đșEvolving Your Organizational Culture
Ridding ourselves of personal culture fit opens opportunities to improve our workplaces. Here's how.
Hey Everyone,
This is my second post on culture fit. Is it the last? Definitely not.
If you missed last weekâs post on Personal vs. Organizational culture fit, hereâs a link to check it out. To provide a little extra encouragement, I made a meme last week, and whoa, did people dig it.
Thank you again for reading!
Ben
đșEvolving Your Organizational Culture
Way back in May 20201, the CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lutke, tweeted this:
He makes a great point.
Last week I wrote about how âCulture Fitâ has been co-opted to mean âPersonal Culture Fit,â why thatâs no good for anyone, and that we should screen candidates based upon Organizational Culture Fit instead.Â
This week Iâll talk about how Organizational Culture Fit can empower you to create an adaptable organization. Much like Mr. Lutke advocates.2
My goal with this post is to:
get you to think about the factors that contribute to your ever-evolving organizational culture fit
help you can anticipate those factors
Ultimately develop a roadmap for where you need to be
Letâs start with why your organizational culture fit will change.
The Catalysts for Cultural Change
What constitutes a culture fit at your organization will evolve. Those catalysts include, but arenât limited to, the following factors.
Generalists vs. Specialists
Smaller companies and decentralized teams at big companies tend to be made up of generalists. These are the people who âcan just figure it out,â âcan wear lots of hats,â and âhustle.â Conversely, larger, more complex organizations tend to be made up of specialists. These specialists are good at a skilled task or specific piece of a process.
In general, the bigger you are, the more your need specialists.
For example, lots of successful startup salespeople are good at the entire sales and marketing process. They can make their own sales collateral, have zero problems cold calling, and donât expect or even want training.
But if youâve ever hired a big company sales rep for a startup, you know that it doesnât often work out. Why? Because big company reps tend to be specialists. Sure theyâre better closers, but they expect an extensive support organization and struggle with the constant change and ambiguity thatâs common at less mature companies.3 Itâs no surprise it doesnât work out.
Moving from Culture Fit to Culture Addâ
Another evolution youâll need to make is from âorganizational culture fitâ to âorganizational culture add.âÂ
âCulture Addâ has become a popular way to think about candidates, and not without good reason - âculture addâ positively frames cultural differences as assets rather than liabilities.
As your organization grows, you will become aware of your cultural deficiencies. Maybe youâre too demographically homogenous, or perhaps your workforce doesnât reflect your community or your customer base. Either way, youâll encounter a time when your current organizational culture fit isnât a competitive advantage - thatâs whenâs thinking in terms of âculture add, â rather than âculture fitâ becomes critical.
Rise of Remote Work
Plenty has been said about the effects of the pandemic on our work culture so I wonât belabor the point here.
The bottom line is that the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how most people work. As a leader, your job is to understand the effect remote work will have upon your organization and navigate your cultural values accordingly.
Intentionally Evolving Your Culture
Changing, improving, and adapting your culture starts with an intentional acknowledgment of what needs to change and when.
Before posting a new job, sit down and think to yourself about what your organization will need to be in the next six months/year/decade and how you can intentionally move toward those goals with this hire. Need some help? Here are some example questions to ask yourself:
Is this person a generalist or a specialist? To what degree do we need them to be either?
Can we afford to let this person develop, or do we need them to produce now? Realistically, how much guidance and training can we provide?
What does this person bring to our organization in terms of how they see the world? Are their experiences materially different from our own?
Will this person make us think differently and challenge assumptions? Realistically, do we want them to?
Does this person reflect our customer and community base?
When asking yourself these questions, itâs essential to be honest about where you, your organization, and your current culture resides.
Itâs equally important to be transparent with the team. It can be challenging for a company consisting primarily of loyal generalists to embrace the input of new specialists. Just like it can be disruptive for recruiters used to one, homogenous, talent pipeline to find new sources of candidates who represent a more of a culture add.
No one ever said evolving is easy, but itâs a lot easier if youâre aware of where you need to go. With a little planning, foresight, and honesty you will get there.
Further Reading
Lutkeâs entire Twitter thread
SaaStrâs article and video on the 48 types of VP of Sales
It feels like ten years ago, doesnât it?
Shopifyâs stock is up 5x since that tweet.
SaaStr has a great article on the 48 types of VP of Sales that outlines, in great detail, the different kinds of VP of Sales you need at every stage of growth. If youâre in sales leadership or needing to hire sales leadership, itâs worth the read.
đșEvolving Your Organizational Culture
Haven't looked into this myself, but curious about how the humor style correlates with organizational fit at various stages of company growth.
Anecdotally (sample size of me) I best fit in the Series A to C range, and that was when my jokes were appreciated by at least half the colleagues I interacted with regularly.
Perhaps whether or not humor is generally encouraged at work correlates with organizational fit? And whether the humor style aligns indicates a personal fit?
I need a LTO hiring/interview rubric!