4 ms·

Seems to me it's reflexive, eg, process shapes culture and culture shapes process, but you if you buy a company you can't per say change the culture. Not like a

Seems to me it's reflexive, eg, process shapes culture and culture shapes process, but you if you buy a company you can't per say change the culture. Not like a light switch anyway. But you can do that to processes.

readthenotes1 4y ago
Once you get processes in place, the only way to change the culture is to change the processes. By that time, usually have a HR department and it's game over...
- maxbond 4y ago
  You can change culture by hiring people with a fresh outlook, talking to people about what the culture is and what it should be, setting expectations, etc. In short, you can change culture by participating in it. I was in a meeting once where my manager said, "We aren't working evenings anymore." The visible relief that ripped through the room was something to behold. There was never a policy of working evenings, and there wasn't a policy of not working evenings afterwards. But my manager was using their leadership to make positive change in the culture regardless. But things like that can't be quantified and so are only visible to people in the trenches. But culture isn't actually someone measurable; it exists in the space between people. An acquiring company is unlikely to be interested in such nuances. It takes time, it isn't guaranteed you'll get your way (indeed, you'll be asked to make concessions), and it's an ongoing process with no definite end where you can declare victory and check a box. When you try to change culture through dictates instead of discussion - you may never hear about it, but people will understand that that means you don't see them as people, but as living automata to be programmed through policy. You'll lose their trust. That said. I went of vacation just after that meeting. I came back from vacation to work on a deploy until after midnight. A regret I have was not speaking my mind, "guys, we said we weren't going to do this." (I probably did, but not vocally enough.) Not setting an explicit policy against working evenings was a mistake, because the problem wasn't just the expectation from others on the team that, if you're here I should be here too, but also that the rest of the organization didn't respect our boundaries, and would dictate timelines and such without consulting us, implicitly demanding that we work crazy hours. It is important to codify values as policy. But it should be organic and driven by the people who are involved and understand, not executives of an entirely different company who are trying to squeeze blood from a stone. This is inherently incompatible with using policy to change culture.

readthenotes1 4y ago

Once you get processes in place, the only way to change the culture is to change the processes. By that time, usually have a HR department and it's game over...

maxbond 4y ago
You can change culture by hiring people with a fresh outlook, talking to people about what the culture is and what it should be, setting expectations, etc. In short, you can change culture by participating in it. I was in a meeting once where my manager said, "We aren't working evenings anymore." The visible relief that ripped through the room was something to behold. There was never a policy of working evenings, and there wasn't a policy of not working evenings afterwards. But my manager was using their leadership to make positive change in the culture regardless. But things like that can't be quantified and so are only visible to people in the trenches. But culture isn't actually someone measurable; it exists in the space between people. An acquiring company is unlikely to be interested in such nuances. It takes time, it isn't guaranteed you'll get your way (indeed, you'll be asked to make concessions), and it's an ongoing process with no definite end where you can declare victory and check a box. When you try to change culture through dictates instead of discussion - you may never hear about it, but people will understand that that means you don't see them as people, but as living automata to be programmed through policy. You'll lose their trust. That said. I went of vacation just after that meeting. I came back from vacation to work on a deploy until after midnight. A regret I have was not speaking my mind, "guys, we said we weren't going to do this." (I probably did, but not vocally enough.) Not setting an explicit policy against working evenings was a mistake, because the problem wasn't just the expectation from others on the team that, if you're here I should be here too, but also that the rest of the organization didn't respect our boundaries, and would dictate timelines and such without consulting us, implicitly demanding that we work crazy hours. It is important to codify values as policy. But it should be organic and driven by the people who are involved and understand, not executives of an entirely different company who are trying to squeeze blood from a stone. This is inherently incompatible with using policy to change culture.