Culture & Culture Fit

This really matters and must be taken seriously. It binds the members of an organization together. This encompasses the bundle of values, norms and rituals that are shared by people in an organization and govern the way they interaction with each other and with other stakeholders.

Values: Beliefs and ideas about what goals should be pursued and what behavior standards should be used to achieve these goals. What is morally okay, and what is not?
Norms: Guidelines and expectations that impose appropriate kinds of behavior on members of the organization. What behavior is rewarded?
Rituals: Rites, ceremonies and observances that serve to bind together members of the start-up. Is it all driven by sales, or do we celebrate learning? Weekly stand-ups etc.

Normally imprinted by the founders.

What makes a good team? Google commissioned it. Answer is 'psychological safety'. This arises when there is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (Edmondson 1999). A sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. A team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.

Example used is medical issues are not disclosed. People bring a work face to work and it made people want to hide who they are. The way to create this safety is to create an environment where people can shed their work face and bring their whole self to work. Where people share a deep story about who you are. Where people can have complicated conversations in the team: Who do we want to be? How do our teammates make us feel? We need mutual trust and independence and engage in these conversations. This also leads to a stronger adhesion within the group. Look into "cultural engineering" e.g. Astro Teller.

Normally the boss instills the goals, and has to incentivize or retaliate the creation of a strange, autocratic working hierarchy / dependency. The idea is asking employees to define their own audacious goals; ones they can only achieve 10% of the time, but not completely moon shot. If the employee defines it, there is a sense of pride, but beyond that, a sense of accountability beyond that because the entire team is listening. This changes the dynamic of its not the boss defining the goal for the employee, but rather the employee defining their own goal. This shifts the role of the "boss" to that of a "coach", working to facilitate the employee's goals. Meetings to see if more support is needed, and a support role helps employees to thrive.

How to Keep the Company Engaged

Your first team will have long lasting repercussions on the culture of the company. What is in it for your first teammates? You really need is a team of navy seals, agile, experienced etc. What you have in your budget is enough for interns. You have no idea what you're doing, but you need to create a leading atmosphere for a great team. Start up culture is about less hierarchy, more about feedback and being dynamic.

What limits you from your dream team? Maybe high job insecurity, a limited budget, maybe you want to see how long you have before you collapse. Fast iterations can also lead to a lack of brand recognition. Most employees won't have a financial stake, so you should give them autonomy, control and let them make important decisions. It is also what's hard to give away.

These are good posts to read on this topic:

Your North Star ⭐

You need a culture and a north star. There are things that will help you where you want to go, and things that will not help. If they're not clearly outlined you'll end up on the moon instead of Florida, or wherever you wanted to go. You cant control 30 people at once - you need something that works as the base code. Ouline the Problem, the Mission and the culture. For example:

Problem: It is tough for digital marketers to get accurate sales data on their business to act upon.0
Mission Invent technology to make it simple for digital marketers to see the correct data behind a business and perform data-driven changes to reach their conversion goals.

This is your "Why you exist". This is what you do. Without a why, you'll make hoodies, Star Wars videos, but how do they help with your why?

These are example values:

Obsessive Customer Fandom
- We are our customers biggest fans and advocates.
Unfiltered Brutal Truth
- Feelings, rank, politics NEVER have priority over truth and what's right. This way you can avoid shit stirrers.
Proactive Problem Solving
- When we hit problems we do not put our hands up, we find a solution.
Eye of Mordor Focus
- We keep the main thing the main thing.
Extreme Detail. Extreme Accuracy.
- Close enough is NOT even close. Make it exact.
One Destination Autonomy
- While we work loosely together, we have a same goal - customer success.
Less Is More
- If it is being done in 5 steps but can be done in 3 we try to make it 2.
Always Long Term
- We always work on what's 5 years from now and plan for 10.
Customer Results Priority
- When a customer see's profitable results we grow.

