Why Nonconformity is Essential to Work Place Culture and Success

Becca Urry
Aug 9, 2017 · 18 min read

Nonconformity has been popular in the business world for a few years now. Historically, companies promoted conformity, because it was convenient for managers, helped employees to behave and created company wide organization. Conformity has quickly become a thing of the past. Recently, companies in over saturated markets have begun to differentiate themselves through nonconformity. Unfortunately, in today’s society it appears that every company is “nonconformist.” Even companies with traditional business models, frame themselves as nonconformist. Once such company is Amazon. They have 14 Leadership Principles that are deceivingly nonconformist, such as their “Have a Backbone” principle. It states, “Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting … do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion” (Amazon). Yet there is a discrepancy between the “Have a Backbone” principle and Amazon’s internal phone directory’s instruction that tells “colleagues … how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses”. The consequence of this instruction is sabotage. This leave employees feeling cornered and unconformable presenting dissenting opinions. Companies, such as Amazon, that falsely claim to nonconformist, make it difficult for prospective employees to differentiate between companies who pretend to be and companies who are nonconformist. The reason prospective employees care about nonconformity is because it promotes diverse and innovative business ideas that, ultimately, guarantee a businesses’s success. A company’s dedication to nonconformity can be evaluated by examining their culture, practices and mindset at an internal, industry and marketplace level.

Internal Nonconformity

Nonconformist companies are the product of unique business ideas and principles. Airbnb is the result of two roommates’ financial crisis. When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia could no longer afford their San Francisco rent, they did what any nonconformists would do, they thought of a creative solution. Optimizing on the design conference that was coming to their city, they built a site and rented their apartment on it. The site showcased images of their space and promised renters a home-cooked breakfast. Brian and Joe ended up getting “three renters, each … paying $80” (“Morgan Brown”). After their first 3 renters, Airbnb quickly gained speed and began receiving global emails “asking when the site would be available for destinations like Buenos Aires, London, and Japan” (“Morgan Brown”). As Airbnb’s company has expanded, their vision and principles have expanded. Airbnb has been dedicated to preserving the originality of their founding business model. For example, in July of 2014, Airbnb expanded their vision. They realized that they “stood for something more than just the home” and wanted to create a greater sense of belonging by emphasizing the power of community. Even though they have rapidly expanded, they have remained true to their roots. Looking back at Airbnb’s first post, Joe and Brian promised their guests’ breakfast, treating them as if they were friends or long time members of the community. Clearly, community has always been at the heart of Airbnb’s mission. Airbnb expanded their principles, as a result of understanding what their founding principles meant to their business today.

Airbnb has been unifying communities since 2008

So how do nonconformist companies, like Airbnb, attract and hire unique talent? One way is through unconventional interview processes. Typically, large corporations have an overly regimented interview process: interview with recruiter one, interview with recruiter two, interview with hiring manager, interview with vice president, etc. Zappos’, the “billion dollar, online shoe and clothing shop”, dedication to their culture of “a little weirdness” shows in their interview process (Fagliano). Regarding their interview process, Rebecca Henry, Zappos’s former Director of Human Resources, says “[it’s] more like a courtship than a traditional recruitment process” (Tatley). Nonlocal interviewees cultural fit is assessed from the moment they hop in the shuttle. Zappos believes the way interviewees treat their bus driver is similar to the way they’ll treat their coworkers, which is why Zappos’s CEO, Tony Hsieh said, “It doesn’t matter how well the day of interviews went, if our shuttle driver wasn’t treated well, then we won’t hire that person” (Tatley). While some may view Hsieh’s statement as extremist, it is through Zappos “extremist” interview process that they hire talented individuals who are perfectly suited to their company’s culture. Additionally, for the past 7 years, Zappos has been on Fortune’s top 100 companies to work, so, clearly their unconventional interviewing techniques are working (Forbes).

