Some Jason Cohen quotes from the 100th episode of the Art of Product podcast.
“…values are these inalienable things we are all going to agree on. Culture is the output of living that and honouring that, actually doing that, it not just being on the wall…”
“…you’re going to have a culture no matter what and the question is did you decide what it was?”
“…at scale if you care about culture you’re going to have to talk about it all the time because it’s the kind of thing that degrades and washes away into a grey nothing if you don’t…”
“…there’s things you do all the time or daily or in meetings or weekly or quarterly to reinforce that stuff but as you grow and things change you’re going have to keep adding adding stuff to that for it to still be true… or else it will just sort of go away…”
I’m managing two new teams that are still figuring out their cultures, and the second quote is playing on my mind. Workshops to define a team’s values often feel awkward and don’t produce results that stick.
I’m having conversations with the senior engineers to find out what matters most to them and what standards they set for themselves. A great team’s culture trickles down from a few key individuals so I’m leaning into acting as an amplifier for them rather than trying to impose culture by committee.