#3 JooBee's newsletter

TL;DR

🌱 Your culture changes. Your values don’t

🌟 I don’t hire for culture fit. Here’s why

❓ Your views on feedback during the interview

Your culture changes. Your values don’t

The answer is: you can’t. But why? Well, let’s unpack the intricacies of this issue by first distinguishing between ‘culture’ and ‘values’.

Culture, it is essential to understand, is HOW we do things around here, while values pertain to WHAT we believe is important here. Trying to stifle the evolution of culture in your start-up is like attempting to freeze time and insisting on doing things the way they’ve always been done. In other words, impossible. But in the world of start-ups, we know that change is as inevitable as the sunrise.

Picture this: the transformation from a ragtag expedition team to a bustling city

In the early stages, start-ups often resemble a tight-knit 🏕🏔️expedition team, a handful of brave souls embarking on a journey. It's a place where everyone is intricately involved, and collaboration flows like a mountain stream.

But as the start-up group grows, say to around 100 people, it morphs into something resembling a 🏕️village. Various groups within this village are led by designated leaders, but open communication remains a hallmark. Think of it as elders gathering around a campfire, sharing tales at night – a place where minimal formal structure suffices for efficient operation.

However, once the headcount surpasses 100, it's time for a shift from village to 🚦town. Keeping everyone connected now requires intentional effort. Processes are introduced to streamline tasks, and formal decision-making structures start to take root. It's like the town getting its first traffic lights and zoning laws - a framework starts to take shape to maintain collaboration.

Beyond the 200-mark, your start-up has transformed into a full-fledged 🏙️city. You'll struggle to know everyone's name, just like it's impossible to befriend every denizen of a bustling metropolis. Just as a city needs infrastructure like traffic lights and drainage systems, your organisation structure, processes and systems evolve to handle the complexity that size brings.

How you do things inevitably evolves

Take, for instance, the practice of holding bi-weekly All Hands meetings when your team was a cosy 25. As a founder, you led these sessions to maintain transparency. But now, with a team of 150, is this still the most effective way to keep everyone in the loop? The answer, of course, is no. It's not a betrayal of transparency but an evolution in communication. You might opt for monthly meetings focusing on key topics, with department leaders handling their own updates. Weekly Slack updates or a monthly newsletter might become your allies in keeping everyone informed.

The same evolution occurs in decision-making. In the early days, discussions were straightforward and everyone had a say. But as your team grows, it's impractical to consult with every individual. So, your culture must adapt, possibly leaning towards voting mechanisms or dividing decisions among subgroups. This shift in decision-making represents an evolution in culture while preserving the core value of involving people in decisions.

Infrastructure should scale what is important to you 

Values are like a company's DNA. They define what's right and non-negotiable. Your culture, which is how you do things, can change with circumstances, but your values, what you hold as important, remain constant.

Therefore, when you introduce structure, processes and systems, their primary purpose should be to enable your values to thrive on a larger scale – not to change who you are or what you stand for. But remember, adopting processes and systems blindly just because others do it shows a lack of thoughtful intent. Such systems won't serve your values; they'll only clutter your start-up's path to success.

I don’t hire for culture fit. Here’s why

In the process of hiring a Lead People Partner for my team, a candidate was presenting a task to a panel of three interviewers, including myself. We assessed not just her HR technical skills but also her holistic communication abilities, crucial for influencing stakeholders.

Around the ten-minute mark of her 25-minute presentation,🙋🏻‍♀️I intervened kindly but clearly, providing candid feedback on her performance. Text-heavy slides distracted me, making it hard to balance reading and attentive listening. Knowing the other interviewers faced similar challenges, I asked how she planned to turn this around in the remaining 15 minutes.

After a moment, she responded, saying, "I will pause the screen share and guide you through the key points of the proposal. After the interview, I will share the slides with you as reference notes for your review." With this decision, she embarked on the next 15 minutes with unwavering eye contact, adopting a more conversational tone, and focusing resolutely on key points. She also delved deeper into areas where we sought clarification.

In those 15 minutes, she not only showcased her technical capabilities but also her ability to influence us as stakeholders. Most importantly, she provided concrete evidence of alignment with our core values:

🐾 User-centric: She empathised with interviewers facing visual clutter. 

🔢 Data-driven: She adapted communication based on feedback data. 

💫 Agile: Despite having meticulously prepared detailed documentation, she abandoned the ineffective documentation, focusing on conveying solutions effectively.

Our approaches differ, but our shared values transform our culture

If I were in her position, would I have tackled the feedback differently? Absolutely. Would I have crafted the slide deck differently? Without a doubt. How I would have done it differently - that’s not the point! What matters most is that she tangibly demonstrated what we consider most important - values such as being user-centric, data-driven, and agile.

Your standout performers, they're like-minded in sharing your values. When values don't quite sync up and we're racing ahead, things can get a bit bumpy. You have to keep hitting pause and realigning on what genuinely matters before marching forward together.

Now, when our Lead People Partner hopped on board, let me tell you, she and I couldn't be more different in how we tackle things. But here's the magic: our shared values serve as our compass, pointing us toward what's absolutely essential for both our business and its people. This shared foundation sparks innovation, leading us to explore fresh ways of doing things - ultimately shaping and evolving our culture.

That’s why I hire for values fit.

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