Why Teams Fail…

The term “Culture” in Silicon Valley is often synonymous with free lunches, complimentary laundry, in-house yoga lessons…etc. This article is NOT about the shallow and ephemeral perks startups might use to lure employees.

“Culture” in Silicon Valley is often synonymous with free lunches, complimentary laundry, in-house yoga lessons”

I’m writing about the lasting practices, norms and habits that turn startups into real companies and attract people interested in a career rather than employment with benefits. IMHO, culture has 3 critical tenants: Clarity, Communication and Consistency. I call them the “3 Cs of Culture”. Let me explain.

Clarity: MVPs and Pivots

The Silicon Valley is renowned for its “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) and entrepreneurs revere the “Pivot”. MVPs allow you to test ideas quickly. “Pivot” is a term used when founders redirect the focus of their company. Each concept is attractive. Building MVPs has never been cheaper. Starting a company and changing course midway has never been easier.

However, when you set out to start your company, ask yourself the following questions:

• Are we clear on the problem we are trying to solve?
• Are we clear on the problems we are trying not to solve?
• Is everyone on board with the company we want to be in 3, 5 or even 10 years?

These questions might seem old-school. But not being clear on the problem you want to solve will be detrimental to your ability to plan your work, work your plan and get revenue for it. Not being clear on the motivations of your work makes it hard to recruit people and lead them.

What This Means: One of my old bosses used to say: “I’d rather be wrong than confused”. Clarity is the ultimate secret of a company’s success. If you’re clear on your goal, you can focus on it. It doesn’t mean that it won’t take you a few iterations to get there. But, be mindful that, changing a company’s trajectory is in fact costly, for you and your people. Don’t get distracted by the peripheral problems you can solve. There are lots of fun things to pursue in tech. “MVPs” and “Pivots” are cool. What’s even cooler? Clear Strategic Intent and Winning.

“MVPs” and “Pivots” are cool. What’s even cooler? Clear Strategic Intent and Winning.

Communication: The failure of the AORPI

Now you have clear strategy, how do you communicate it? Leaders have tried all types of methods: they’ve printed posters, sent emails, invited staff to “strategy meetings” to explain the meaning of the words they’ve carefully chosen to express their strategy. Harvard Business Review has countless articles and best practices on this. And I’m sure they are all great.

But, strategy is more than what your management says or writes. It’s about what your people do. Take a look at how your teams run projects and be sure that there is discipline around the goals of your initiatives. Be sure that the role employees play in the success of your projects is clear. There are many models that help drive communication. One of the most popular ones is the RACI model (RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed). My favorite one is AORPI (Approver, Owner, Reviewers, Participants and Informed). I’ve found AORPI to be more useful because it is more specific about peoples’ roles. For instance, note that Approver and Owner are singular: projects run smoother when one person clearly owns the direction and one person has to make the final call.

You can craft the best strategy, build the best processes but if the types of employees you bring onboard don’t have the right behaviors and attitudes, you won’t go very far.

Who you hire onto the team is also critical here. Communication is a two way street. You can craft the best strategy, build the best processes but if the types of employees you bring onboard don’t have the right behaviors and attitudes, you won’t go very far! Beyond hiring people whose values are consistent to yours (more on that below), there are three types of “modes” people fall under:

• “Employee-mode”: occurs when people’s primary motivation is “work” and “them”. In this mode, people rarely challenge themselves to exceed expectations. They are interested in reaching goals supervisors have set for them. They argue that targets are too high or too ambitious. They are right! Startups do have unrealistic goals. But, at the same time, little success has come from “aiming low” or “aiming just right”. Communication around strategy here is a one-way street. And it rarely works.
• “Leader-mode”: occurs when a person’s primary motivation is to have an active role in the future of the company and its people. In this mode, people care about being audacious, exceeding goals and winning. The best leaders not only drive themselves to excel, they inspire others. In this mode, people relate to the strategy and can embrace it. Communication here is more collaborative and it works!
• “Founder-mode”: occurs when a person’s primary motivation is “the company” and the impact it can have on the space. In this mode, people forget about their individual view of the world. Their attention is dedicated to the company, its mission and how the organization grows towards its goal. They don’t let their job description define their activities. Whatever the company needs, they find a way to get it done. They have a particular sensitivity around culture because they don’t just care about just “winning”, they also care about the long term impact of “how we win as a team”.

What this means: my wife always tells me that the best parents communicate through actions, not through words. For example, you can tell your kids to take care of themselves but if you snack constantly, smoke and drink heavily, your words mean nothing. Same goes in the corporate context. You can’t act like an employee if you expect others to act like founders. Assess your team and its capabilities. Finally, if you’re going to ask your team to be coached, you have to be coachable yourself. Remember that you can say you believe in certain principles but if you break your own rules, don’t expect anyone else to follow them. Communication is not about words.

Consistency: The No-Asshole Rule

While ambiguity might be an easier way to deal with tough situations, lack of consistency is inefficient when building a sustainable, predictable and profitable business.

Marketers and Sales professionals have mastered the art of ambiguity. “The world is complex. There are many ways to deal with various situations”, they’ll say. That’s true. However, when it comes to the fundamentals of your strategy, the values you’ve decided to build your company upon, don’t compromise. Define your principles, act according to them, reinforce them and be sure to make them relevant to each and every single of your employees.

What this means: Don’t give too much lip service to your culture. Culture is not about the posters and the words you use. It’s about the clarity of your goals, the consistency of your actions and the quality of the people you choose to bring on board. Your company is not a family. It’s a high-performance sports team. People are here because they have chosen to be here and because you’ve decided to have them on the team.

Culture is not about the posters and the words you use. It’s about the clarity of your goals, the consistency of your actions and the quality of the people you choose to bring on board.

The true secret of your growth is more than your people. It is your culture. People say that culture starts at the top. It does. But it can blossom and die everywhere else: at the water-cooler, in private conversations, in bad slack exchanges or emails. Every single person on the team represents the culture of your company. So, be clear, be consistent and win, baby, win!