisions, and providing visibility into what we’re doing is essential to building trust.
Collaboration over competition as a cultural norm. As a team with many unique strengths, our true advantage comes from combining the strengths of multiple team members which can only be achieved through collaborative teams.
Examples
At Ultranauts, our Universal Workplace is a work-in-progress. We still have much to do as we strive to meet the needs of our team and business while remaining true to our mission. We are excited to continue to learn and evolve our Universal Workplace, guided by our Management Principles and Design for Neurodiversity approach, and we will continue to push forward until we fully realize our vision of an organization that embraces brain types and empowers our team to do our best work, together.