05- Do culture and values matter?

CHAPTER FIVE Do culture and values matter? 文化和价值观是否重要？

Foreword by Eoghan McCabe, Co-Founder and CEO

Intercom was a little different from a lot of startups in that the founders had been working together for more than ve years beforehand. So our values were already aligned. We remained interested in working with each other over many years and many diffenent companies because we fundamentally shared the same principles. 来自许多初创公司的Intercom有点不一样，创始人之前一直在一起工作多年。所以我们的价值观已经一致。我们仍然对多年的工作感兴趣，许多不同的公司，因为我们从根本上分享了同样的原则。

This meant that our culture evolved in a very organic fashion at the start. We didn’t need to codify our values - the founders had that shared context, having worked side by side for so long on a daily basis. In fact, if you try to force it early on I think you lose an opportunity to allow the nuances of your values to ourish and take shape. Codifying values really early on means you’re faking it; you don’t really know yet what values work and what don’t. e most meaningful values and the most meaningful cultures emerge in an organic fashion. 这意味着我们的文化在一开始就以有机的方式演变。我们不需要编纂我们的价值观 - 创始人有这样的共同背景，每天都在努力工作了很久。事实上，如果你试图强迫它早点，我想你失去了一个机会，让你的价值观的细微差别我们和形成。意味着要伪装它的价值，你真的不知道什么价值观工作，什么不行。最有意义的价值观和最有意义的文化以有机的方式出现。

Later on, when you’re doing things at scale and you’re hiring people who go on to hire people in quick succession themselves, you need to provide tools and frameworks to help them do so successfully. at’s when you start to codify things. 后来，当你正在大规模地做事情，你正在雇用那些继续自己雇用人的人时，你需要提供工具和框架来帮助他们成功地做到这一点。当你开始编纂事情的时候。

Pretty early on, we came up with ve or six values that were heavily oriented around things the company cared about at that point in time: making good product and doing so in a timely fashion. One of our earliest values is one we still have to this day: “ ink big, start small”. It’s always helped people focus on how they spend their time every day, and reminds us to limit the size of everything we build rather than overcomplicate things. 很早以前，我们提出了六个或六个价值观，重点关注公司在这个时间点关注的事情：做好产品并及时做到这一点。我们最早的价值之一就是我们今天仍然有这样一个：“墨大，开始小”。它总是帮助人们将注意力集中在每天花费时间的同时，提醒我们限制我们构建的一切，而不是过度复杂的事情。

Our values have always been a little looser than at other companies. 我们的价值观一直比其他公司要松一些。

We were lucky enough to be a founding team of four who were already philosophically aligned. Most founding teams are typically two people, and in many cases you spend years getting on the same page. You might have to hire people who you don’t know, and then you’re going to have to spend even more time getting them on the same page. 我们很幸运地成为一个已经在哲学上相一致的四位创始团队。大多数创始团队通常是两个人，在许多情况下，您花费数年时间在同一页面上。您可能需要雇用不了解的人，然后您将不得不花费更多的时间让他们在同一页面上。

If you want your company to be driven by values, and you’re not as fortunate as we were to have strong relationships and principles in place from day zero, someone’s going to have to take the initiative early on to force those values on the group. is will create some unavoidable friction and tension, but it’s an important opportunity for shared growth and development. 如果您希望公司受到价值观的驱动，而您并不幸福，因为我们将从零开始就建立牢固的关系和原则，那么有人必须早日采取主动行动将这些价值观强加于群组。将会产生一些不可避免的摩擦和紧张局面，但这是共同成长与发展的重要契机。

When most people think about company culture, they think about something contained within four walls in a speci c place. ey might think about ping pong tables and a fridge full of soda.

当大多数人想到公司文化时，他们会考虑到一个特定地方的四面墙内的东西。可能会考虑乒乓球桌和一个充满苏打水的冰箱。

A company culture is none of these things. It’s actually people practicing the spoken and unspoken values of the company on a consistent and deliberate basis.

公司文化不是这些东西。实际上，人们是在一贯和蓄意的基础上练习公司的口头和不言而喻的价值观。

Subsequently, it means you can’t buy – or fake – culture. It’s relatively straightforward to create the illusion of a happy, open and inclusive workplace. Unless you have a real culture, the illusion will quickly fade, regardless of how hard you try to engineer it. Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, once said, “Real cultures are built over time.They're the result of action, reaction, and truth.”

随后，这意味着你不能买 - 或假 - 文化。创造一个快乐，开放和包容的工作场所的幻觉是比较直接的。除非你有一个真正的文化，否则幻觉会快速消失，无论你尝试如何努力工程化。Basecamp联合创始人Jason Fried曾经说过：“真正的文化是随着时间的推移而建立的。是行动，反应和真理的结果。

You can’t force culture, but you can give it the chance to ourish. At Zappos, managers are tasked with one goal – maintaining company culture. Instead of tying them up in meetings and bureaucracy, managers empower people to make the right decisions for the company and customer. ey do this through ve weeks of training on company culture, taking calls from customers and working in the Zappos warehouse. It’s only then that they start the job they were hired for.

