Delivering Awesome, Inspired by Graffiti Art

“Delivering Awesome” might mean different things to different people.

For the team delivering a workspace reboot, it meant finding a fun way to make the employee residents in the updated Building 18 in San Jose, CA feel at home in their new work environment.

For the engineers who work in the updated Building 18, it ‘s about discovering and making that awesome “next thing” for Cisco.

The two interpretations came together in a unique, artistic way – graffiti on the walls! There are two graffiti installations, and one displays the team mantra of “Delivering Awesome.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOZu2vdkpk

“It was supposed to be temporary,” says Jodi Washington, program manager at Cisco. “We wanted to be different than anyplace else in Cisco. We wanted to get people excited about ‘Delivering Awesome.’ The whole mantra is about bringing things to the table that change how people think, so the graffiti kind of worked.”

What started as an idea for hallway artwork for move-in day became a rallying call for the engineers in the building.

“We got such a great response,” Jodi continues. “We thought about making the next iteration of the artwork a contest among the engineers, but in a survey, 61% of them wanted to keep the graffiti!”

Jean-Francois Vincent, a Product Owner at Cisco, has been at Cisco for several years, sitting in Building 18 for many of them.

“It used to feel like we were in a zombie shooter game,” he says. “There was a long, dark hallway and a cube farm. But now, it’s open, fresh, and full of light.”

The graffiti wall was icing on the cake for Jean-Francois.

“I like it. It relates to me. I don’t get up in the morning to do anything but deliver awesome.”

Maybe you want to deliver some awesome of your own? Apply at Cisco.