Nonconformist companies retain their unique talent by investing in their professional development from day one. From 2007 to 2009, “the number of employees who can be described as ‘highly disengaged’ has more than doubled, from 8% … to 21%” (Martin). This is partly because employees become disenchanted from day one when they are “emailed a packet of intimidating forms to fill out and told to come back when it’s done” (Biro). If these new hires are lucky enough to paired with a sponsor, they are usually “the most cynical, burned-out, turned-off, and disengaged members of the staff” (Grote). Corporations and institutions, such as The University of North Texas, are revolutionizing the first day of work experience. At The University of North Texas, when hires come into the office for the first time, they are paired with an energetic and sociable sponsor. This sponsor doesn’t just step them through forms, they also step them through the University of North Texas’s performance appraisal form. The assistance these new hires receive leaves them feeling prepared for their job duties and confident in their decision to join The University of North Texas.

Some companies go as far as investing in their employees’s professional development for the first few months of employment. For example, at IBM if you have less than 2 years industry experience then you go through a three month “bootcamp.” IBM’s bootcamp is an extensive training/on boarding process that intends to level the playing fields for all the entering early career professional hires. Each bootcamp graduate will get 2 years of industry experience in 90 days. Through their bootcamp IBM has differentiated itself from other fortune 100 companies. In fact, in “a survey of 319 executives at companies with revenue of $1 billion or more” it was found “that 27% think that employers form an initial opinion as to whether an entry-level employee will be successful or not in less than two weeks” (Wartzman). IBM’s nonconformist approach to on boarding is unique, in that for the first three months managers aren’t evaluating an employee’s trajectory. Instead managers are investing in their employee’s professional development.

As a result IBM’s new hires are “80% less likely to leave during their first year” (Sullivan). IBM’s nonconformist approach to on-boarding is unconventional, bold and daring, but it clearly has benefited new hires and IBM as a whole.

It isn’t enough to just invest in an employee’s professional at the beginning of their career. Employers need to be actively investing in their employee’s careers throughout the entirety of their time at a company. Shell motivates their employees through career stewards. These career stewards meet “regularly with emerging leaders, assess their level of engagement, help them set realistic career expectations, and make sure they’re getting the right development opportunities” (Martin). Similarly, executives at Novartis have created a system to measure employee satisfaction. Their system consists of managers “rating their relationships, with those employees and stars’ happiness with their jobs, career opportunities, and work-life balance” (Martin). As a result their employees are satisfied and feel a deeper loyalty to their company.

If prospective employees want to find a nonconformist company, such as the ones listed above, then they need to be a nonconformist themselves. What characteristics does a nonconformist employee have? Adam Grant, Wharton psychology professor and New York Times best selling author, refers to successful nonconformists as “Originals” (Grant).

Firstly, they are “late to the party” (Grant). They moderately procrastinate and by doing so they self induce a healthy amount of stress. Since they are quick to start and slow to finish problem solving, they have ample time to subconsciously mull over a topic. During this mulling period, they brainstorm innumerable divergent solutions. Similarly, author and psychologist, Maria Konnikova argues that by procrastinating you ensure “perspective before you start working” (Quito).

For instance, Steve Jobs was known to be a procrastinator. By procrastinating, Jobs didn’t rush into a creative solution, thus giving himself time to think outside of the box (Gillett).

Similarly, Leonardo Davinci, gave himself sixteen years to paint the “Mona Lisa”. The result: the “Mona Lisa” revolutionized the way painters model light. Also, Martin Luther King procrastinated writing his famous “March on Washington” speech. Luther was up till 3 AM the night before rewriting it and then while giving the speech, he altered it to include the famous words, “I have a dream” (Grant).

Secondly, originals are “improvers not movers” (Grant). They distrust the widely believed theory of first mover advantage, which is the “competitive advantage a business obtains by virtue of being the first to bring a specific product or service to market” (Investopedia). First mover advantage explains the success of companies such as Amazon (leading the online bookstore industry) and Procter and Gamble (leading the disposable diaper industry). Originals disbelieve first mover advantage. They attribute the success of these companies to other factors, such as “the pace at which the technology of the product in question is evolving and the pace at which the market for that product is expanding” (Suarez). Originals have a unique advantage, because they are able to evaluate and build on the strengths and weakness of companies with a similar product or service. This is evidenced by Facebook, who waited to build a social network until after Myspace and Friendster. Originals distrust of mover advantage is daring, but their daring mindset is what helps their employers to excel in the workforce.

Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park

Thirdly, Originals are uniquely scared of not trying. While Originals experience the same fear as their coworkers, their fear of not trying is greater. Their unwavering dedication to their ideas is impressive considering the societal shaming that exists around failure. From a young age “we’re taught to follow the rules, guess what the teacher knows, [and that ] there’s only one right answer, and don’t make any mistakes” (Linker). Originals break the model and view failure differently, because when their ideas are unsuccessful, they doubt their ideas, not themselves. Resulting in continual ideation and iteration, rather than discouragement. Elon Musk is unwaveringly dedicated to his ideas. While he didn’t believe the first few SpaceX missions would make it to orbit, he knew with ideation they would. If employees are as unwaveringly dedicated to their ideas as Elon Musk was to SpaceX, then they will certainly make unique and meaningful contributions in the work place.

Industry Nonconformity

Firstly, nonconformist companies, odd as it may sound, revolutionize their industry by trusting their gut and working hard. Industries often times follow trends. Companies who follow these trends are generally the least successful. Contrastingly, the most successful companies are the ones who don’t follow industry trends. A perfect example of this is Joe Flom, partner at one of the most prestigious law firms in New York, Skadden, Arps. When Flom graduated from Harvard Law school in 1948 at the top of his class he wasn’t impressed by the major New York firms. They were all focused on “legal filing and taxes for big corporate entities [which they] considered ‘dignified’ legal work” (Gladwell). Flom was interested in litigation and corporate takeover, so he joined a start up law firm, Skadden, Arps. In the late 1950s and 60s, the law industry was revolutionized by the popularity of corporate takeovers. Skadden, Arps once ‘undignified’, began to have a major presence in the law industry. Then by the 70s, “there was a massive boom in the number of mergers and acquisitions” and most of them were worth millions and millions of dollars (Gladwell). Skadden, Arps was particularly instrumental during this time, because none of the other law firms fully understand the legality of these transactions. Because Skadden, Arps trusted their guts in the late 40s, today they earn over $1 billion a year.

Secondly, nonconformist companies question industry standards that are unrealistic, unhealthy and nonproductive. For example, in the investment banking industry, employees average 100 hours work weeks. Managers view employees’ weekly hours as a reflection of their devotion and talent, thus directly correlating to said employee’s promotions and raises. Since the investment banking industry has a history of over working their employees, many employers and employees have begun to associate “overwork and stress with success” (Loosvelt). In January 2014, expectations for investment bankers shifted, because Goldman Sachs realized it was dangerous to over work their employees. They boldly enacted a Protected Saturday policy which prevents their employees from working on Saturdays, unless they are working on a live transaction. Goldman’s Protected Saturday Policy caused a ripple throughout the entire investment banking industry. While Goldman was the first to enact a policy limiting their workers hours, many other investment banking firms followed in suit. In fact, by the end of 2014, “3,600 participants gave their banking firm an average score of 7.09 (on a 10-point scale) in the area of work-life balance” which is nearly “3% higher than the score (6.90) they gave” in 2013 (Loosvelt). Unsurprisingly the firms who have lowered weekly hours employees are seeing an improvement in their work’s culture.

Thirdly, nonconformist companies are social activists. Their social platforms are sometimes sensitive subjects. Other times they are unpopular subjects. Regardless of other opinions, they are always motivated by their passion for the cause. They understand their company’s historical relationship with social causes. As well as what their company do moving forward with social causes. Feminist activist and COO of Facebook, Cheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In” addresses the gender gap and discrimination that still exists in the workplace. Regarding the gender gap Sandberg explains that it has improved with time. In 1970, American women made 59 cents for every dollar men made, but in 2010, women earned 77 cents for every dollar men made. That’s only an 18 cent improvement over 40 years, so while the gender gap has improved, it has decades to go before it is completely closed. Sandberg’s personal anecdote of her hiring process at Facebook is both terrifying and empowering. When Mark Zuckerberg approached her to join Facebook, she almost accepted his initial offer. After some encouragement from her husband, she made a counter-offer. The result: Zuckerberg returned with a much more lucrative offer. Sandberg’s fortitude in her hiring process, has helped Facebook’s to be more respectful of women. She hired former marketing director at eBay, Lori Goler, for the VP of people position. Goler is well known for pioneering the prolonged paternity and maternity movement. According to Business Insider “long before it was trendy, Facebook was offering four months of paid leave, regardless of gender or birthing means, to new parents within the first year of birth or placement” (Gillett). Then in rapid fire sequence other tech companies increased paternity and maternity leave for their employees. Netflix offers unlimited paid time off for a year. Microsoft offers 20 weeks of fully paid maternity leave and 12 weeks for new fathers. Adobe offers 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and 16 weeks of paid paternity leave for birth and adoptive parents. Sheryl Sandberg has transformed womens’ rights in the work place.

