Company culture is shared values and beliefs. From these shared values and beliefs emerges the way, the how, the company operates. From the how emerges the results of the company, the what1.
Your company culture is made up of all the existing habits and norms that each person brings to work with them every day2.
âRitualsâ in work create a sense of belonging. Participating in the ritual makes you feel as though you are part of the group3. Rituals are silly or fun things that are a part of your culture and team practices. Charity Majors gives a good set of examples in this blog post. Majo provides another example of Amazonâs door desks being a symbol of frugality and ingenuity within Amazon.
- Sink then swim policy. At Microsoft at one point people are loaded down with so much responsibility that they sink. Then have the chance to rest up, to analyze, and modify there own performance. Then they are loaded up again the same amount of responsibility4.
- Driving Culture Change
- High Standards
- Leadership during Crisis
Hospitality
Hospitality is the extent your are welcoming of outsiders, those who are different from you. One way to think about this in a work context is to treat every new hire like theyâve been there the whole time5.
1. Sinek, S. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. (Portfolio, London, 2011).
2. Bastow, J. The Culture Formula. (2021).
3. Majors, C. Rituals for Engineering Teams. (2022).
4. DeMarco, T. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency. (Currency, New York; London, 2002).
5. Yein, K. Cultivating Hospitality. (2022).