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Why Culture Should Be Your Central Focus

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27 pointszabbyz15 comments

My objection to pretty much every place I've worked has boiled down to the workplace culture. During the "mini MBA for scientists" that my Uni runs for grad students, they explained quite a lot of the psychology around organisational culture.

As such, this article was kind of "well, duh!" for me - One of the things I'd be most exited about if I ever do start my own organisation will be being able to invent a culture (and this is the motivation I've mentioned to several people in describing the kinds of start ups I have ideas for.)

I'm curious to know, what would you add that you missed in the cultures that you worked in in the past? And what would you delete that you would prefer not to have as part of the culture?

OK, so at the various minimum wage jobs I've worked at, there was a serious attitude of "I'm paid to lift things/fix things/make coffee, not to care about this company." That's fine, but I don't want to work there thanks (unless I'm a teenager with no other option, again.)

However, at the software company I worked for, the attitude was "we love this company because they buy us beer!". This was cool in that they paid for theme park visits and big, free-beer parties as "morale" activities, some of which I enjoyed and some not so much, but I also felt a bit empty working there. I felt that this was because they were a services company - i.e. they were very very skeptical about "product" ideas, and where they did have a go at them they tended to dramatically underfund them (there was one notable exception to this, but the continuing revenue from the product was mostly in services-style support contracts, since it was a B2B product.) I would have preferred that they spent some of the beer money giving some of their more exciting ideas a better shot of working. (they also took on some services work that I didn't think was particularly ethical, although it was all legal.)

so, things I would delete:

    - "beer is the best way to have fun" attitude.
    - "9-to-5"-ism.

things I would add:

    - motivation about company mission (also, dependently, hiring 
    people who do care about the mission.)

This is perhaps why my ideas for start ups tend to be either social enterprises, or fighting some political mission (like PRISM-evasion) - because I want there to be a mission to care about. I hope that the two things I want to avoid would follow, at least in part, from the thing I would add (although my 2nd-hand experience of the charitable sector says that 9-to-5ism may be difficult to escape anywhere.)

I think you're pointing to the importance of fit, and making sure you work for a company whose mission inspires you and whose values align with yours. If both the employer and employees were committed to this, we'd have a lot more happy, successful companies. Some people love the beer/party atmosphere and want that in their workplace. But too often, startups create that atmosphere because that's what they see others do or because that's what they think they should do to attract young engineers. You've got to be true to yourself. [cue Ziggy Marley music...]

I agree with pretty much all of that. Nice wide-angle on what I said, thanks!

Thanks!

I don't mind the presence of "beer culture" so much as long as it's in addition to ridiculously high compensation, and not a sleight of hand to distract people and then underpay them relative to norms ("Look! We're a STARTUP! We have video games! And BEER!")

My attitude is: show me the money ... then we can talk culture. ;)

The company wasn't really a startup anymore, since it was a services business with like 40 employees (now they have even more than that.) They paid quite well, but not well enough to compensate for the poor culture!

With respect to money, I think I'd have to be very well paid to get me to work for a company without a cool mission now (and, conversely, I'd happily get paid less to be doing something I believed in - hence taking a big pay cut to do a PhD..)

I hear that. It's nice to have both (money / culture), and certainly one can be traded for the other. Few people go into investment banking or corporate law for the culture (although the culture certainly teaches them that they are "the best") - they are in it for money.

The thing I don't like is when people are misled about the bargain - hearing "we're not about money, we're changing the world, you need to work 18h a day" from someone who will benefit exponentially more from a successful outcome than the slave he's whipping.

1) Prioritize my happiness. That will make me care and will get more productivity out of me, ultimately.

2) Let me estimate my own work. Make it somewhat flexible (within reason). Don't tie me to point systems or other work estimation methodologies; they are all worse than an intelligent human knowing what you're up to and many kinds of "work" are not accounted for in such systems (assisting coworkers, mentoring, researching etc.)

3) Don't block Internet sites. Trust me to use what is available to me to DO my job instead of DODGE my job.

4) 12-2pm is lunch AND outdoors/physical exercise time. No exceptions. Work hours are 9am-noon and 2pm-5pm. Get your things done and focus and then get the heck out and enjoy your life. If you finish early, leave early. Just be here more or less on time at 9am.

For a moment I thought he meant culture in the true sense of the word. The title would have made more sense then.

What do you think culture is in the 'true sense of the word'?

"the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture

There's a lot of talk about culture, but as the article mentions, it's difficult to define exactly, something that has irked me for a while now - lots of advocacy, but do people really understand what they're advocating or is this another cargo cult?

But the article also links a blog on culture [1] that actually makes a decent attempt at explaining it, and it not just through a single manifesto type statement, but over a long series of blog posts. Good read.

[1]: http://awesomeculture.com/

It's hard to remember to tiller the rudder and trim the sails at the same time. It's easier to wait until there is a problem and then scramble to fix it. I mean, that's what we're best at right? Fixing problems?

Interesting. I like the focus on creating (for lack of a better term) a work/work balance - exploring your own motivations as a key to creating a good culture.

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