
Your company culture is a meaningless platitude - daveschappell
http://www.danshapiro.com/blog/2010/06/your-company-culture-is-a-meaningless-platitude/
======
edw519
You don't pick your own nickname.

You don't declare your own reputation.

You don't define your own company culture.

All of these things are object code, "compiled" by others based upon your
behavior, which is the source.

What you do screams louder that what you say. Do good and you won't have to
worry about what others say. _That_ is "company culture".

~~~
marr
While I agree with the observations, I think this is not a good definition of
company culture.

A company culture is the set of prevailing ethics within an organization which
determines things like work ethic; attitudes towards change; levels of
internal cooperation vs internal competition; treatment of customers,
competitors, and suppliers; valuation of individuals' attributes; etc.

Company culture can be perceived by outsiders, but it doesn't rely on what
others say or whether you are doing Good or not. It exists even in the absence
of those things.

------
webwright
I've always believed company culture comes down to 1 thing: peoples' belief
about how awesome their life is going to be next month... In other words,
optimism and stuff to look forward to. Whether that's fabulous wealth, fun
social time with coworkers, etc-- you have to have faith that things will be
awesome in the future or you start looking.

Doesn't matter how many scavenger hunts or catered lunches you have.

Of course, you can get "awesome inflation". Day 1 at Google, maybe you're
blown away by the catered lunches and at-desk free pedicures. A year later,
maybe not.

~~~
daveschappell
I don't think it's that binary. There are definitely times where I've been on
teams where I knew things were looking grim, but where I felt a bond with my
everyone, and it was a fellowship that made us dig in to give our best effort.
That can be very sustaining (moreso if you feel good about your future team-
finding skills, I suppose).

~~~
lief79
I think it's a mistake to be focusing on the 1 month time frame. You dug in
because you valued the people you were working with, and thought that digging
and giving your best effort were likely to be enough to pull you through. I've
been on teams like that with (10%) pay cuts and was happy I was there. Things
did improve.

However, I was there 2 years later and it was happening again. None of the
core issues had been addressed or were open to being addressed, and I was
happy to be laid off. The majority of the other employees left within the
following year.

Good people, interesting technology, but the corporate culture was dying. The
company still exists, and the continued emphasis on good customer service and
niche market keeps them running (from what I've heard from current employees).
I'd be surprised if the software technology has improved in the past 5 years,
but it still does what it has to do.

~~~
webwright
That's a good point-- the horizon that people care about probably widely
varies... But people want to climb mountains. If you can say with a straight
face, "I really don't think it's going to get better than this," I don't think
you can last long!

------
gxs
A company's culture matters quite a bit. Where the author makes a giant
mistake, however, is in assuming that a company's culture is what it says it
is.

I've worked at several organizations, and I can tell you that they definitely
do have different cultures and sometimes that culture is a big contributor to
success.

On a smaller scale, it's similar to the way a startup takes on the personality
of its founder/s.

~~~
jleader
I didn't see that as the author's mistake, but rather as the point of the
article, that a company's culture isn't what they say it is, but what they do
differently.

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pclark
I read this story about Googles culture.

When Google was really young, and wasn't sure how to make money, it was
hiring. What Google found was that engineers didn't care if Google was going
to win or fail, they cared about culture. And Google had it in spades.

Engineers were leaving well paid safe jobs to work in Googles culture, often
taking pay cuts.

Made me think how important culture really is for the very best people.

------
haroldhing
Great article Dan. Culture is such an intangible unquantifiable thing that
many people overlook. While I do agree on the 4 points you mentioned I believe
that alot of company culture bleeds out of the personality of the CEO. They
usually set the precedent and tone especially in a small startup.

~~~
stcredzero
_Culture is such an intangible unquantifiable thing that many people
overlook._

I think it's pretty obvious once you start to look for it.

