Finding our way.
The thing about my job is I get to see what really happens inside so many companies over time. I see cultures as they are represented and actually are and I see them shift over time. It is such an amazing perspective. I see what matters. I see who people are.
I’m a perpetual outsider by nature & also a compulsive observer. I never linger on the surface of anything – I dig into the heart and guts of what is in front of me and that is useful in my work. I do not know how to hold back and so people open up – sometimes in surprising ways.
After decades of recruiting in the highly technical and specialized world of hardware/software product development I’ve learned the human aspects matter the most after a baseline of technical proficiency is met. Capacity for learning, the ability to engage with mutual respect, a willingness to work through conflict respectfully, the awareness of what one does not know, an ability to listen even when it is difficult or challenges what you think you know, believing other people’s perspectives have value, actual caring. These things make up a culture.
Cultures are made by people and how they treat each other. They are not words on a slide, they are actions lived out daily – moment by moment, action by action.
They can change on a dime because trust, like respect, like the feeling of being valued, can be lost in a moment.
I’ve watch amazing/inspiring things be built & destroyed because of ego and control issues.
It is almost always ego and control issues.
Ego and control issues come from fear and fragility. An inability to engage w/reality as it is – a compulsion for homogeneity or fealty.
That is a quick morning riff because a couple companies asked for my opinion in the past few months and I SURE DID GIVE THEM.
One listened to hard things and navigated skillfully and one flamed out in fragile defensiveness – the company who listened is not hemorrhaging people.
I’m not saying my opinions matter all that much (but I am pretty good at this stuff) what matters is how leaders hear difficult truths and how they react as a pattern.
I believe how people treat me is also how they treat employees.
Their actions inform my choices every time.
Anyway I’m also watching how Apple and other companies act as employees work on organizing and CULTURES CHANGE AND TRUST CAN BE LOST AND HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER IN CONFLICT IS EVERYTHING.
Cultures also exist in societies. Same rules apply.
Have a nice day.
