You Don’t Need Bean Bags or Catered Lunches — A Blog About Company Culture

Maybe you do, depending on your taste and your preference of company culture. If you are an executive of a super successful legacy company trying to attract and cater to the younger generation, sure. But that alone would not contribute to creating a culture that certainly lasts for a long time, especially for a company trying to squeeze its way into the limelight. This blog summarizes certain observed pitfalls of company culture creation in early-stage start-ups and offers glimpses at what may be more important.

I have spent quite a significant amount of time attending meet-ups, exchanging ideas, and working with executives within the technology space. In addition to that, my sniffer-dog and creeping skills acquired through Facebook and Linkedin over the years allowed me to dig a bit deeper and frame some opinions via research on Glassdoor and Comparably.

The recipe for that perfect disaster

You do not need bean bags and colorful walls and catered lunches. Definitely not at first. A lot of new companies try to portray themselves in a Googlesque manner by spending humongous amounts of money painting a picture of a ‘happy workplace culture’. All the while, the management has absolutely no clue as to the direction they are headed or what the real value proposition of the product is. Another mistake is that this very culture is also created by hiring employees who themselves are just seeking to be part of this concocted ‘happy culture’ and are not really internally driven to the mission of the company. This attitude alone is enough to dry up the resources which could be used to build a product that caters to building new customers. Soon enough you smell something is burning i.e the future of the company. This was always a disaster in the making.

New hires will soon either leave the company or get fired because of unsatisfactory performance (which by the way, is also because of a lack of direction OR something more along the lines of “seasoned direction” I might add).

How leadership matters in creating a culture

Leadership and/or being a boss goes in complete reverse of the very definition of being ‘bossy’. Leadership is about juggling your vulnerabilities and your steadfastness. Being bold and concise in giving direction and at the same time not hesitating to ask questions about how you could improve your own job; both for the leader and the ones he/she is leading. But most importantly, listening. To translate in geek terminology, this act itself acts as a machine learning system collecting data on different variables and assessing their dynamics to streamline its own decision-making process towards a specific goal. Nerd.

What drives your employees?

A powerful question to ask during the interview process and also during the employee’s tenure assuming he/she passed the first one. What drives you and your colleagues. Put the effort in building internal camaraderie first. Culture will follow.

Also, by failing to pay attention to this area, you put your company in a very dangerous spot. You essentially give room for internal politics and people-pleasing-people mindsets to grow because the work itself does not drive anybody anymore. The work is not exciting or challenging or personally rewarding. And so what happens, as a result, is that employees tend to get entertainment out of work politics and schemes. Very damaging outlook.

No one starts off as a “seasoned executive”

That is why the company has a board. Just the way you handpick the spices for that perfect turkey dinner, you have to handpick the executives for the board. By putting emphasis on the individual flavor of their past experiences, their networks, you have to assess how their combined aroma help complement the mission, perfect the product, build loyal customers and eventually unveil the roast pan to a fat juicy market cap. Voila!

What follows is the less dramatic updating of Powerpoint slides in front of suited individuals and a lot of stylized persuasion in a corporate fashion. If the candidates for board members are not convinced enough, maybe your mission is not strong enough or it does not align with the way they think. Needless to mention, at times, you will be left doing back-and-forth with your own consciousness questioning the very purpose of your own existence with “The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel” playing in the depths of your soul.

The dirty chain of command

If every little action of yours, as an employee, requires authorization from this person and then that person will confirm from someone more senior delaying the whole process, chances are they already fucked up. Or you did if this is your business. It would be difficult to build loyalty for an organization if the person leading you does not have a rolled-up-sleeves attitude, so to speak, and simply pretends to act important and is not fully transparent, with a chain of people to convey a message or approve an action.

Creating that feedback loop.

Employees should be OK with agreeing to disagree with each other. That will help build a more honest relationship. Moreover, at times in the office, you will see others slacking off. We are humans; we’re flawed. But the culture should not be such that we talk about it behind their backs or bring it to the upper management’s notice immediately. Nope. You will only be able to build kinship if the slacking person knows about it and is given an opportunity to improve. This would give them the chance to be alert and it would build confidence that their colleagues and peers want the best for them. Huddling up every morning to discuss the day’s deliverable might seems useless to some but it actually helps connect everyone in a more informal setting and at the same time, boosts morale for the day. It worked for us at Versapay. That rhymed.

In short, after this long blog, good direction from experienced individuals, constant questioning of your value proposition, putting effort in building kinship and putting the best qualities of your employees and supporting them in their goals, would, to an extent, align you with the internal attitudes of the companies who seem to have built that winning streak. Maybe then, and only then, you can think of chilling on your bean bag and munching on the catered lunch.

Every photo in this blog is free to use and was taken from Unsplash.

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