To build culture - create shocking rules

#18 - 01.17.21

Brother -

We've both worked for Dad and his Dental Lab. One of the things that always stuck with me is his rule that you must say hello to everyone when you arrive. This works better for a small business (<20 people) than a corporate, but you could see a similar rule created within a team at a larger organization.

I was not too fond of his rule. It made me uncomfortable… what was this person's name again? Trust me, you learn people's names very quickly when you need to wish them good morning every day. Soon the simple, “Good morning, Gene” turns into some small talk, and the office, in turn, becomes more inviting.

What Dad created here is a shocking rule to enforce an inclusive culture. His Lab is a 2nd generation small family business that's been around for almost 70 years. Most of his employees have been there longer than you've been alive, and Gene, who I mentioned before - was there even before Dad! I can't even remember the last time anyone has left Dad's company to do something similar somewhere else. 

As you embark on your corporate life, you'll realize a few things. First, mission statements and cultural values are mostly bullshit. These are crafted by corporate communications teams that make them so vague - it literally means nothing. 

"Respect, Integrity, Communication, and Excellence." 

- Enron's Cultural Values

Even in my current company, the new CEO "refreshed" the mission statement, but then incorrectly transcribed it into our internal directories. It's been three years, and no one has said anything, because I don't think anyone has noticed.

What actually matters is the actions you take (or do not take) in determining your team or company's culture. The best is when the whole company up to the CEO is aligned on the same set of principles and actions. In reality though, many organizations are filled with micro-cultures amongst their teams.

A few close colleagues and I created a rule of anonymous Q&A for our monthly All-Hands with our teams. Essentially anyone can ask any question anonymously, and others can up-vote or down-vote it. We used to always have this at a global level, but over time the new leadership regimes took it away. As a result, employees resorted to bitching behind leadership’s backs either in real life, or on an anonymous social network called Blind, which was created for this very purpose.

Our logic? We'd like to have people ask us tough questions in front of hundreds of employees rather than bitch behind our backs. As leaders, it also holds us more accountable for our actions, and it prevents resentment from building up within the org. Without anonymous questions - people are too afraid to ask something hard due to a fear of retaliation from management or alienation from peers.

So think through the rules, actions, or non-actions that are defining your current team’s culture. What do you like and what would you change?

Let me leave you with a quote and a question.

"A culture is not a set of beliefs. It's a set of actions." 

-Bushido

What's your company's mission statement?

Enjoy the dance,

Nate