Lucas films had none of this, and that is why they ended up "on the moon". If the why was to create films people love, they wouldn't have killed off statistically, everyone's favorite character in the last jedi. The video games were money grabs, there wasn't value there. They could have wanted to promote identity politics and challenge the world culture - they did a bad job of that as they tried to use old star wars fan as a funding source.

Lucas film had 5 different Why's. Culture politics, making Movies people love and fans happiest, making as much money as possible, honor the original franchise etc Because all of them contradicted, we ended up with a poor movie.

Not all the employees were thinking about the same thing. There was no consistency. The source code was all over the place. You had 3 different heads with different values for the movies. Kathleen Kennedy with her priority on identity politics clashed with David trying to honor old fans.

Values shouldn't contradict each other. This works in your own life too. You should be focused on one goal. Working on 3 businesses at the same time will mean you have less bandwith for each. As a CEO your job is to create the greenhouse that allows your business to grow. Put the proper people and plants in the greenhouse that will contribute to each others growth as best as possible. It isn't an everybody wins. You need plants that complement each other, with the same goal.

Leading with an Infinite Mindset

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek argues that business is not a competition but an infinite journey, and that to do well in it, leaders must adopt an infinite mindset. Boradly, this involves advancing a "Just Cause", building trusting teams, learning and not trying to beat "Worthy Rivals" and practice existential flexibility.

An example from the book is that at one point, both Apple and Microsoft invited Simon Sinek to present at their education summits within the span of a few months. Comparing the two experiences after the fact, Sinek noticed something:

"At the Microsoft event, the majority of the presenters devoted a good portion of their presentations to talking about how they were going to beat Apple. At the Apple event, 100% of the presenters spent 100% of their time talking about how Apple was trying to help teachers teach and help students learn."

This marks the difference between a company that thinks with a finite mindset and one that thinks with an infinite mindset. The concept stems from a 1984 book by James Carse, called Finite and Infinite Games. In The Infinite Game, Sinek applies the concept to business.

Worthy Rivals feel like competitors, but they can actually help us learn and improve. Most of the time in business, the pie is big enough for everyone, and it’s better to focus on growing the pie altogether than to try and snag pieces off your neighbor’s plate. See how an apple executive responded to this:

After my talk at the Apple event, I shared a taxi back to the hotel with a senior Apple executive ... I turned to him and said, "You know . . . I spoke at Microsoft and they gave me their new Zune, and I have to tell you, it is SO MUCH BETTER than your iPod touch." The executive looked at me, smiled, and replied, "I have no doubt." And that was it. The conversation was over.

Analyzing a worthy rival will make you better at what you do. It’ll also help you gain clarity on why you’re doing it. Embrace competitors as co-players, and you’ll slowly adopt a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, which will get you to focus on your Just Cause more so than whoever’s about to beat you.

This is what differentiated Apple from Microsoft through much of the early 2000s, and it’s the reason it’s still the most valuable company in the world today.

I also take a lot from not just making a business for profit, but having a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist; a future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision. It must have the following five traits:

It must be for something rather than just against something. Fighting for every human’s right to eat is better than fighting against famine and starvation.
It must be inclusive. We only get excited about a vision we can clearly see.
It must be service-oriented. The primary beneficiary of the cause must be someone other than the business itself.
It must be resilient. Will you build trains instead of cars if that’s where the world is headed? You should!
It must be idealistic. Your vision should provide inspiration for generations, not be something you can get done by next week.

Commit to the Just Cause and make decisions that benefit the long-term vision of the company. Be prepared to make significant changes to advance the Just Cause, even at the risk of short-term loss or instability. Make products people want to buy and focus on how they benefit the consumers, rather than just selling to meet financial targets. Resist short-term temptations and focus on building an organization that lasts for generations.

In terms of leading, lead so that people are inspired to continue the journey without you, ensuring the endurance of the Just Cause beyond any one individual's involvement. The company should be able to thrive beyond the tenure of any single leader, prioritizing the continuation of the Just Cause over individual achievement. Foster environments of trust where employees feel inspired to contribute to the company's longevity and success.

Resources:

The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek

Leading Growing Teams Market Segmentation & Customer Archetypes