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What defines a great company culture?

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Re: What defines a great company culture?

#51

Post by nabla9 »

watwut wrote: post #41
nabla9 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my experience. In fact it's the opposite. I suspect that incorporating values can work, but it's not universal. Best company cultures usually concentrate on good work, not values. Results to the society don't matter when people get things done. I think most companies should try to be as amoral as possible outside the purpose of the company. People choose to work in different companies based on their values…

> Results to the society don't matter when people get things done If the results to the society are negative, I prefer if you dont get things done. Because it would negatively harm me too.

That's different discussion.

Acknowledging that people can have high morale, and deep sense of purpose and fun when doing stuff that is net negative for the society is important if you want to improve society.

When people associate causing harm with low morale, it distorts what people think is acceptable. "But my work is meaningful to me and we have a greatest team in the world".

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#52

Post by qznc »

ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

A company culture is great if it fits the company strategy. In other words, the company should value internally what the customers like about the company. It might high quality or agility or efficiency or whatever.

If a company changes its strategy, the culture can be too strong. You can see that a lot where established hardware companies struggle to adopt more of a software culture. A culture can be too weak to support the company strategy in any meaningful way. That is a competitive disadvantage because there is a lot more need for communication and coordination.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#53

Post by cosmodisk »

There are lots of variations but my list is this:

No hypocrisy ( you all need to work hard while I'm only working 2h/day)

No superstars (high performers are fine but no high performing jerks)

No gossip

Fair and easy to understand reward structure

Things aren't made difficult deliberately ( 6 layers approval process)

Laziness and poor attitudes aren't tolerated.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#54

Post by bluefirebrand »

cosmodisk wrote: post #53

There are lots of variations but my list is this: No hypocrisy ( you all need to work hard while I'm only working 2h/day) No superstars (high performers are fine but no high performing jerks) No gossip Fair and easy to understand reward structure Things aren't made difficult deliberately ( 6 layers approval process) Laziness and poor attitudes aren't tolerated.

A big one for me these days is "No pressure to attend non-mandatory outside-of-work-hours outings like after work happy hours".

I don't really drink, I don't like bars, I often like to spend my evenings with my SO or my friends, not my coworkers. I don't like being made to feel like I am "not a team player" for not wanting to participate in "team building" outside of work hours.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#55

Post by riffraff »

EGreg wrote: post #45
ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

This kind of comment is underrated. A lot of advice is really survivorship bias descriptions! Relatively useful: “All you need is access to capital, or a lot of stuff that can only be done with capital, and that’s what you’re missing, girl.” Not useful at all: “What you really need is this cargo-cult aspect that the successful companies have years after their success, but also tons of failed companies have that we ne…

"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" is a very good book on what makes companies great, and a lot of the points echo this twitter thread, especially "cult-like culture".

It's also very interesting because quite a few of the "visionary companies" have failed in the 30 years since it was written.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#57

Post by bluefirebrand »

strathmeyer wrote: post #47

As an advanced programmer it always seemed I was getting rejected for jobs because of 'culture' because I wouldn't put up with their abusive environments.

Right. Say anything in an interview to suggest you won't work 60 hour weeks every week and you're suddenly not a good culture fit.

Workaholism is a real problem in North America I guess

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#58

Post by dustinmoris »

ysavir wrote: post #29

This thread isn't really clarifying or defining what a "great" culture constitutes, and it strongly suffers from survivorship bias. The author is pointing out that a necessary ingredient (among others omitted) is strong culture--which is something of a tautology. Of course a company with great culture has a strong culture; if it were a weak culture, it wouldn't be pervasive or definitive of the company. A company wit…

Agreed!

Microsoft is a great example of a company which had...

a) many cultural shifts over time

b) still is a company with many different sub team cultures

...and regardless of where they were on the spectrum they have always managed to sell Windows, Office and SQL Server very well.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#59

Post by 7thaccount »

riffraff wrote: post #55
EGreg wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of comment is underrated. A lot of advice is really survivorship bias descriptions! Relatively useful: “All you need is access to capital, or a lot of stuff that can only be done with capital, and that’s what you’re missing, girl.” Not useful at all: “What you really need is this cargo-cult aspect that the successful companies have years after their success, but also tons of failed companies have that we ne…

"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" is a very good book on what makes companies great, and a lot of the points echo this twitter thread, especially "cult-like culture". It's also very interesting because quite a few of the "visionary companies" have failed in the 30 years since it was written.

Same with Good to Great (I think that was also written by the same guy). Some of those companies applauded are still doing well and others are embroiled in scandals of various sorts.

Re: What defines a great company culture?

#60

Post by ebiester »

papito wrote: post #28

You hire the right people and they make the culture. Culture is NOT enforced. It is simply the reflection of you as a good or bad hire-er.

I once worked at a place with a strong, great culture. They acquired another place with a strong, great culture. The cultures were diametrically opposed. It turned into an awful culture for both.

People find like-cultured people. Don't hire someone who is a mob programming advocate into a culture that thrives on individual work, or vice versa. Don't hire someone who wants a completely transparent culture into Amazon.

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