Facebook’s focus on increasing womens’ rights is a matter of national importance. In January 2016, The White House promoted including women in the work force at their first United States of Women Summit. Speakers such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey talked about how far women rights have come, but how much farther they have to go. The speakers specifically addressed the wage gap that still exists for working women. The summit ended with a call to action: The White House Equal Pay Pledge, in which “companies [promised] to conduct an annual gender pay analysis and reassess their hiring and promoting processes to ensure equity.” Progressive companies such as Airbnb, Amazon, Pinterest, Salesforce, Slack, and Spotify signed the pledge. Interestingly, all these companies are technology companies. It can be concluded that when a company makes a progressive decision, the first companies to follow suit first are the ones within the same industry. It isn’t until later that it affects the entire marketplace.

Lastly, when nonconformist businesses acquire a business, they transform that business by adding new audiences to the businesses existing audience. This is exemplified by Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset. Originally, only gamers used Oculus Rift. It started out as the passion project of a brilliant college student. That is until legend John Carmack, cofounder of id software, ran across it in a forum. He proceeded to ask student and creator, Palmer Luckey, to send him the VR headset. Carmack started immediately demoing the VR headset, and despite the prototype’s very rough and duct taped state, it took off. Oculus’s Kickstarter campaign goal was $250,000, but within 24 hours, they’d raised $670,000 from 2,750 people. Within less than 2 years of Oculus’s extremely successful Kickstarter campaign, Facebook acquired it. Oculus’s niche, but very dedicated, audience of gamers has now expanded to healthcare, education/training and mental health.

Oculus Rift

For healthcare, institutions are using Oculus’s computer-generated images to diagnose and treat patients. If that patient were to have a CAT scan or ultrasound, Oculus would convert those images into a virtual reality simulation. This simulation would aid surgeons in deciding the “most efficient way to locate tumors, place surgical incisions or practice difficult procedures ahead of time” (Sheikh).

For education and training, Oculus helps students to learn through immersion. The military teaches trainees on hospital care through stimulating a battlefield and wounded soldier. The military believes this stimulated environment teaches trainees “to negotiate and prioritise clinical needs, teaching teamwork and decision-making skills within high-stress ‘under-fire’ scenarios” (“Plextek and Dstl use Oculus Rift to create immersive medical training solution for military”). Academia has used stimulation to teach drivers ed students the importance of being focused on the road. Toyota’s TeenDrive365 campaign, educates teenagers and parents about distracted driving through virtual-reality headsets. Toyota believes that VR could improve education in all fields, by making “cognitive learning faster, more effective and efficient” (Sheikh).

For mental health, Oculus can help patients to overcome their fears in a controlled environment. If an individual has glossophobia, fear of public speaking, their psychiatrist would stimulate a crowd. This environment would evoke the patient’s fear, but their psychiatrist would is there to talk through their concerns with them and teach them coping mechanisms. The University of Louisiana has adapted their cognitive behavioral therapy program to include computer assisted cognitive behavioral therapy. When the University compared standard CBT to computer assisted CBT, “the computer-assisted form of treatment appeared to have advantages over standard CBT in helping patients change dysfunctional attitudes and in learning CBT skills” (Knvul). They also “found excellent patient acceptance of the computer-assisted therapy method” (Knvul).

