Culture Is Not a Foosball Table

GUEST MENTOR, Maynard Webb, founder of Webb Investment Network: It’s often said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but when it comes to startup culture, following the fad of the day is a recipe for failure. Cultures that simply emulate what someone else has built — whether it’s a me-too foosball table or giving everyone job titles with the word ninja in them — will never last.

The best way to build a strong culture is to start at the beginning by paying attention to the founders’ values and thinking about what types of practices will celebrate and extend them. A strong culture is a genuine culture. Authenticity matters.

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A foosball table

How do you decide what’s important and build a culture around it? It starts with asking a series of questions. These questions all have unique answers that can help identify who you are and what your company cares about. Questions like:
-How frugal are you? Josh James, the founder of Domo, wrote a great blog post about why he didn’t replace the stained carpet in his new office, saying it was a great reminder to stay “scrappy.”
-How do you show you care for/nurture your employees? When I was CEO at LiveOps the CFO wanted to cut free food, I couldn’t allow that to happen because it would send the wrong signal to employees.
-What does your office space look like? At eBay, I was shocked when I found out I’d be working in a cubicle, but then I realized Meg Whitman did, too, showing the open and collaborative style that defined the workplace.
-Do you have a learning environment? What are the opportunities to receive mentorship and personal growth? Some companies allow employees to spend time on the clock pursuing educational projects that they’re passionate about it.
-Do people have to come into the office, or can they work from home? At my investment network, WIN, where we value outcomes over face-time, people work from wherever they want.
-What kind of hours are expected? At Salesforce.com, employees get time off every  month off to do volunteer work. This suggests that  employees are encouraged to do more than their jobs, but to also  think about their communities.
-How long are people supposed to stay in the office? Google’s on-site washing machines suggest that the company expects employees to spend more time at work than at home.
-How are deadlines managed? At WIN, deadlines are self-imposed and important. We have a mandate to respond within hours, not days.

-What about pets, are they allowed in the office? I didn’t appreciate getting licked on my head by a Labrador retriever who found his way to my cubicle when I was CEO at LiveOps, but his owner appreciated having him there. -How do you welcome new people? At LiveOps, I welcomed every new hire on his first day. We also brought doughnuts in and asked people to come by and say hello to them. Unfortunately this ignited another cultural phenomenon—the startup 20-pound weight gain!
-How do you manage departures? At eBay, we did not spend much time in the beginning acknowledging departures, but we eventually became more enlightened about supporting individuals chasing their dreams and we began to celebrate them on their way out.
-How do you deal with problems? Do you tell people about them early or do you wait? At eBay and LiveOps, we had post-mortems on each issue encountered. We did not make it a blame game, which encouraged people to ask for help early and learn from their mistakes.
Finally, how do you change and grow? It’s important to think about how you allow for evolution. We had to focus on this at eBay, where we had done well, but we knew there was more to do. We had to decide how to stay true to our core values while being open to changing some of our practices. We never lost the focus that we were a marketplace and making our sellers successful was job No. 1, but we did change processes. For example, I couldn’t make every final decision on new features or every budget line item when we got big.
Companies should check in every six months with the question: Do we still believe in this? What used to work won’t always work, so be ready to change. You have to ask yourself what do you take and what do you leave as you grow? Or, what about de-evolution? How do you make modifications now that you are 20 people instead of 30?
Perhaps the elasticity that comes with authenticity is the tenet of the strongest culture — one that is solid enough to provide a strong foundation, yet open enough to allow the organization to change direction and reach new heights. That will never come from copying someone else’s company — it comes from creating something you believe in.