Building a Culture Worth Joining – Part 1

Building company cultures worth joining and working for with unabated loyalty takes a lot of work and thought. We just held an Aleph.bet event on this topic and we thought it would be worthwhile to share our thoughts over two blog posts. This is the first post.

Startup culture (loose definition) – The overall set of core values, principles, beliefs or just made-up rules within your company. It’s somewhat abstract, yet it’s one of the most important drivers that have to be set in order to deliver long-term, sustainable success. It is too often discounted as a fluffy component of the business that belongs to someone else (“let HR do it”). In reality, it’s the founders’ job to ignite lasting culture. While your culture is intangible and you can’t always touch it or stare at it, you can definitely sense when you’re in the presence of a strong culture. It’s something people know they want to have; something they’d hate to lose. It’s a goal we all should strive for: Building a culture worth joining.

When it comes to determining the fundamentals of your culture and becoming a company (and a brand) that people are proud to work for, there are number of clichés you will come across and need to be aware of. Surprisingly enough, falling prey to those won’t necessarily be a bad thing. What I’ve learned about this topic in the last few years is there are many culture clichés out there (“celebrate everything”, “move fast and break things”) but the biggest, cheesiest cliché of them all is they’re all true. Of course, they overstate the case here and there (clichés after all), but as long as you’re investing the time to understand what’s behind them, they’re true as steel.

Hopefully these observations and fine tunings will inspire you to turn your startup’s culture to something worth joining. The first four focus on more tangible markers of company culture.

Cliché #1: Feedback is a Gift

Random feedback actually sucks. It’s only honest, direct and continuous feedback that could be viewed (eventually) as a gift. Strong employee engagement is closely aligned with the ability to give real feedback in a helpful way but in reality great feedback is often hard to find. We all want to know the truth, even when it’s difficult to hear but we seldom look on those occasions with much joy or pleasure. That’s why true feedback is actually more similar to a muscle than a nicely wrapped gift under a Christmas tree. We need to work on that muscle and master the art of giving open honest and direct feedback. Give it early, tell it like-it-is and always be respectful (avoid shaming, focus on behaviour and assume everyone is doing their best). I believe the first time I experienced the captivated power of ongoing feedback was during the Zell Entrepreneurship Program, where Liat and the faculty told it to my face, every week. Those encounters could have become a source of anxiety had I not been guided to view them as critical feedback, which is truly a gift. Rather than being fearful of feedback, the best team members are comfortable receiving information about their behaviour from their manager, their peers and their subordinates. The correct perspective on feedback is to view it as a boost of reliable data that can help all of us make better-informed decisions, promote our company values and foster accountability. Be generous with your advice and fearless in your demand of self-criticism. When was the last time you wrapped up a meeting with an open question, inviting feedback? “Was this session helpful”? “Would you do anything differently”?

Lastly, when you’re on the receiving end (ideally that’s often), “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” (Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People). It’s important to remember it’s not all about you and that listening is very
powerful. While Mark Suster’s Crocodile story (“you know, big mouth and no ears”) is originally around “Selling” I think it’s very applicable for  feedback. Learning how to improve and opening up to feedback is highly correlated with selling – your chances are much lower if you’re talking rather than actively listening. We should all consider shutting up once in a while and just listen (note to self).

Cliché #2: Display Your Values in the Lobby

Many companies have nice sounding value statements displayed in their lobby, these often include “Integrity”, “Respect”, “Transparency”, “Excellence”, “Unity” (more stand alone, shallow words in this full “list of values”). The actual company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding ones, are shown in the hallways by who gets rewarded, promoted or let go. Bring values to life in your products, gatherings, communication and people.

A great example of this comes from HoneyBook’s values: People come first, We go the extra mile, We love what we do, We are fearless, We are family. If you’ve visited HoneyBook’s HQ, you know these are more than colourful posters on the wall. People come first is my favourite, maybe because I know for a fact that Oz Alon (their fearless CEO) values everyone’s opinion and work ethic. From data analysts to community managers, they all strive to understand who their customers are. It’s that important to them to provide a seamless experience both inside and outside the product. Those values are the DNA of the company and are in large part created by the founders – not by their words so much as their actions.

Cliché #3: Celebrate Every Little Victory

The pace of change these days is just staggering – and most companies run at the speed of light in order to fight the good fight. While doing so we often forget to celebrate our victories – both big and small. You should totally celebrate the first 100,000 users, the first big check, crushing your sales goal, employees’ b-days or anniversaries and even Columbus Day, if you’re into that. Celebrations are lots of fun. The difference though is that this ritual shouldn’t be just about grabbing a beer, throwing a party or “enjoying the journey.” Rituals are also not about preparing the team for the rough patch you’re about to hit and the bad times around the corner. Celebrating everything is about reminding the team that goal setting actually works and that they’re part of a data-driven organization that actually cares about goals, metrics and the rigid process in between. Setting challenging goals matters and hitting them matters just as much. Repeated and consistent successes should be recognized and underscored. It’s the greatest motivator for reaching the next successes. Regularly celebrating wins guarantees progress is felt as much as possible and becomes the main driver for hitting future goals. Another important caveat to consider is around failures. It’s just as important to “celebrate” failure, there’s still a process to recognize and learnings to potentially leverage.

Cliché #4: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast 

Shockingly, I have heard people actually use this line or they debate whether Peter Drucker actually said something this cheesy. However, culture does eat strategy and at some point, you will experience or prove it. At some point in your company’s journey, things will spiral out of control and you’ll experience a completely random and chaotic event that will become a make or break moment. This is true for every organization, but especially for early-stage tech companies where the pace of change is unrelenting and your team is, likely, less experienced. The question is: Will your team prevail? How are you going to tackle these unknowns and do you have the cultural superglue to make it through? Culture is the environment in which your roadmap thrives or dies in spite of or because of the bumps in the road. You can build the right products, the right marketing materials, the right sales pipeline, the right technology, but first build a culture worth joining.

These are the first four clichés that I thought deserve tweaking on the path to building great company culture. What else would you add? Or are there other examples you had in mind as you read these posts?