

Why Culture Should Be Your Central Focus - zabbyz
http://founderdating.com/why-culture-should-be-your-central-focus/

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tehwalrus
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.)

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theorique
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?

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tehwalrus
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.)

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davekashen
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...]

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

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

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

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

[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/culture)

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SkyMarshal
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/](http://awesomeculture.com/)

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thomasknoll
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?

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pvonp
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.

