Culture is not a F*CKING document!
I care very deeply and sincerely about a companies culture. Before joining any company I try to find out as much as I can about their culture, and I think it’s very important for everyone to do so as well. Everyone likes to work on an interesting product with interesting engineering challenges, but I think the culture of a company can make or break the company — determine if you’ll be there for a two year stint, or in it for the long run.
That being said, I always get a good laugh when the company schedules special meetings to talk about the culture. Sometimes putting everything in that meeting into writing and making it holy.
I never really understood why this made me laugh so much, while knowing I really do care about the culture. I think it’s because these meetings and documents made it feel all too superficial.
About a year ago I became a father, and that got me thinking a lot about which family I want to create and what values I want to pass on to my son.
I’m sure a lot of parents think about this, I know my friends that are parents do, and they don’t have meetings with their kids about values, and never in a million years would give them some document in writing about how to act or behave since they’re part of your family.
When it comes to your family, and especially your kids, it seems obvious to most people that the best way to teach them the values you want them growing up with is by example.
You know that if they see you acting kind to others, they’ll grow up to be kind people. If they see you acting generously and speaking honestly then they will also follow as they grow up.
If all this is so obvious when dealing with your kids, how come it’s so different (and superficial) when done in a company ?
I think culture is really important, and at the same time, I don’t think we need to have various meetings to talk about the “culture we want to create”. I think we just need to create that culture by doing, and showing others the ways we expect our company to behave. If you want a transparent culture, just be transparent with your team about everything you do. You’ll be surprised how contagious it will be. They’ll start to be transparent too.
If you want to create an environment that upholds teaching, then don’t wait for people to agree on it in a meeting, just start. You can schedule a lecture to teach your team something, or sit with them and explain something new you just learned. Believe me, people will follow.
But wait, not everyone will follow!
That’s right. But creating a document won’t force them to follow your “cultural values” either.
The great part about a company (opposed to your family) is that you can hire and fire whoever you want. So, you should only hire people you think will get along with the culture in the first place. If you made a mistake, then you can just let them go.
So where do I find 100 people that are just like me ?
The amazing part about culture is that you don’t need to. Once you have a small group of people that are behaving in some way, the newer people that will join will act the same way as well.
How to measure your companies culture ?
I’m going to risk really disspointing some geeks here by saying you can’t. At least not with numbers and tests like a mathematical experiment.
Do not send your employees a silly quiestionnaire asking them about how they feel at the company. Even if it’s anonymous, the answers won’t give you the answer you should be looking for.
Important culture hack: Want to know how your employees (or team mates) feel about different issues in the company?
ASK THEM! Like really ask them, and not via slack, email, IRC, telegram or any other protocol that doesn’t involve talking. Actually go up to them, ask them for a few minutes of their time and ask them face to face.
Culture hack #2: Listen!
I only recently found out about Dan Lyons — He used to be a business writer, that turned to comedy. He had a famous blog once called “Fake Steve Jobs”, and he’s also written a little for the HBO show Silicon Valley.
He also got to work at HubSpot in 2013, and wrote a book about that.
He has a great lecture about how to ruin a culture. I really suggest you watch it — He also talks about the good things in startups, and what can improve the culture.
I pretty much feel that he’s spot on, on everything he says!
If it won’t teach you anything new, then at least you’ll get a good laugh out of it.
Originally published at gillybarr.com on September 2, 2017.
