Good company culture doesn't exist
Why you should focus on creating a culture that works
Despite what you may have heard, good culture doesn’t exist - only culture that works, and culture that doesn’t. In this post I talk about how:
the right culture depends on the environment your company operates in
culture that works is a strategic advantage
founder/culture fit is a key component of effective culture
well positioned culture allows non culture-fits to not apply to your company
Induction cut
One of the first things that male US military recruits experience is the almost ritualistic shaving of their heads. New recruits enter with a hair style reflecting their personalities, and leave the barbers chair with the regulation buzz cut. This marks the first step towards the erosion of individual identity, and becoming a very small part something larger than themselves.
Pause for a second, and conjure up an image of military culture.
You might have imagined soldiers marching in step, meticulous uniform inspection, and soldiers shouting “yes sir!” until their voices are hoarse. But why does the military care how precisely you can march, or how shiny your boots are? Is it simply the continuation of military tradition, or are there deeper reasons?
There is in fact method to this madness - soldiers have the extremely unnatural task of entering combat with fellow human beings. They operate in an environment that is literally life or death, and where orders need to be followed without hesitation. As such, certain values are far more important than they are in the civilian world:
Discipline - without this, you might sleep without cleaning your weapon, leading it to jam the next day as you are face to face with the enemy.
Attention to detail - without this you might misread your map, and lead your team into a deadly mine field.
Obeying superiors - without this you might hesitate to follow an order to move, ultimately leading to your demise.
Cohesiveness - without this, you and your unit might descend into disarray, leading to you being picked off one by one by the enemy.
The military is an excellent example of having a culture that works for the environment they operate in, however culture is essentially about trade offs - each of these values has its weaknesses. For example, deference to authority is in direct opposition to independent thinking.
These weaknesses are why even within the military there are pockets where the culture is drastically different. To give an example, special forces units - typically tasked with unconventional missions, need to utilise creativity in order to convince a local warlord to join them, or to defeat an enemy force much larger than their own. It’s no surprise then, that soldiers within these units often sport unkempt beards, and that the word “sir” is rarely uttered - often to the dismay of more conventional higher ups.
It goes without saying that military culture would be a disaster at a startup.
Culture that works
I used the example above to demonstrate that the “right” culture is highly context specific. Culture that works puts your company in the best possible position to meet the challenges it faces.
You should aim to determine the things you need to be really good at, and honest about things you can afford to sacrifice. Middle of the road culture is easy because it offends no-one, but optimises for nothing. Since this is the road most companies take, you can create a strategic advantage by working in a way that is tailored to your industry.
There is no easy way to determine what the right culture is for your company, but some things that might determine the appropriate culture are:
stage of company (early vs late stage)
consumer vs b2b
regulated vs unregulated
software vs hardware
problem you are working to solve
overall strategy
Founder/culture fit
We’ve spoken a lot about the role of your environment on what culture is right for you, but there is another key component - the personalities of the founders.
Founders can have a huge impact on the culture - they make the early and later on key hires, and are able to encourage certain behaviours, and discourage others. But a founder will have little success creating a culture that goes against their personality.
A deeply empathetic founder who deeply values coaching and developing talent over time - even through rough times, will struggle to promote the culture of firing anyone who isn’t a top performer.
Self selection
Great companies put a lot of effort into ensuring cultural fit during the interview process - but well defined culture should allow people to select out just by reading your job ads.
Below is an except from psychologist Bertram R. Forer’s personality description paragraph.
You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
In an experiment he ran on his students, telling them the paragraph was tailored to their personality, he asked them to rate how well this “unique” paragraph described them, from 0 to 5. The average rating his students gave was 4.26. This demonstrates the power of vague statements that anyone can identify with.
If you read through the cultural section of your job ads, ask yourself this question - can anyone read this and decide that they don’t want to work at your company, or do they feel like Bertram’s paragraph?
If the answer is no, it’s likely that your culture isn’t well positioned, and that you aren’t optimising for anything.
To give a counterpoint, think of Netflix’s keeper test:
If one of the members of the team was thinking of leaving for another firm, would the manager try hard to keep them from leaving? Those who do not pass the keeper test (i.e. their manager would not fight to keep them) are promptly and respectfully given a generous severance package so we can find someone for that position that makes us an even better dream team. Getting cut from our team is very disappointing, but there is no shame. Being on a dream team can be the thrill of a professional lifetime.
There are some who read this and are excited by it, and others who are horrified - it’s not for everyone, and there is no shame in that. By having well positioned culture, you increase the chances of hiring people who embody the culture you need to thrive.
Closing
Defining culture is hard, but it’s worth putting effort into - culture that works is a strategic advantage that will help you win. It’s okay to use other companies as inspiration, but don’t forget to apply the filter of your environment and founder DNA before simply emulating others.
I hope you found this interesting, and I will be sharing more thoughts on culture future posts.