From all the examples above, it is apparent that Facebook has expanded Occulus’s audience, through their unique vision for the product. Facebook’s 2014 acquisition of Occulus was unique for it’s time. In 2014, few tech giants really saw the value of virtual reality. The creator of Occulus, Luckey, said, “Before [the acquisition] there were a few companies that believed in VR. And when I say a few, I mean a few.” Facebook didn’t conform to the tech industry’s perspective on VR and expanded Occulus to the following audiences: therapy, education and training. The financial result of Facebook’s acquisition: “the number of venture capital deals and total dollars invested in VR and augmented reality have both tripled… Last quarter, investors made 42 VR and AR investments totaling nearly $240 million” (Wagner).

Marketplace Nonconformity

Businesses disrupt the marketplace through questioning the “conventional wisdom of how to run a company.” Such a convention could be the lack of pay transparency in many businesses. In 1919, Vanity Fair forwarded a memo titled “Forbidding Discussion Among Employees of Salary Received.” Employees were infuriated. The next day three employees came into work with their salaries written on a sign hanging from their neck. Vanity Fair’s totalitarian email could be chalked up to a generational difference. But pay transparency is as lacking today as it was in the early 1900s. In David Burkus’s book “Under New Management”, Burkus, author, podcaster and associate professor of management at Oral Roberts University, reveals the fallacies of traditional business management. Contrary to what most managers believe, when employees don’t know their coworkers salaries, they assume the worst — that they are paid less than their coworkers. From Burkus’s years of researching entrepreneurial leaders “who question the conventional wisdom about how to run a company” he discovered that “pay transparency — sharing salaries openly across a company — makes for a better workplace for both the employee and for the organization” (Burkus). One such entrepreneurial leader is Dane Atikson, CEO of SumAll. Dane didn’t believe in pay transparency until after many of his businesses failed. All of his failed businesses had one thing in common, they were built on the premise of pay secrecy and this pay secrecy created a contentious and hyper competitive culture between employees. Dane’s most recent business SumAll was built on the premise of pay transparency and it’s been staggeringly successful. Furthermore, it’s caused businesses in other industries to adapt their business models, such as Whole Foods, Buffer, Pay Scale and Pariveda Solutions. Of all these companies, Whole Foods has engrained transparency in their culture the most. Whole Food’s transparency extends beyond pay, to performance, including store’s and department’s performance. Clearly entrepreneurial leaders, such as Dane Atkinson, have disrupted the entire market place with their idea and implementation of pay transparency.

When a business disrupts the marketplace, their idea isn’t necessarily new, rather their idea is just different enough that it seems fresh and original.

Dane Atkinson’s company, SumAll measures analytics for company’s social media accounts. SumAll’s concept isn’t too revolutionary. There are innumerable businesses that track social media accounts’ analytics, but SumAll is disruptive because of their original business model. Clayton Christensen defines disruptive innovation as “an innovation that … allows a whole new population of consumers at the bottom of a market access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill” (Christensen). Uber perfectly emulates Clayton Christensen’s definition of disruptive innovation. Prior to 2011, only the wealthy or elite class of New Yorkers had instant transportation, because of their personal drivers. The common New Yorkers or weary traveler had to stand on the side of a curb, in the rain and continually attempt to hail a cab. Pre-Uber travel was inconvenient for commoners, but through their nonconformist approach to transportation, Uber has improved the lives of business travelers, New York families and any stranded resident. Uber has helped the common New Yorker to have instant access to a driver. All the rider has to is open the Uber app, hit a button and then they have a ride. On average, riders only have to wait 5 minutes. When compared to the wait time for a taxi, which is highly ambiguous, Uber is instant. Thanks to Uber, the bottom of the market now has access to instant transportation which “historically [was] only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill” (Christensen). Because Uber was unwilling to conform and accept transportation as it existed in the early 2000s, they reinvented transportation, thus disrupting the entire marketplace. The result: in 2015, Uber, an “American worldwide online transportation network company,” was named the most disruptive company and most highly valued start up.

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Becca Urry

Written by

Visual & UX Designer at IBM Analytics. Typographer, hiker and protein bar connoisseur.

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