Why Facebook Should Value Values

Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg in particular, has been in the news a lot lately. A couple of weeks ago Facebook's CEO even testified before Congress. It all stemmed from yet another misstep that put Facebook users at risk — not financial risk, but at risk of being misinformed, exploited, and used via propaganda.

By now, the breach has been well publicized. A very short and simplified version of the story is that Cambridge Analytica obtained Facebook user data in a somewhat deceptive way by using the open platform that the network makes available to app developers. The data was pulled from Facebook users who shared personal details and preferences through gamified content - in this case it was a ‘personality test'. All seemingly innocent and playful interactions. Cambridge Analytica then used this data to target and potentially sway individuals during the 2016 US Presidential election.

The thing is, all of this could have been avoided. Not by some cutting-edge technology or genius algorithm. It could have been avoided if Facebook cared about its users. If the people inside Facebook were expected to think about the people who use Facebook. But that isn’t the case.

Facebook’s Not So Illustrious Beginnings

In the early 2000s, Mark Zuckerberg had a scrappy idea — and a fairly sexist one at that. His connective platform started in a dorm room, as a website for Zuckerberg and his friends to determine what women were hot, or not. They’d post pictures and users (dorm buddies) would vote on the attractiveness of the women in the photos.

From there, it evolved into a visual catalog of all students (a .edu email address was required for access) - it was 'the Facebook'. It quickly morphed from that into an “open to all” network that looked like what we know now. Just Facebook.

So there Mark Zuckerberg was, with an idea that turned into a company, and no one taught him how to run it or how to be a leader. He had to figure it out. And while he’s a smart guy, he didn’t nail that part.

So What Does Facebook Actually Stand for Now?

I give Facebook my data. I do it knowingly when I intentionally share parts of my life there, so I wanted to understand what they stand for. I wondered, what are Facebook’s values? So I went looking.

I found an article in which Zuckerberg called company values a “professional utopia.” I actually agree that many companies use values in that way, essentially as marketing speak. He goes on to describe qualities like honesty and respect as table stakes, and therefore not unique values. But then, how does Facebook do things differently? Well, Facebook’s “values” are actionable. Their first value statement was “Move fast and break things” and has now shifted to “Move fast with stable infrastructure.”

As I thought about that statement, it occurred to me that it’s actually not a values statement at all. It could be a directional statement, or an intention, or maybe an energy. And it doesn’t take into account the people doing the work or the people they are serving. In fact, people aren’t really considered in that statement at all. I find that fascinating.

That statement encourages — in fact requires — production. Facebook focused on and valued producing. And yet nowhere in their statement or the way in which they talk about that statement do they consider who they were producing for. They didn’t consider what Facebook meant to those people or what promises Facebook was making in the context of moving quickly.

What if Zuckerberg was Thoughtful About Values from the Beginning?

I’m curious about what could have happened if Facebook had been thoughtful about what they stood for back when they had seven employees in 2004. I understand that when you’re seven people, values feel obvious. I have personally been there.

When you’re seven people, you can look around the room and see what you have in common with the people around you. In that context, it’s easy to focus on “moving quickly” because you all get each other, you share food and space, and you can understand what everyone is doing. What Zuckerberg describes as table stakes — honesty, being decent — are controllable in a small setting. If someone isn’t being decent, you can feel it and remove them.

But values are the thing that hold people and culture together as you scale up. You invite people who reflect those values to participate in your organization. You create a culture that reflects what you intended with the values. You create an environment that mirrors your values so when you grow to a 25,000-person company, what you intended is indeed what continues.

When values are created thoughtfully and enforced throughout the organization, they aren’t utopian, they’re guideposts.

Values are something companies can hold up to show what they stand for. If all Facebook ever intended was to move fast in a stable environment, then they were never thinking about people at all. One could assume they weren't thinking about how their internal people would act when making decisions about whether companies accessing user data were doing it ethically. Because Facebook’s value statement told those decision-makers to just focus on speed, not whether users would feel betrayed or exploited.

And now here they are.

What now?

Looking around, it seems like Facebook’s value statement is really, “Move quickly at all costs.” As they expand into biometrics and as we keep sharing seemingly endless information with them, it’s incredibly important they create a value statement that includes people. A statement that actually says what they stand for. What do they intend to do with all our personal data, what are the limitations? Moving quickly doesn’t tell me where it ends. It seems like we’re struggling with Facebook not because we don’t know where our data goes. It feels like we’re struggling because we don't know where they stand. No one in Congress asked that. I think it’s time we do.

Technology can be used for good and we — the users — have the power to insist on that. 25,000 people are working at Facebook trying to figure out what we’ll buy, who we love, and where we go, and not one of them has a value set to point to. So, the billions of users are just hoping they do the right thing.

Zuckerberg needs to create values and culture reflective of those. Culture isn’t the stuff, it’s you, and the people around you, and what you stand for.

Values don’t have to be utopian if you demand they’re true.

That’s what could save Facebook, and Zuckerberg.