Culture Shift, Part 1: We Choose
A new series on culture at YetiCloud
Culture is everything. It is the lifeblood and the heartbeat of an organization; the operating system on which your company works and grows. Culture is the people, the process, the rules, the freedoms — everything that governs the atmosphere, the water, the ground, the soil, the wellsprings. Every company has a culture but not every company has a good one. At YetiCloud we’ve codified our culture into a set of statements that guide how we do everything:
- We choose to do what is hard
We have chosen to take on the big tasks, the scary problems, and to not be discouraged by failure. - We choose to do what is right
We have chosen to always do what is ethical, fair, and right in all things. - We choose to do what is fun
Sometimes the best solutions come when you’re not even working. - We choose to do what is honest
We are true to the truth and will not conceal it; our policy is honesty in all things. - We choose to be open
We are open to each other and new ideas, from our CEO to the newest team member. - We choose to do what is new
We create things no one has seen before; we are pioneers blazing our own path.
In this and the following articles in the Culture Shift series we’re going to be taking a look at how we define our culture at YetiCloud and the conscious decisions that have gone into making us who we are.
We Choose
When we sat down to develop the foundational beliefs that would underpin our organization it quickly became clear that there was one single a priori belief from which everything else would stem: that culture isn’t organic, its deliberate, calculated, and although it can evolve, putting it into practice requires conscious thought.
A Company Without Culture
I and many others have worked in organizations where culture is an afterthought, if it is even thought of at all. These are emergent systems that rise out of feedback loops of employee interactions and management decisions. Nothing is purposeful or calculated, everything arises as an unintended consequence and the business suffers for it. A President and CEO that believes himself better than those he works for, enjoying a life of faux luxury, with a company that is there only to fuel his self-inflated ego and lifestyle; a son who believes this company his rightful inheritance and his knowledge infallible that refuses to hear or believe anything from those around him that would only seek to build up the organization; these are the people who create companies with no real culture. The mission statement may be plastered on the walls or typed onto business cards, but a mission statement is for the company, not the people who work there. A mission statement doesn’t inform the employees how to treat each other nor does a mission statement set expectations for how those with power treat those with none. Only culture can do that. A company without, void of expectations, will implode under the weight of double standards, abuse of power, and lack of empathy.
How Culture Supercharges Organizations
This is why culture is important, necessary. Culture not only creates an atmosphere in your office but also frames and baselines interactions and expectations. In a company that prizes transparency, asking to see the CEO’s salary isn’t just normal, its welcomed. For a company that values results over time, taking a nap at the office isn’t a big deal. And for a company that requires honesty, facts outweigh politics in the decision-making tree. Your culture — your statement of beliefs and ideals to live by and the daily execution of those beliefs — underpins everything that you do as an organization, as a group, and as an individual.
Companies are diverse places, with people from all walks of life coming together for a singular purpose. Each person brings with them their own values and belief systems, judgments on right behavior, and expectations of others. Organically finding a common frame of reference that arises out of a natural progression is impossible. There are too many people and too many variables. Only by being deliberate in your culture can you hope to find a common ground for your entire organization. Without it you will fail, because as we already know: culture is everything.
This is part one in a series on YetiCloud’s culture journey where we walk through each tenet and dive into exactly what it means, how it affects the company, and how it frames everything the company does.
You can find YetiCloud at https://yeticloud.com
