
Start Traditions That Won’t Last - RobbieStats
https://medium.com/@robbieallen/start-traditions-that-won-t-last-4aa49abaf6e4#.mf4jur7yg
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patio11
My favorite startup tradition I've been exposed to is Twilio's: employee
jackets are something you earn, regardless of role in the company, only after
you've pushed a Twilio app into production. After you do so -- and they'll
coach you on it if you're not in engineering (or I suppose if you are) -- you
get recognized at the next all-hands meeting and the CEO drapes the jacket
over your shoulders, in a manner similar to knighting.

(They also control distribution of jackets externally, which is one of the
reasons I loved my four jackets to death and wore them so frequently that many
people were under the impression that I was actually a Twilio developer
evangelist.)

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mooreds
I like the fact that he explicitly mentions letting go of traditions. As
companies grow, all kinds of things have to change, and this includes informal
activities as well.

It's good advice for life too--if you are too afraid of setting up a tradition
or trying something because it needs to be perfect and last through the ages
(or at least your life), you won't do _anything_.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

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onion2k
Letting go of traditions is a hard thing to manage. Employees who've been in a
company a long time don't appreciate the change, especially if the traditions
are seen as a "perk" for working there that's being taken away, and stopping
buying something sends a signal that the company can't afford it any more.

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mavsman
I think most of these things happen when people get along, have fun, and just
live life. Traditions in a company like this usually just happen naturally.

Side note: This is nice but it surprises me that an article like this makes
the front page.

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sleazebreeze
At the start of our morning team standups, we have a song playing and anyone
can add song to the queue (and also re-arrange to put their selection first,
if they wish). 80s Thursdays and Metal Mondays have emerged organically. Then
there's the unique music like Tuvan throat singing [1] that gets included.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qn27GOAkwo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qn27GOAkwo)

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JasonCEC
At Analytical Flavor Systems[0], we have a ridiculous number of traditions...
and as Founder/CEO, I have nearly no control over them!

 _A select subset of our traditions include:_

\- Daily: 24 hour goals (what did you accomplish in the last 24 hours? what do
you plan to accomplish in the next 24 hours?) every morning as a standing
meeting, with pour-over coffee (usually client, sometimes... almost clients).
We always discuss our analysis of the coffee and the brewer/barista (which
rotates through employees) after 24 hour goals.

\- Daily: Highs and Lows. What was the best part of your day? What was the
worst part of your day? (confusingly, we start with the low, and end on the
high note).

\- Monday: we have a modified version of the Rebeca Black Friday song... about
how much we like to work/twerk on Mondays... This was created, died, and
revived a number of ties has the team has grown and changed.

\- Friday: Beverage Exchange: We don't hold official panel tastings on
Friday's, out of respect for people who have lives outside of the office (this
is totally theoretical) - so we exchange and share rare and interesting
products we've collected. Considering the company is building AI for the beer,
coffee, spirit, and wine industries... we have access to a lot of rare
products to share and taste outside of official panel tastings!

\- Hazing of new employees: It takes a long time to become an able barista
(coffee tastings during 24 hour goals) or capable beer/wine taster. We're very
upfront about how much new employees suck until they get it - experience and
trust scores are read out, deviations in perceived quality due to brewing
skill is listed, and missing variables that needed to be interpolated are
explained (in excruciating detail).

Clearly all of these traditions won't continue as we move from 12 to ~40
employees over the next ~18 months... but the important thing is that we've
set ourselves up with a strong culture that cares about our clients and cares
about the same things our clients care about (these two topics are very
different!)

The best piece of advice that I have for other founders: create the seeds for
traditions to form, but allow the employees to decide which to water and
cultivate - allow them to decide which traditions get proginated and carried
forward from generation to generation. And if possible, record past traditions
in your Phabricator[2] Wiki.

[1] www.Gastrograph.com [2] [http://phabricator.org/](http://phabricator.org/)

