At Caliola Engineering, the company mission is impossible to forget.
“We quite literally have our purpose written on the walls of the building,” Nisse, an HR specialist, said. “We want our core focus and long-term goals to be visible to every employee every day.”
As a defense communications company, Caliola Engineering identifies and solves mission-critical problems for customers across the U.S. government. Employees have subject-matter expertise in everything from cryptography to unmanned airborne systems.
But employees like Nisse know it takes more than words to put the company’s mission into practice. That’s why Built In spoke with Nisse in detail about the intentional weekly rituals, leadership practices and even workspace design at Caliola Engineering — all created to foster a mission-driven workplace.
Caliola Engineering develops secure, resilient communication technologies that support mission-critical operations for national defense.
In one line, what proves the mission is authentic here?
Every decision we make, from the boardroom to the codebase, is singularly obsessed with one goal — powering the nation’s most mission critical communications.
Name a recent mission-aligned decision or policy and its result.
Our recent transition into a new building, approximately six times larger than our previous location, was a strategic decision to ensure our physical infrastructure keeps pace with our growth and the technical requirements of our mission-critical work. By dramatically increasing our footprint, we’re able to integrate high-end technical labs with collaborative workspaces, ensuring that Caliolans have both the tools and the cohesive environment necessary to solve technically interesting problems and then enjoy a phenomenal cup of coffee together in our expanded breakroom.
We recognize that a mission-focused team performs best when they are well-supported and connected. This expansion has already resulted in higher employee engagement and the operational capacity to take on even more complex technical challenges.
Which ritual or behavior keeps purpose visible week to week?
We quite literally have our purpose written on the walls of the building. Caliola operates on the Entrepreneurial Operating System and we have physically posted our vision/traction organizer to maintain both the constant visual reinforcement of where this company is going and engage in active transparency with our team members. We want our core focus and long-term goals to be visible to every employee every day. We bring those words and statistics to life through weekly Level 10 meetings of our leadership and our quarterly State of the Company events where the CEO and chief scientist report directly to the entire staff. These sessions bridge the gap between daily tasks and national security by detailing our achievements and wins from the previous quarter and mapping out our trajectory for the next quarter, the next year, and the next 10 years.
By constantly connecting individual efforts to the broader mission, we ensure every team member understands exactly how their work powers Caliola’s mission and therefore our nation’s most mission-critical communications, fostering a deep sense of belonging and long-term purpose.
