I will write a post referencing yours and I will title it: "Company culture is bullshit" (or something like that... I'm on the train right now, so I'm not thinking that hard)
The key topics will be:
1) companies aren't successful because of their "culture", they're successful because of the products and services they provide, the profit they make and how much of those profits they redistribute to the (small, typically) subset of deserving employees they have.
2) someone will say "Yes, that's what I mean by culture", but I will respond "No". 'Company culture' is a made-up word that means nothing, and it was created because of the "feel good" tendency we have been increasingly experiencing in corporate environments in the last couple of decades, where "feelings" are more important than performance, "language" is more important than facts, "targets" are more important than reality.
3) Executives should spend more time on increasing profits by delivering better products and services, than running initiatives about "company culture". If your company is killing it, and (important!) is able to meritocratically reward its employees because of it (remember: employees are WHY your company is killing it), then nobody will give a royal f*ck about company culture. Nobody will bring it up. You, as an executive, should not bring it up. Otherwise you may create 'yoghurt men': people that work for killer organizations but believe they are entitled to free fermented milk.
4) "Come on, The Management Consultant. Surely it isn't all about money". Of course, yes it isn't all about money, but also yes it is all about money. Anything that is not about money becomes relevant when the money part is taken care of. Like, massively underpaying your workers but designing an amazing "company culture" where people can come to the office wearing t-shirts (or not come to the office at all, ever) and can get free apples, isn't going to save you long-term. You are running a mediocre company and, as soon as your employees will realize that, they will jump ship for the next organization that gives them a 20% salary bump (yes, yes, you know it's true).
5) So, do we need to design a "company culture"? No, we don't. Company cultures (if we want to give a term to this thing) emerge. Leaders comunicate and act, people work, the organization delivers and, 'suddenly', a certain type of culture is formed. To change that culture, change the way you communicate, act, work, deliver. Don't give free yoghurt. Don't put ping-ping tables in the hallway so I can hear fcking balls bouncing as I'm having a phone call. Don't wear an ATARI t-shirt (I mean, they're awesome but a shirt is nice too).
I LOVE this outline and appreciate you sharing it in the comments of this piece! I want to address each point 1 by 1 b/c I think you'll have a banging article here and strike at BS narratives surrounding the yogurt men:
1 - Completely agree. It's funny the narratives that pop up with compensation vs culture - every individual I've ever spoken too has wanted more 1. upward mobility, 2. money, 3. ability to develop meaningful skills / projects, and 4. balance - so real "culture" - the kind that meaningfully impacts your employees / teams is just a decision of trade offs between these functions
2 - Agreed. I think there is a place for 'company culture', but it's a learned and demonstrated collection of beliefs and behaviors, not the playroom at McDonald's. I think Google did a lot of damage when they opened the Googolplex, to themselves included. A big part of this shift, might be the need to replace the idea of a third place, which a lot of people are missing as sprawl grows and community erodes, particularly in western cultures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
3 - Same page - seen SO many people create issues by proactively bringing up things that weren't issues that just became time and $ sucks
4 - Literally so true. It is about money. The narrative shift that making profits is a crime or wrong or immoral shows a fundamental childishness about how the world actually works and why companies exist. And agree that culture is often a synthetic replacement for comp. Crazy.
5. LOL fucking LOVE the ping pong example. Not sure if you watch Veep, but there's an episode where they visit a tech corp, Clovis (ie Google). 2 of the team members are playing ping pong as the CFO shows the Veep around, and the CFO has a brief aneurism / mask of sanity slip because of how annoying the sound is. A button down vs 20% higher salary does not sound like a bad trade to me, but what do I know.
Appreciate the comment! lmk if you want to chat any further about that article - excited to read it!
I will write a post referencing yours and I will title it: "Company culture is bullshit" (or something like that... I'm on the train right now, so I'm not thinking that hard)
The key topics will be:
1) companies aren't successful because of their "culture", they're successful because of the products and services they provide, the profit they make and how much of those profits they redistribute to the (small, typically) subset of deserving employees they have.
2) someone will say "Yes, that's what I mean by culture", but I will respond "No". 'Company culture' is a made-up word that means nothing, and it was created because of the "feel good" tendency we have been increasingly experiencing in corporate environments in the last couple of decades, where "feelings" are more important than performance, "language" is more important than facts, "targets" are more important than reality.
3) Executives should spend more time on increasing profits by delivering better products and services, than running initiatives about "company culture". If your company is killing it, and (important!) is able to meritocratically reward its employees because of it (remember: employees are WHY your company is killing it), then nobody will give a royal f*ck about company culture. Nobody will bring it up. You, as an executive, should not bring it up. Otherwise you may create 'yoghurt men': people that work for killer organizations but believe they are entitled to free fermented milk.
4) "Come on, The Management Consultant. Surely it isn't all about money". Of course, yes it isn't all about money, but also yes it is all about money. Anything that is not about money becomes relevant when the money part is taken care of. Like, massively underpaying your workers but designing an amazing "company culture" where people can come to the office wearing t-shirts (or not come to the office at all, ever) and can get free apples, isn't going to save you long-term. You are running a mediocre company and, as soon as your employees will realize that, they will jump ship for the next organization that gives them a 20% salary bump (yes, yes, you know it's true).
5) So, do we need to design a "company culture"? No, we don't. Company cultures (if we want to give a term to this thing) emerge. Leaders comunicate and act, people work, the organization delivers and, 'suddenly', a certain type of culture is formed. To change that culture, change the way you communicate, act, work, deliver. Don't give free yoghurt. Don't put ping-ping tables in the hallway so I can hear fcking balls bouncing as I'm having a phone call. Don't wear an ATARI t-shirt (I mean, they're awesome but a shirt is nice too).
With ❤️, Nick!!
I LOVE this outline and appreciate you sharing it in the comments of this piece! I want to address each point 1 by 1 b/c I think you'll have a banging article here and strike at BS narratives surrounding the yogurt men:
1 - Completely agree. It's funny the narratives that pop up with compensation vs culture - every individual I've ever spoken too has wanted more 1. upward mobility, 2. money, 3. ability to develop meaningful skills / projects, and 4. balance - so real "culture" - the kind that meaningfully impacts your employees / teams is just a decision of trade offs between these functions
2 - Agreed. I think there is a place for 'company culture', but it's a learned and demonstrated collection of beliefs and behaviors, not the playroom at McDonald's. I think Google did a lot of damage when they opened the Googolplex, to themselves included. A big part of this shift, might be the need to replace the idea of a third place, which a lot of people are missing as sprawl grows and community erodes, particularly in western cultures: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
3 - Same page - seen SO many people create issues by proactively bringing up things that weren't issues that just became time and $ sucks
4 - Literally so true. It is about money. The narrative shift that making profits is a crime or wrong or immoral shows a fundamental childishness about how the world actually works and why companies exist. And agree that culture is often a synthetic replacement for comp. Crazy.
5. LOL fucking LOVE the ping pong example. Not sure if you watch Veep, but there's an episode where they visit a tech corp, Clovis (ie Google). 2 of the team members are playing ping pong as the CFO shows the Veep around, and the CFO has a brief aneurism / mask of sanity slip because of how annoying the sound is. A button down vs 20% higher salary does not sound like a bad trade to me, but what do I know.
Appreciate the comment! lmk if you want to chat any further about that article - excited to read it!
My new go to reminder on company culture
Thank you!