Culture Fit Schmulture Fit
I’m not trying to sound like the Church Lady here, but some terms are downright offensive.
Terms like “culture fit.” Shudder! About a year and a half ago I banned the phrase from my team’s vocabulary, and I think you should too.
Bad Fits from the ‘70s
The notion of “culture” fit took off in the ’70s alongside polyester suits and bell bottoms.
People decided the ideal team would be a sort of echo chamber staffed by clones who all think alike.
Psychologists experimented with putting workers in environments where colleagues had similar or dissimilar personalities. They found, unequivocally, that people who worked with people who were more like themselves were happier and felt more “competent” at work.
Thus was born the talking point that “fitting” the culture of an organization was key for workers to be happy and productive. The more people fit in, went the conventional wisdom, the more they’d get along. And, presumably, the more they’d get done.
There’s one little problem with this.
IT’S COMPLETELY WRONG!
Hard data demonstrate that putting cultural homogeneity first both stifles innovation and lowers productivity.
First let’s talk about innovation.
I don’t speak Latin, but I believe I see a nov in there. Means “new.” (Thank you, PBS.) If you want a group of people to be innovative, then you want them to solve hard problems in novel ways.
To do this you need people on the team who think differently from one another — otherwise when one gets stumped, they all get stumped.
A group of people who think the same, who have the same personality, who exhibit the same style and/or who all share the same values are bound to “fit in” all too well.
Your team is only going to be as smart as its smartest clone.
Even worse, when an organization has an ethos rooted in “culture fit,” a nasty hidden habit develops. Whenever someone has an idea that doesn’t “fit” the established way of thinking or of doing things, they’ll either shut up or they’ll get shut down. Psychology demonstrates that the desire to be accepted by our tribe is one of our strongest impulses.
When we put tribal identity first, we miss out on new ideas and new perspectives that can lead to breakthrough progress.
Now what about productivity?
That’s the bottom line, right? Getting things done? While working on my latest book Dream Teams, I ended up conducting a nationwide survey of employees at fast-growth versus slow-growth companies. Some employees were from companies which rank high in:
- problem-solving (innovation); and
- introduction of market-leading products (productivity).
These big-tech workers answered questions about their corporate culture alongside employees from less-innovative, less-productive companies.
The data showed a pretty stark contrast between the fast-growth companies and the average ones, regardless of whether people said they were chummy with their colleagues at work:
Note the difference? Those left-hand columns include some pretty heavy hitters! My data show that organizations who avoid groupthink are more likely to end up being America’s top innovators and top producers. In fact the biggest innovators/producers are practically countries in themselves, mighty enough to, say, strong-arm the world’s only superpower into haggling with the E.U. over their tax bill.
After learning this I told my team that no one was allowed to use the term “culture fit” anymore. If I heard someone say it (force of habit; it happens!), I would gently remind them that we didn’t want “culture fit”; rather, we wanted culture contribution: something novel and unique from everyone. And team members have permission to be whoever they want to be.
Revenge of the Misfits
Hollywood doesn’t get much right*, but it’s no accident that one of the most enduring tropes in film is the Ragtag Group of Misfits. How else do outmatched underdogs save the world?
I’ll give you a hint: it’s not by fitting in.
WANT TO WORK SMARTER?
I’ve created a little cheat sheet for how to use lateral thinking to change your work and life. It’s battle-tested, and free.
