We Don’t Do That Here - 5 Lessons on Culture

Much (too much?) has been written on company culture. I want to contribute my insights from building the team at Proletariat over ten years. For more great info on culture you should check out Ben Horowitz’s book or look at the talk I gave at GDC 2022. 

Defining Culture

Culture, as I perceive it, consists of two parts:

1. Shared Aspiration

The simplest definition of a Shared Aspiration is that it is the way you and your team see the world and their role in it. It is a combination of vision, mission, and values. 

• Vision: What the team hopes to achieve or become

• Mission: The purpose of the team

• Values: The core principles that guide the journey

  2. Habits/Standards/Norms

This encompasses the behaviors and practices your team adopts to realize the vision and achieve their mission. It is the embodiment of the team’s values in their daily actions and decisions.

Five Key Lessons on Culture

1. Define Your Culture or It Will Define You

Cultures are grown, not built. That doesn’t mean you and your team should not define a blueprint. As a leader, you should boldly articulate the culture you want to be a part of and ensure it is well understood across the team. A successful culture is one that the team is proud of.

Defining culture is not a one time exercise but a constant process. As a team grows it is common for individuals or groups to interpret parts of the culture differently. If this is not unified, it can split a culture into several (often contradictory) subcultures or redefine parts of the culture for the entire team. I have seen this happen organically, but I have also seen examples where core values are weaponized by being taken to extremes. When this happens, leadership must clarify the definition they intended and get buy-in from the team that the meaning is well understood.

2. Everyone is Responsible for the Culture

Cultures are communal. They are cultivated over time within a group of people. Growing and maintaining a strong culture is the responsibility of the entire team, not just that of leadership. Team members should not only understand and uphold the culture, but realize that they contribute to it. The actions they take, the way they communicate, how the team defines good work, what the team chooses to incentivize and celebrate, are all part of what creates a culture.

If a team member feels uncomfortable contributing to the culture, it is likely because they either do not agree with the Shared Aspiration or they see a mismatch between the team’s stated standards and how they actually act. This is not a sustainable or healthy situation for the individual or the team. Either the team needs to evolve the culture or the individual needs to move on.

3. Culture is Determined by the Rules You Enforce

If you’re not actively pruning your culture, it will grow wild. Cultural norms are mostly social–a breach of culture is often not illegal or clear grounds for firing. It is up to the team to actively police behavior that goes against the culture. If you observe a deviation from your cultural standards and don't address it, you inadvertently set a new standard.

Enforcing rules may seem obvious but this is the most difficult part of maintaining a culture. Fixing a major cultural faux pas is easy. It is much harder to fight off culture creep where teams get lax on their own standards and eventually drift into behaviors they would have never tolerated. An example is a senior developer with a long tenure on the team who misses a deadline. The team lead gives this developer a free pass because they have hit fifty deadlines before this one. However, a new developer that just joined the team doesn’t know that and now sees a culture where missing deadlines is normal.

4. Culture Can and Should Change

Changing culture is not a bad thing nor a sign that there is a problem. As companies evolve, the Shared Aspiration is bound to change. As a team scales, the habits that got you to your current point may not be the ones that will get you to your next destination. Don’t be afraid to update your culture when it suits you and your team. Ensure that when you do make changes, the team understands the reason for the change and accepts the new standards

Like many startups, Proletariat’s initial culture put more value on hard work and hitting deadlines than it did on maintaining work-life balance. As we grew, we worked to shift our culture to still value hard work but ensure it was sustainable for the team. An example of this occurred when we had an employee who pulled back-to-back all-nighters to hit a deadline. In our early culture we heartily celebrated this person for putting in so much effort. We knew if we celebrated his behavior this time it would communicate to our team, especially the new team members, that the way to get recognized is to sacrifice your work-life balance. We thanked the person for their effort and made it clear that they should not be pulling all-nighters no matter how much it may help the company. This was a clear cultural change, and a difficult trade off, because our past culture of celebrating hard work above all had significantly contributed to our success so far. However, we knew if we wanted to retain our top talent and not burn people out, we had to make a change.

5. Hire for Vision Fit, Fire for Habit Miss

It is common for hiring managers to consider “culture fit” when they are interviewing a new candidate. I prefer to focus on Shared Aspiration fit. Ask questions about how the candidate sees the world, what their values are, and what motivates them. Once a new candidate joins the team, train them up on the habits, standards, and norms just as much as you do on the mission, vision, and values. As stated above, if they cannot meet the standards of the culture, and you let them stay, you have created a new cultural standard. It doesn’t matter if they believe in the vision and mission of the company, their behavior will alter the culture that you, and the rest of the team, are growing.

Final Thoughts

Cultivating a vibrant and effective culture is a dynamic and continuous process. It is often up to leaders to define a culture with the help of their team but it is the obligation of everyone on that team to reinforce that culture. Your culture hinges on clear definition, universal understanding, rigorous enforcement, and constant evolution. Culture is all about the people, so choose those who align with your vision and will uphold your standards.