To Improve Company Culture, You Have To Kill It First

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the challenges of improving company culture and why traditional approaches often fail. It argues that company culture is a symptom, not a cause, and that the only way to truly change it is to identify and address the root issues driving the culture.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Recognizing the Problem

1. What are some of the issues the author identifies with the current state of company culture?

• Employees are working long hours for low pay, either in open office environments they dislike or remotely, feeling disconnected from work-life balance
• The gap between work and life has disintegrated, making it difficult to find time for personal life
• The author acknowledges they are also not happy with the current situation

2. How does the author view the role of company leadership in addressing these issues?

• The author is not interested in listening to constant complaining or resolving interpersonal issues all day, as they are in the same boat as the employees
• However, the author recognizes that some employees have asked about how the company culture went off track and how it can be fixed

[02] Changing Company Culture

1. What does the author say about the common approaches to changing company culture?

• Culture is not something that can be "ruled" or mandated through policies, rules, and slogans
• Culture also cannot be simply erased and rewritten like a whiteboard - it needs to be shaken up and restarted from scratch

2. How does the author describe the root cause of company culture issues?

• Culture is a symptom, not a cause - it is an outcome, not an input
• The root causes of a bad or stagnant culture need to be identified and addressed, rather than just trying to fix the culture itself

3. What is the author's advice for how to actually change company culture?

• Leadership needs to have open discussions with the entire team to understand the root causes of the culture issues
• Once the root causes are eliminated, the author suggests doing "nothing" and allowing a good culture to naturally emerge, rather than imposing new rules and mandates
• The author emphasizes the need to guide the culture like parenting a teenager, not trying to control it

[03] The Generational Shift in Work Culture

1. How does the author describe the generational differences in views on work culture?

• The author believes there is a "genuine revolution" happening, where younger generations see the traditional 9-to-5, "butts-in-seats" work culture as completely foreign
• As a Gen-Xer, the author leans more towards the belief that the modern work culture is antithetical to results

2. What is the implication of these generational differences for changing company culture?

• The author suggests that not everyone will agree on what makes a "good" company culture, as different generations have different perspectives
• This further reinforces the author's view that simply imposing new rules and mandates will not work to change the culture