你不能强迫文化，但你可以给它机会我们的。在Zappos，管理者的任务是实现一个目标 - 维护公司文化。管理者不用把它们捆绑在会议和官僚体系中，而是让人们为公司和客户做出正确的决定。通过几周的公司文化培训，接听客户的电话和在Zappos仓库工作，这样做。只有这样，他们才能开始他们被雇用的工作。

Your startup might not have the resources of Zappos, but there are similar steps you can take to make sure culture ourishes. You could put out a culture book written by employees about what your company culture means to them. Or you could have everyone spend one day a month doing customer support. We do this at Intercom – we refer to them as “Customer Days” – and it helps everyone stay in touch with Intercom’s mission, as well as with the people who pay for and use our products.

您的创业公司可能没有Zappos的资源，但您可以采取类似的步骤来确保文化的精神。你可以推出一份员工写的文化书，说明你们公司文化对他们的意义。或者您可以让每个人每个月花一天时间来做客户支持。我们在Intercom上这样做 - 我们把它们称为“客户日”，它可以帮助每个人保持与Intercom使命的联系，以及支付和使用我们产品的人员。

HAPPINESS AT WORK IS ABOUT YOUR MISSION, NOT YOUR PERKS 工作中的快乐是关于你的使命，而不是你的福利

A related but often overlooked consideration is happiness. Is your team happy at work? Does that even matter if the job is getting done? As it turns out, yes, it does matter deeply. But simply o ering a bunch of o ce perks isn’t the answer. Free food, massages or on-site gyms doesn’t guarantee happiness or a healthy culture. e equation isn’t quite that simple; it’s not perks in, happiness out.

一个相关但经常被忽视的考虑是幸福。你的团队在工作中很开心吗如果这项工作完成，那甚至是重要的吗？事实证明，是的，这很重要。但是，简单地说，一大堆的东西不是答案。免费食物，按摩或健身房不能保证幸福或健康的文化。e方程不是那么简单;这不是幸福，幸福。

Google, for example, has led the way in o ering generous perks for a long time. But if that was the real answer to happiness at work, Google wouldn’t stress so heavily that it’s passion, not perks that is the biggest contributor to its success.

例如，Google长期以来一直在慷慨的津津乐道。但是如果这是工作中幸福的真正答案，谷歌就不会那么沉重，因为它是激情，而不是成功的最大贡献者。

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, quite literally wrote the book on happiness at work and why it matters. In Delivering Happiness, he writes about how Zappos built culture intentionally by valuing happiness and nurturing employees. Small things, like o ering new employees $2,000 if they quit after their first week, helps weed out bad company matches. But he also emphasizes that customer service is everyone’s responsibility and promotes building strong teams outside the office.

Zappos首席执行官Tony Hsieh，写下了关于工作幸福的书，以及为什么重要。在交付幸福中，他写道：Zappos如何通过重视幸福和培养员工来故意构建文化。小事情，像新员工一样，如果他们在第一个星期之后退出了2000美元，可以帮助我们淘汰糟糕的公司比赛。但他也强调，客户服务是每个人的责任，并促进在公司外建立强大的团队。

“You can’t have confidence in your values until you test them. Testing means pushing their boundaries. You’re going to have to break them sometimes. And that’s okay.” 你不能对你的价值观有信心，直到你测试它们。测试意味着推动其界限。你有时会打破他们。没关系。 – EOGHAN (CO-FOUNDER)

Your founding team and everyone who joins you along the way should regularly ask: “Why does our company exist other than to make money?” Most people can’t actually answer that question succinctly, and that’s a problem for culture and team building. Without a clear mission, it’s easy to end up with feature bloat and a lack of cohesion within the product because everyone is working to their own end.

您的创始团队和每一位加入您的人都应该经常问：“为什么我们公司除了赚钱之外吗？”大多数人都不能简单地回答这个问题，这对文化和团队建设是一个问题。没有明确的使命，容易产生功能膨胀和产品内部缺乏凝聚力，因为每个人都在努力工作。

Twitter’s mission statement was “To be the pulse of the planet” (it’s changed a few times) while Amazon’s is “To be earth’s most customer- centric company; to build a place where people can come to nd and discover anything they might want to buy online.” Intercom’s is “To make business personal”.

Twitter的使命宣言是“成为地球的脉搏”（改变了几次），而亚马逊是“以地球为最客户为中心的公司;建立一个人们可以找到并发现他们可能想在网上购买的东西的地方。“Intercom是”做个人事务“。

A mission statement is the present-day expression of a strong, timeless vision, which, though it might sound abstract or grandiose, sets the stage for years to come. A company’s vision should be robust and stand the test of time. Technologies, social networks and other trends come and go – your company should stay relevant regardless.

