Culture is a concept that is multi-faceted, layered and hard to grasp. Any company culture will have visible and invisible elements.
Culture Code
To make it easier to get aligned, to constantly verify if you’re living up to your cultural goals and for new hires to understand the culture more quickly, it is very useful to make your cultural values and principles explicit in a culture code. This is a document that outlines the most important elements of your culture.
Typical contents:
- The company’s mission and vision
- Foundational values (with explanations)
- What the company expects from employees
- What employees can expect from the company
- High-level policies
Useful Resources
Hubspot Culture Code
Netflix Culture
Daniel Coyle: Culture Code
Everybody knows that culture is an essential ingredient for startup success, but how do you build, stabilize and communicate it?
Lencioni: The Advantage
Organizational health is a complex, but crucial concept. Its principles enable companies to live up to their full potential.
Scott: Radical Candor
Startup life is full of difficult decisions and complicated leadership situations. This book argues that being candid in a compassionate way is the best way to deal with it.
Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Team cohesion is hard to achieve but incredibly valuable when it happens. How can dysfunctional teams be transformed into high-performing ones?
Schmidt et al.: Trillion Dollar Coach
Legendary management coach Bill Campell was an advisor so such unknown people as Steve Jobs, Larry Page and the Google founders. Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-authors examine his life and principles.