You should begin with the leader of the company and its founder, that is to ask yourself what qualities are most important to you? Which of these apply to business? Who are the people with whom you would like to work with? That they value? Blockquote> to answer these questions, you highlight the desired set of values. Think about what kind of people you would not want to work. What values do they have? Think about it the opposite, perhaps they fit your company. Finally, remember that your values should follow the company's mission, and if they do not follow it, then you're missing something, in the end, they must be credible and to be uniquely associated with your mission.
For example, to explicitly follow their mission, we Zappos focused on creating a culture of "connected" with the excellent customer service. The first value was to provide an excellent service. Our culture has been built very specific, first of all we would like to serve customers well and leaves a striking impression.
We [the company] had a little text in which it was explained that we lift under it. We want to support people to surprise them, to help our employees, our customers, our business partners and investors. But at the same time, however, in contrast to what has been said, we did not want to work with arrogant people, so one of our core values became shy. Here are two examples of how we have created a robust core values, clearly following our mission.
Upon reflection, you isolate your core values, there may be several, whether honesty, reliability, quality of service and teamwork. This can be a list that can start with three points and grow to ten, or even thirty.
When Zappos been through this, we asked all employees to highlight several core values, and they have written thirty-seven pieces. We reduced the number to ten. To do this, we took a long time for about a year. You may ask, why? Well, if you entered the list of the word "honesty", so I will at once and believe! Everyone wants to culture was honest, no one wants to be lied to every day.
Service, what do you mean by "service"? In this word a lot more hidden meaning than it seems. Everyone always says about teamwork, but it is not the teamwork that we see in the university competitions or baseball. How to make sense of what is teamwork? That will not be useful for the team?
Many of these things are related to communication and understanding, people with learning anything, and you can elaborate. In Zappos always had a lot of smart people. And when they were arguing with each other about who is right and who - no, it was irrational waste of time. We wanted to help people and prompted one another to do any better idea. The idea was that the company had advanced the idea, not the fact that someone from the staff proved that he was right. We wanted to promote the idea that in the first place is always the company, the second - Department - the third team, and only then - you. How can this be achieved?
Let's delve into the question. There is another element of high-performance teams, who I love very much. This element - the pyramid, created by Patrick Lencioni, who has written an interesting book "Five teams vices».
The author tells about the reasons for differences in the team. Many teams fail because of lack of confidence, and even if there is one, then why is it necessary? If the trust is there, then there may be debate and discussion, in which the truth is born. If the dispute is not, it turns out that the blind leading the blind. How can you know for sure that we made the right decision if you have not discussed? In fact, people are not so much do not want to commit themselves, they are afraid to do it.
Let's assume that you have moved to another level: you are able to hit the ground running. What could go wrong? Typically, problems occur because people are not responsible for the actions they perform. If people are not responsible for their actions, then they do not get results. If you think of the company as a black box, the output of which are or financial gain, or a great product, or anything else as a result of the company, at the entrance to a black box with one of the most important parameters is the culture of the company. Some other practices, we will discuss a series of questions and answers, which is likely to result in a conversation about what you need to combine the company's mission and values, as I have already mentioned.
The work you need to seriously think about the values that have been chosen by you first. A lot of companies do not do one thing at a job they interviewed the applicant on the subject of technical skills, but did not check it against the culture of the company, do not assess whether he will believe in the idea of the company and follow its mission. Blockquote> I that this is absolutely the wrong approach. I believe that you can be the smartest engineer in the world, but if he does not believe in the mission, he will not put his heart and soul into the work. Recruitment - one of those things in which it is very important to think about your corporate culture: if you do this thoughtful approach part of your daily routine, you will advance far in establishing the value base of your company.
Concluding the conversation, I would say that corporate culture - this is customer service and fitness as motherhood and apple pie. Everyone wants to provide excellent customer service, and every company wants to create a good corporate culture. What they forget - make it your daily habit. You can not get fit, if you do not exercise regularly. Suddenly, you lose form, become thick and then say, "Oh, I need to starve yourself to get in shape." It will not work, and this applies not only to fitness, but also to the culture. Well, I think we have gone through all the items, and we can move on to the questions and answers with Brian.
Brian Chesky: Hello everyone. How to quiet here. [Audience laughter]. I'll be honest, now I feel more free. There is nothing worse when you're in a quiet room with a bunch of people, and they all look at you, but now I have calmed down.
Alfred Lin: Well, I told you about 5-10 minutes, you can spend a little more time. So, Brian, can you tell us about how you came to understand that culture is very important in building the company and AirBnB in particular?
Brian Chesky: Yes, but I will not tell the story of the formation of AirBnB entirely, and try to tell briefly. Some of you may know her. Here's an abbreviated version of the story: AirBnB not conceived as a company and startup. I walked away from their jobs and lived in Los Angeles.
Once I moved to San Francisco, where he went to live with her boyfriend on the School of Design of Rhode Island Joe Gebbia (Joe Gebbia). In the bank I lay a thousand dollars, and the rent to be paid a thousand and a hundred and fifty dollars. That weekend in San Francisco hosted the international congress of designers. All hotels have been reserved, so we decided to turn our house into a hotel-type "bed and breakfast" on the conference.
I did not have beds, but Joe had three inflatable mattress that we got out of the closet and called our hotel «The Air Bed and Breakfast». And the company was born.
I remembered this story ten thousand times and never thought that I would have her tell someone. I remember when I was growing up, I went to college, my parents were social workers, and never thought that I will do in art school. They were worried that I will not get a job after college, although I'm sure - this question all parents are concerned.
My mother asked me to promise her that I would find a job with health insurance, and I eventually created AirBnB. I remember she told me: "My guess is that you'll never find a job with health insurance». Blockquote> The reason I am telling you this, that AirBnB has never been a brilliant idea. It was a way to pay the rent, so we could think about something more substantial. But it turned out that we made a solution of this problem into something significant.
Today, we will not deal with how we created our product, this is a topic for another conversation, today we'll talk about how you need to form a team and excellent company. In the early days there were only three founders: Joe, Nate and me. I think one of the reasons for our success was my amazing luck.
I do not think that I was lucky to come to the idea of AirBnB, and I do not think that we were lucky to create a successful team, I am sure that we could try a lot of other ideas and come to success. I think I was lucky because I found two wonderful people with whom I would like to start a startup, and I sympathize with that. They were just frighteningly intelligent.
I think this is one of the first tasks - to build a team of such talented people to make you feel a little uncomfortable to be with them - it gives confidence that together you break through. Blockquote>
In 2008, we began working together, and we were like a family. Do you think the co-founders of his family, and the company - a child. And the child's behavior will depend on what kind of relationship established between the parents. If the parents are able to work but do not work as a team, then the child, frankly, would be the more turns reveals. You do not need it.
Do you want to culture in the company was at the highest level. Therefore, Joe, Nate and I were at the start of this family, we usually worked on 18 hours a day, seven days a week
We had a great shared responsibilities and fulfill them with great responsibility, which served as the basis for the company. And then we thought: at some point you transfer the product to the second stage, which consists in the construction company, which in turn will already produce a product.
Most of the conversations start over on how to produce the product, how to find a niche in the market. As soon as it comes to these conversations, people need to create a company. It does not matter how great and original idea to your product if you do not create the company, it will not survive in the market. We thought about it and realized that we wanted to do this for a long time and build a business.
We wanted to create a competitive company, and to do so, started looking for other businesses with whom we had something in common. All around us, existed for a long time, had an understandable mission.
Do you believe it?
No One?
Source: geektimes.ru/company/friifond/blog/246576/