Monthly Culture Inspiration: December 2016

Every month, I post three types of culture inspiration: a visual, a book, and an article to bookmark.

Visual: The Hogwarts Guide to Company Culture

This visual combines two of my favorite things: company culture and Harry Potter. Venngage (a website that lets anyone create beautiful infographics) sorted 52 of their favorite tech companies into the four Hogwarts houses. To read more about the criteria and sorting process, click here.

Book: The Workbook: Redesigning Nine to Five

This gem of a book comes from Pekka Pohjakallio and Saku Tuominen who run 925 Design, a Finnish consultancy that helps companies create effective workplaces. The Workbook: Redesigning Nine to Five aims to bring joy back to work. The authors spent a year conducting design research within nine Finnish workplaces, and came away with advice and tools for changing workplace habits. For example, they recommend scheduling internal meetings at a default length of 45 minutes, instead of an hour, to allow for transition and break times between meetings. They also recommend grouping meetings and work time based on the type of work (Quick individual work, Slow individual work, Quick group work, Slow group work); having one day a week without meetings; and creating a space for employees to take brief naps. The authors write about a trip they took to a Chinese company where "the whole place goes dark and quiet between one and two in the afternoon. They roll out mats, take off their shoes, get out their pillows, and start snoring! It’s really cozy, like a daycare! The foreign consultants are the only ones stumbling around in the dark."

Article to Bookmark: Organizational Blueprints for Success

I love culture typologies (as evidenced by the Hogwarts typology above). Here's another incredibly helpful typology: organizational blueprints for culture. 

Two professors at Stanford's business school wanted to find out how to create a company culture that encouraged trust between employees. They came up with a framework of five culture categories among tech startups in Silicon Valley.

Here are the five types: "Star" culture prefer to hire talent from top schools and give their employees lots of autonomy. "Engineering" cultures apply an engineering mindset to every part of the organization (think: Facebook). "Bureaucracy" cultures have many layers of middle management and have regular rituals to communicate the leaders' values to the employees. "Autocracy" cultures are similar to bureaucracy cultures except the CEO or founder has more influence. "Commitment" cultures expect employees to stay loyal to the company for longer, and generally spend more money on HR and talent earlier on, to make sure they get the culture right. The professors categorized and started tracking 167 tech startups in 1994, and followed them for a decade to see which ones survived. The results were surprising: the companies with Commitment cultures were the most successful. In fact, none of the commitment culture startups failed. Why? Because the Commitment culture companies articulated "enduring overarching goals" and "created a powerful sense of belonging." In essence, the founders of Commitment cultures "wanted to build the kind of company where people would only leave when they retire." And even if people did leave earlier, the company still benefited from the initial intention. Startup founders take note! Which culture type is your company on track to become?

The typology was originally published in a fairly dense academic paper, "Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Startups." But, here is a much shorter summary from MIT Sloan. 

Monthly Culture Inspiration: November 2016

Every month, I post three types of culture inspiration: a visual, a book, and an article to bookmark.

Visual: 6 Games To Envision The Culture You Want

Describing an organization's culture is challenging. Using visuals and games gets beyond the superficial and generic to what’s uniquely true about your organization. Stephanie Gioia from design strategy firm XPLANE collected six games you can play with your organization to map your current or desired culture.

I particularly like the Mascot Game:

Book: Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Transforming Business from the Inside Out

Many of America’s largest companies, such as General Mills, Target, Google, and Aetna, have built extensive programs to foster mindful practices at work. New York Times reporter David Gelles' new book Mindful Work provides in depth examples of exactly HOW these mindfulness rituals work inside organizations. There are so many good practices to borrow from in your own organization. My favorite example is from clothing retailer Eileen Fisher:

"Fisher began offering yoga, Pilates, and mindfulness classes to her employees. But she didn’t stop there. In an effort to bring a more mindful culture into the office, she installed a pair of chimes in every room of company headquarters. Before each meeting, someone rings the chimes and everyone in the room sits together in silence for a few minutes, checking in with their bodies and minds, and bringing a sense of clarity to the start of the meeting. “It’s hard to concretely say what a difference it’s made, but the feeling of connection is amazing,” Fisher said. “That minute to stop is powerful. Everyone is coming from their different worlds and different agendas, and this brings us together.”

"The company also adheres to what it calls the “Circle Way.” Whenever possible, meetings are held in a circle, rather than at a traditional conference table with a leader sitting at the head. The belief is that there “is a leader in every chair.” Like other mindful meeting techniques, the Circle Way allows introverts and more junior employees to have a voice. At the company’s World Café meetings, people from all over the company come together and brainstorm ideas, irrespective of station or expertise. Fisher has won the trust of her employees by setting a good example, but also by taking good care of them. At least 10 percent of annual after-tax profits are distributed to staff. And in recent years, Fisher has been transferring ownership of the company to workers through an employee stock ownership plan."

"When it comes to the company’s impact on the world, mindfulness has made Fisher more sensitive to environmental degradation. In recent years she has made sustainability, already a value of the company, a top priority, shifting manufacturing processes and changing the sourcing of materials. In 2012, Eileen Fisher changed the way its silk in China was dyed, reducing the use of chemicals by 45 percent and water usage by 25 percent. And eventually, mindfulness led Fisher to reevaluate her company’s overseas production facilities. Now, all full-time employees in China receive entrepreneurial training, so they can, it is hoped, start their own businesses, rather than keep working in a factory."

Article to Bookmark: The Atlassian Team Playbook

Atlassian makes software development and collaboration tools. It published the Atlassian Team Playbook, a "no-bullshit guide to unleashing your team's potential."

Working as a team is really hard. There are thousands of books about the power of teams, but much fewer tools for how to actually improve the way your team works together. Atlassian originally developed this playbook to help its own teams work better, and they've now published it for the public. You'll find step-by-step guides for tracking your team's health and a series of "plays" to help strengthen your team.