Crafting Culture Beyond the Chaos

What does a great company culture even mean?

Organizational culture is everything you do, everything you promote, everything you say, the style in which you work. It’s your measures of quality, performance, and your attitude. Company culture is the momentum, feelings, and thoughts you create through business operations, activities, hiring, firing, etc.

Company culture is made up by the customer interactions, what you prioritize by your action, your activity, what you actually do, not what you say. Ping-pong tables, free beer, great coffee that’s all great. Those are all nice perks. Those aren’t culture. Those things may help your culture become a fun place to work, but if things get tough, and you just end up scrapping everything when things get hard, or firing people when things get tight, or when you have a tough quarter, that’s your culture.

Culture is who you are what you are, and what you do - culture is not a tagline. The tagline may sum up what you do, may sum up your culture, but it’s not you. You are what you do. Action frames your culture and perception as a company.

“When disaster strikes, whatever you do, in your darkest hour, that becomes your culture.” Sounds like a Churchill quote, not a Fortune 500 CEO. Brian Chesky explains culture when things are at their worst, as he walks through the impact of the pandemic and how they managed through, and even went to IPO shortly thereafter. I recently listened to the podcast, Diary of a CEO, hosted by Steven Bartlett, speaking with guest, Brian Chesky, CEO & Co-Founder of Airbnb, and I was completely amazed at the depth and passion for people and organizational culture. Many CEOs talk about it, but you could feel it in his voice, and he went a level most Fortune 1000 CEOs wouldn’t dare breakdown about their people and culture.

I am floored at Brian’s passion for creativity, business as an art form, and leadership style. Any founder, entrepreneur, business owner, or leader looking to do big things, would be well-served to listen to this episode. This is truly inspiring and one of the most impactful interviews I’ve ever heard. It’s really something.

This one episode from Diary of a CEO was a crash course in leadership - navigating ups and down, treating your people...like people. For today’s edition, I will share a few one liners or quotes, and thoughts, a bit different than other OpCo’s.

So many lessons for people leadership and leading with empathy. The lessons shared walk through a significant decision and caring point for organizations facing seemingly insurmountable financial conditions -

• How are you as a company or leader helping secure the future for those whose jobs you are eliminating? Or do you care?

• How true are those statements about people, when things get tough?

• Are those slogans for the wall or social, or do your mean them?

• Using culture as fuel for growth. Navigating organizational disaster and caring for your people.

• This comes from someone leading a business that lost 80% of its business in 8 weeks during the initial impact from the pandemic, starting on the "Ides of March", for any travel related business, 3/15/2020.

• He was once given feedback by an investor during their early fundraising efforts…the potential market wasn’t big enough. (He mentions Airbnb handles about nearly the same amount of money as the GDP of Croatia).

• How you handle these challenges and situations, impacting your people - this determines your long-term meaning, culture, and organizational future. Not your stock price or any glamour metrics.

• This is how you will be remembered. And your surviving people are watching closely…

• I looked up some of the stories from this time when the pandemic started really hitting the US, back in that fateful year of 2020, and Chesky still got a lot of heat given they were trying to go public and cut so many, but you can see and hear the difference that Airbnb made for those survivors and those leavers.

• Wild to look back at nearly four years ago now. Chesky talks about helping bring people together…as a tech company, all about the people. Providing those places to make that connection happen in person.

• What will you be remembered for?

• How do you impact or support other people, your people?

Here are a few more of Brian’s thoughts on people and culture:

• “I think what most companies need, is more creativity, and maybe a little more heart and soul. Most people at companies are loving,  well-meaning people, they just don’t act that way.”

• “No one wants to be the one to make a change, and take a risk. The organization starts focusing on self, rather than on why it exists - to serve other people.”

• “They only value what can be measured, and the only things you are measuring, and are measured on a short term horizon.”

- Brian Chesky

“Not everything that counts can be counted, not everything that can be counted, counts.”
  - Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize Winner

• “Your culture is every time you choose to hire someone, every time choose to fire someone, every time you choose to promote somebody.

• It’s the way everyone does everything.”

• Leaders craft culture by “leading by example every day”

• Management shifts to culture when things happen positively according to culture without the leader in the room. He compares it to a golf swing happening well without your swing instructor there.

• People. Resources. Strategy. —> Culture is the thing that bonds those things together.

• “The how you do something creates the what” What being culture. “Your culture is how you do something.”

• “Nothing large, started large. They always started small..”

  “But we can’t measure the impact. I said that’s exactly why it’s our values. Because our culture and our values are we do something when no one notices and we can’t even measure it, and we don’t even know if it works. The reason we do it is that’s what we believe.”

 - Brian Chesky, Airbnb

“It’s better to have a hundred people love you, than a million people who that just sort of like you.”
 - Paul Graham

• “People who love something become your marketing department”

• “I think what most companies need, is more creativity, and maybe a little more heart and soul. Most people at companies are loving,  well-meaning people, they just don’t act that way.”

• “No one wants to be the one to make a change, and take a risk. The organization starts focusing on self, rather than on why it exists - to serve other people.”

• “They only value what can be measured, and the only things you are measuring, and are measured on a short term horizon.”

  - Brian Chesky

Email about Culture, to 6000 employees (after hiring new Head of People & Culture (Head of HR)):

• “You must design the culture you want, otherwise it will be designed for you”

• “Culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. In the long run, the culture is the most important thing that you will ever design”

He goes on to outline how important HR is and its true original intent and present value, often not realized in organizations. And then how to build the culture, and the power of culture.

• “It’s the way everyone does everything.”

• “It’s your ultimate intellectual property.”

• Leaders craft culture by “leading by example every day”

• Management shifts to culture when things happen positively according to culture without the leader in the room. He compares it to a golf swing happening well without your swing instructor there.

• People. Resources. Strategy.

• “Culture is the thing that bonds those things together.”

• “Everything single thing you care about in your head as a leader, your culture is as strong as everyone else caring about every one of those things.”

• He stressed lead with this in mind: “How will I remembered based on this moment?”

• “Your own psychology is the hardest thing to manage during a company disaster or significant challenge.”

• The impact of travel on culture, perception, acceptance

Still think culture is a bit woo woo? It’s time to open up to the concept of giving more of your attention to what’s driving your firm’s success, or its demise. Remember, your organization has a culture whether you choose to acknowledge it, or not.

Hopefully, this added a little value to your organization journey or leadership development. Thank you for reading. Please share with someone who may benefit from this edition.

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