------
mitchellhislop
More than anything, I think that its the word "culture" that makes this all
screwed up. If you have a good "culture" (in the article's sense), people will
want to work there, which is a good thing. If you dont, you will have talent
troubles. Therefore, culture is important.

However, culture may be the wrong term, and I am always weary about a company
that trumpets their culture.

At the end of the day, I want to work someplace awesome. Call it culture or
attitude, it matters.

------
Tycho
Very, very good article. Another thing that bugs me about corp-talk is the
phrases you _always_ find on job adverts. Apparently every successful job
candidate in Britain over the last two decades has had 'excellent
interpersonal and communication skills.'

------
jheitzeb
Great post! This part is golden: "When the company picks up your nighttime
MBA, that’s a great benefit – but when Teachstreet (a company that helps
people find local and online classes) gets its employees together to learn how
to build kites, now that’s a quirk. It’s not to say that corporate mandates
can’t make great quirks, although the best ones often arise spontaneously from
the teams themselves"

I'm looking forward to more on what in a culture can be assigned and
determined proactively versus what should be left emergent...after all, the
culture is a reflection of what you want to be and what you already are,
right?

------
jimfl
The meaningless platitude that management uses to describe what they aspire to
have their company culture be, is a meaningless platitude.

Ancient HR policies and hokey mission statements are no match for a good NERF
gun at your side.

~~~
ovi256
It writes the code or we take away the Nerf gun!

------
joesunga
I think company culture is what you make of it, especially in a startup. You
have the ability to help shape the workplace you're in and if you don't
contribute, don't complain.

For me, I want to enjoy coming to work because of two reasons: (1) Building a
product that connects with me and solves a real problem (2) I enjoy working
with the people I'm with. It's the sense of camaraderie you build. All that
other stuff contributes to that.

------
JoeAltmaier
You really find out what the culture is, when times are tough. When the
freebies disappear, there's no chance of a raise this year, and deadlines loom
- what happens? Probably too late to find out your "culture" was hedonism etc.
as everyone flies out the door, resume in hand.

------
tjmaxal
Medeus ex extremitus or "the ends define the middle"

What is Normal is by definition defined by what is not normal.

~~~
tjmaxal
sorry if my Latin is awful btw

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freejoe76
Side note: I think "platitude" implies "meaningless."

~~~
stcredzero
"Meaningless platitude" has lost all of its currency.

;) for the humor impaired.

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dannyr
This thread can't be any more appropriate to my current situation at work.

We are defining our culture but not all of the employees are on the same page.

We're still trying to figure out the best way to do it. I actually do not want
to try too hard to convince people to accept a particular type of culture.
It's either you like it or you don't.

A company should only keep those people that fits its culture.

~~~
hackinthebochs
>A company should only keep those people that fits its culture.

This is where I get nervous when people start talking about "company culture".
It will inevitably lead to this. Whatever happened to hiring people that can
do the job, hopefully well? If the job requires that they have an "outgoing
personality", like some sort of salesmen, then the requirement that they can
do the job will be all you need.

When you start weeding people out based on your completely arbitrary idea of
what the company "culture" should be, I think that becomes a problem. This is
only one step above race and sex based discrimination. Personality based
discrimination should not be allowed (with the obvious caveat that you should
be allowed to fire people with toxic personalities).

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scottporad
Excellent, excellent, excellent! Reminds me of a tweet from yesterday
(<http://twitter.com/scottporad/status/15799876237>):

quote from @benhuh, "culture is shorthand for the attitude people have at
work".

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mkramlich
In my work experience I've noticed a positive correlation between employers
that _told_ me what their company culture was (especially via folders of
documents, and wall signs) and employers that had an _unpleasant_ , _stiff_ ,
and _hypocritical_ company culture.

The employers that didn't have an HR department, and/or didn't tell me what
their culture was beforehand tended to end up having nicer cultures. Go
figure.

~~~
loewenskind
They have to tell you because you couldn't possibly arrive at that conclusion
on your own (especially since it isn't true).

