Delivering Happiness

Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
At Zappos, we think it’s important for people and the company as a whole
to be bold and daring (but not reckless). We want everyone to not be afraid
to take risks and to not be afraid to make mistakes, because if people aren’t
making mistakes then that means they’re not taking enough risks. Over
time, we want everyone to develop his/her gut about business decisions. We
want people to develop and improve their decision-making skills. We
encourage people to make mistakes as long as they learn from them.
We never want to become complacent and accept the status quo just
because that’s the way things have always been done. We should always be
seeking adventure and having fun exploring new possibilities. By having

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the freedom to be creative in our solutions, we end up making our own
luck. We approach situations and challenges with an open mind.
Sometimes our sense of adventure and creativity causes us to be
unconventional in our solutions (because we have the freedom to think
outside the box), but that’s what allows us to rise above and stay ahead of
the competition.
Ask yourself: Are you taking enough risks? Are you afraid of making
mistakes? Do you push yourself outside of your comfort zone? Is there a
sense of adventure and creativity in the work that you do? What are some
creative things that you can contribute to Zappos? Do you approach
situations and challenges with an open mind?
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
by Christa F. (Recruiting Manager)
When I joined Zappos in December of 2004, I was leaving behind
the staffing industry after eight years of working with two very large
and very corporate staffing companies. In that world, Complacency
and Status Quo reigned, Adventure and Fun having long ago been
banished from the kingdom, if they had ever been there at all. I had
been slowly descending to final burnout and had decided I never
wanted to interview another person again. If you noticed my title and
are thinking, “Huh, that seems… odd,” don’t worry, this story has a
happy ending.
I saw that 
Zappos.com
 had a job opening for an HR Generalist
and applied. This was the company everyone was talking about—the
new, hip, fun, cool company that had just moved to town from San
Francisco. And while that was definitely interesting and exciting, I
may have mentioned I really wanted to get out of recruiting.
Somehow the stars aligned and I got the job! A few days into my
second week, my manager tentatively approached me to let me know
that given my background, my first big project was—drumroll please
—yep, to help set up a recruiting process and start recruiting. Sigh…

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You could probably guess I wasn’t thrilled at first, but here’s
what I quickly came to realize—my problem with recruiting wasn’t
the actual function of recruiting, it was the lack of creativity and
adventure in my work that had been “killing me softly.”
At Zappos, as with all the core values, Being Adventurous,
Creative, and Open-Minded is not a recommendation; it’s the way we
live. And if you think you can’t apply this or other core values to
traditionally stodgy, policy-driven, and boring departments (indeed,
HR is probably at the top of that list) within your company, think
again.
When we were working to create our recruiting and screening
process, we were trying to figure out not only how to assess whether
or not candidates would be a match with our core values, but also
how we were going to demonstrate and show—infuse—our core
values into our process. Talk about having to be creative, be willing
to take some risks, and be open-minded!
For example, one of the biggest challenges on the plate was
hiring a large volume of Customer Loyalty Team representatives
very quickly. With a team of three at the time, we just weren’t able to
interview fast enough. Tony had a crazy idea, as he is wont to do, and
suggested that instead of doing just a traditional job fair to get a lot
of people in, why not do some speed dating?
My first reaction was hell no, this will never work, and I am
going to need a month to figure this out and get it right. But in the
spirit of being open-minded, and honestly, not having a better plan,
we gave it a try. We started with the basics: We placed an ad in the
paper, candidates came in to listen to a presentation on Zappos and
the job details, and then they met with six Zappos employees for five
minutes each to interview. Our intention was to weed out folks who
definitely weren’t going to be a fit quickly and then bring the rest
back for sit-down interviews.
It was far from perfect but it was a start. From there, the work of
fine-tuning and making the process more and more effective and
Zappos-like was an exhilarating challenge. Over the year, we added
things like dance music, drinks, and munchies to the presentation.
We made it interactive and surprising by making it part informative,

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