The Formation of Contently’s Culture Committee
We’re always discussing ways to adjust our values and improve communication. So we started a committee to track our progress.
Following a culture presentation from our co-founder Shane Snow, Contently’s first Culture Committee officially formed. For the inaugural meeting, we set about creating a “Work Agreement” and discussed expectations for company values. Here is a summary of that conversation:
Work Agreement
For us, it was important that we come to a consensus on how we run our meetings, how we give and receive feedback, and how we communicate our findings, plans, and goals with each other and the company at-large.
Meetings
- We’ll end each meeting with a plan for our next meeting, actionable takeaways, and plans for next steps.
- We’ll always take notes, not only for committee members who were unable to make the meeting, but also to keep everyone informed and up-to-date.
- Meetings are a judgement-free zone. Building on our theme of being comfortable with discomfort, we understand and acknowledge that we’re not all trained to talk about these topics and that we’re at differing levels of seniority.
Communication
For our purposes, we define communication both as how we let the company at-large know about our goals and progress, and how we talk to each other as a committee.
- We’ll consider all views thoughtfully, even if they ultimately aren’t used or, more importantly, if we disagree with them.
- We’ll assume that everyone is coming from a place of positivity and that all criticism is meant to be constructive, rendering qualifications and limitations unnecessary.
- We will listen first and listen carefully, and we won’t talk over each other.
Feedback
- We’re going to share all feedback with the group, while acknowledging that some conversations are better when held privately.
- Feedback that’s truly meant for one person (performance, workflow, etc.) will be respectfully shared on a one-on-one basis.
- We’ll aspire for total transparency: Being transparent in giving feedback helps us to own our feedback and is essential for following up and improving.
- We won’t make it personal or take feedback personally, and will instead channel Barack Obama:
Because if you’re worrying about yourself, [then] you’re going to end feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.
Values
We took a blind survey of what matters to our employees, and used the results to create these word clouds to describe our personal values, Contently’s current values, and what Contently’s values should be.
These are interesting because it shows just how big of a deal (and word) respect is, which also explains why we spent so much time talking about respect and its many iterations in our discussion.
Additionally, in discussing our current and aspirational values, we couldn’t avoid talking about how we meaningfully implement them and what those values truly mean. The following is an overview of that conversation:
Respect
- Other people, including customers and colleagues, and their time, opinions, and feedback.
- Job function and work style: We don’t do the same thing, nor do we do it in the same way.
Curiosity
- Ideas can come from anyone and they will be heard and considered respectfully.
- Be open to new ideas and to trying new things.
- However, we also recognize the need for order in the world. While we want to encourage collective participation, we don’t want to lose our ability to be agile.
Clear Communication
- Misunderstanding is at the root of many evils; by agreeing on target outcomes and establishing a formal (or at least agreed upon) process, we can all be more efficient.
- Again, aspire for transparency and be communicative about times when total transparency isn’t the best option and why.
Diversity
- Focus on cultural contribution and different ways of thinking.
- We value diversity and don’t want to back down from it, and we want to honor everyone’s unique ways of thinking. Instead of deciding that university or background (for example) is always a meaningful proxy for thought differences, we can ask our employees and potential hires what is unique about their way of thinking and working.
- We’ll also create a “checklist” for hiring, which will help ensure that we’re being as mindful and purposeful as we can be.
Professional Growth and Development
- We want to help people level up and maximize their personal market value.
