The best book I’ve read on how to build a winning company culture.
What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz.
Here are 14 actionable principles from the book that I share with all my founders:
1/ Start today.
No matter whether it’s just you and your cofounder, or a team of 50, designing your culture is always relevant and necessary!
2/ Don’t strive for perfection.
Your culture is a compass, not a destination.
No matter the size of your company, there will always be violations.
The point is to have a clear North and get closer to it every single day.
3/ Get inspired by others but don’t copy their culture.
Draw inspiration from other companies, but never try to fit their practices into your culture.
For your culture to be vibrant and strong, it has to come from the blood, from who you really are.
4/ Be yourself.
If you are not yourself, even you won’t follow you!
And remember that not everyone will like you…
But trying to get everyone to like you will make things worse.
5/ Be yourself but think carefully about your flaws.
Because you don’t want to program your flaws into your culture.
Create systems and rules for these flaws.
Do you love to talk on and on in team meetings? Demand a tightly phrased written agenda for all your meetings.
6/ Create a Shocking Rule
When Facebook was trying to catch up with MySpace, Zuckerberg created a rule: Move fast and break things.
Break things? What???
It must create a WTF reaction.. which means people won’t forget.
Everyone will have a clear direction.
7/ Align your culture with your mission.
Apple builds the most beautiful, perfectly designed products in the world.
Could frugality ever be an Apple value?
That would be counterproductive!
Apple’s decision to spend $5 billion on its sleek headquarters was the right one. 😉
8/ Allow room for subcultures.
It’s impossible to have a company where everyone is perfectly aligned with a single and cohesive culture.
Your engineers may like to “dress casually” and that’s fine—but your salespeople may have to “dress to kill”.
9/ Be specific and explicit.
“Our value is integrity.”
Okay, but what does integrity mean?
Does it clarify with precision how people should behave?
Unless you can provide specific examples of how one can practice integrity, better design your culture with a different value.
10/ Come up with something unique about yourself.
If you’re in Silicon Valley, there’s no need to make casual dress a virtue, because that’s the default behaviour.
But if you’re a technology company and you want everyone to wear a suit and tie, that will define your culture.
11/ Be flexible.
Cultural rules often become bloated sacred cows.
Everyone tiptoes around them, trying to respect the culture—and then the cows topple and crush you!
As strategies evolve, circumstances change, and you learn new things, rules can and must change too.
12/ Walk the Talk.
“Do as I say, not as I do” never works.
Your people will not practice the values you have on your website, they will do as you do.
13/ Think hard about your employee cultural orientation.
An new employee’s first day at work makes a lasting impression.
People learn more about what it takes to succeed in your company on that day than on any other.
Don’t let that first impression be wrong or accidental.
14/ Make decisions that demonstrate priorities.
A situation when you’re faced with a tough decision is a great opportunity to demonstrate your cultural values.
Use those situations to send a clear signal about who you are and what you value.