Re:“Don't fuck up the culture” – A letter to the Airbnb team
by scott_s on Monday April 21, 2014 @09:51AM
(#7621017)
I phrase this as you can't do culture-by-fiat. Culture is the aggregate of how people act and react.
If you want culture to be a certain way, you have incentivize people to act and react in certain ways. If you want a culture where ideas are freely expressed and discussed, then you can't penalize people for expressing unpopular ideas. If you want a culture of innovation, then you can't harshly penalize people for failed projects. If you want a culture of cooperation and collaboration, then you must reward people for it.
Everyone says the same things about the importance of values and culture, but I don't think everyone is willing to set up the systems of incentives and disincentives to back that up.
If you want culture to be a certain way, you have incentivize people to act and react in certain ways. If you want a culture where ideas are freely expressed and discussed, then you can't penalize people for expressing unpopular ideas. If you want a culture of innovation, then you can't harshly penalize people for failed projects. If you want a culture of cooperation and collaboration, then you must reward people for it.
Everyone says the same things about the importance of values and culture, but I don't think everyone is willing to set up the systems of incentives and disincentives to back that up.