任务说明是一个强大的，永恒的愿景的表现，尽管它可能是抽象的或宏大的，但是在未来几年里将会形成舞台。公司的愿景应该是稳健的，经受住时间的考验。技术，社交网络等趋势走向 - 您的公司应该保持相关性。

But a vision is more than that: it gives your employees something to rally around as a purpose, and tells everyone which direction they’re going. at way, when there’s con ict in a team, it’s easier to decide whether the answer is no, or “Hell yeah”. (A reference to Derek Sivers who said when deciding whether you should do something, if you feel anything less than “Absolutely! Hell yeah!” – then say “no.”)

但是一个愿景不止于此：它为您的员工提供了一些集会的目的，并告诉大家他们将要走的方向。在一个团队中，当一个团队有一个问题时，决定答案是否不对，或者说是“地狱是”更容易。（参考Derek Sivers，他们在决定是否应该做某事时说，如果你感觉不到“绝对！地狱是的！” - 然后说“不”）。

So, what actions can you actually take to focus on company culture? Alexander Kjerulf, a Danish management consultant who styles himself as a “Chief Happiness Officer”, o ers ve tips to foster a happy and healthy company culture:

那么，您可以采取什么行动来专注于企业文化？丹麦管理顾问亚历山大·克尔沃尔（Alexander Kjerulf），自称为“首席幸福家”，他们提供了一个培养快乐健康的公司文化的秘诀：

• Practice random acts of workplace happiness 练习随机行动的工作场所幸福

• Hire positive people 聘请积极的人

• Stop negative behavior 阻止消极行为

• Celebrate success 庆祝成功

• Celebrate mistakes 庆祝错误

Your culture will be based around the behavior you value most, but the above are a good starting point for any business.

您的文化将以您最重视的行为为基础，但上述是任何业务的良好起点。

MAINTAINING COMPANY CULTURE OVER TIME 维护公司文化

As we discussed in the last chapter, when hiring at Intercom we intentionally question whether or not a person is a great addition to team culture. at doesn’t mean you’re looking for carbon copies of your founding team. Only hiring people similar to your current team won’t improve how you work, and limits your entire company’s capability. Every team has cultural blind spots they’re unaware of, and you’ll likely nd yourself biased in unexpected ways.

正如我们在最后一章讨论的那样，在Intercom招聘时，我们故意质疑一个人是否是团队文化的一个很好的补充。在这并不意味着你正在寻找你的创始团队的碳拷贝。只聘请类似于现在的团队的人不会改善你的工作方式，并限制整个公司的能力。每个团队都有不知道的文化盲点，你可能会以意想不到的方式发现自己的偏见。

What’s important is that when you hire someone, they’re aligned with your vision and mission. If someone’s misaligned with these, the team they hire will be equally, if not more, misaligned. Before you know it, you’vegot multiple teams completely out of sync with your company’s original culture. 重要的是，当你雇用某人时，他们符合你的愿景和使命。如果有人不符合这些要求，他们雇用的团队将同样地（如果不是更多）失调。在你知道之前，你已经让多个团队与您公司的原始文化完全不同步。

A great way to keep people aligned is to have people observe the work of their teammates on a regular basis. For example, every Friday at 5pm, everyone at Intercom gathers around the big screen in their o ce, people grab beers and colleagues demo what they worked on that week.

让人们保持一致的好方法是让人们定期观察队友的工作。例如，每个星期五下午5点，Intercom的每个人都在他们的大屏幕周围聚集，人们抓啤酒和同事演示他们在当周工作的时间。

The is reinforces many of the values we believe in – shipping fast, craving feedback and representing Intercom with pride.

这是强化了我们相信的许多价值 - 快速发送，渴望反馈，并以自豪的方式代表Intercom。

Pixar have a similar approach. ey host what they refer to as Pixar University, where employees devote four hours a week to learning new skills from their colleagues.

皮克斯有类似的做法。他们称之为皮克斯大学，他们每周工作四个小时，从同事那里学习新技能。

It’s also important to remember that culture will become diluted as your team grows. When you walk down the hall and don’t know whether someone’s on your team, or just visiting, it’s time to codify and lock in your values. By giving employees a place where they continually get to learn and evolve, everyone feels like they’re part of a bigger whole. It also creates an environment where people are willing to collaborate, and genuinely like each other. Create a culture like that, and nobody will become misaligned.

同样重要的是要记住，随着团队的发展，文化将会被稀释。当你走下大厅，不知道有人在你的团队，或只是访问，是时候编纂和锁定你的价值观。通过给员工一个不断学习和发展的地方，每个人都觉得他们是更大的整体的一部分。这也创造了一个人们愿意合作，真正相爱的环境。创造这样的文化，没有人会变得不一致。