“Culturally, what you believe means nearly nothing. What you do is who you are.” Horowitz’s latest book is all about leading and creating a purposeful culture at work. He defines culture as a set of actions, rather than the beliefs or corporate values that might be taped on the wall. While he pulls relevant case studies in the modern era – Uber, Netflix, McDonald’s – the book is built upon historical accounts of Toussaint Louverture, Genghis Khan, and the samurai. Each highlights a key lesson in culture, leadership, and how to create meaning. Horowitz reminds leaders that their perspective on the culture isn’t relevant – that’s rarely what your people experience. The real question is what do employees have to do to survive and succeed? What behaviours get them ahead?

Key Points

• culture is what you do #star
• culture should help you answer difficult questions
• culture should be encountered daily
• (memorable) culture should be shocking (beg the question)
• culture should have memorable stories to anchor them
• culture should be reinforced

My 3 takeaways from this book

1. Be intentional about defining your culture – but ensure you also consider how it can be weaponized (Uber example)
2. The definition of culture is really ‘what does it take to succeed in your company – and don’t ask execs or managers to define it
3. Your culture needs to be who you are – don’t try to make some pretty descriptions of what you think a company should be. It’s all about what you wake up and do every day – that’s your culture and what you’re company culture will be.

Why culture matters

Startups who outsource engineering almost always fail: “It turns out that it’s easy to build an app or a website that meets the specification of some initial idea, but far more difficult to build something that will scale, evolve, handle edge cases gracefully, etc.” BH“We at Apple had forgotten who we were. One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.” Steve Jobs“Culture begins with deciding what you value most.” BHCulture = a set of actions, not beliefs.

Virtues vs. Values

Virtues are what you do. Values are what you believe. Corporate values are worthless because they emphasize beliefs instead of actions.“Culturally, what you believe means nearly nothing. What you do is who you are.” BH

Create shocking rules

Should shock people and force them to ask why and must be something they encounter daily. This helps program the culture. Tom Coughlin (New York Giants): If you are on time, you are late. Meetings would start five minutes early. Fined players who failed to be there by that time. It was memorable, forced people to ask why encountered daily, and helped build discipline.

Leadership

“When you are a leader, even your accidental actions set the culture.” BH

Emphasize the “why” behind your values and the vision with every chance you get. That’s what gets remembered. Act right: “As a leader, you can float along in a morally ambiguous frame of mind until you face a clarifying choice. Then you either evolve or you wall yourself up in moral corruption.” BH“Your perspective on the culture is not that relevant. Your view or your executive team’s view of your culture is rarely what your employees experience…The relevant question is, what must employees do to survive and succeed in your organization? What behaviours get them included in, or excluded from, the power base? What gets them ahead?” BH“Good intentions, pursued without meticulous forethought and follow-through, often lead to catastrophe.” BH

What you do must matter

Above all else, employees want to know that they matter, they’re making a difference, there’s meaningful work to be done, and they’re moving the bigger picture forward. Without this, it’s impossible to get people to care. If culture can’t make quick decisions or has a void in leadership, it becomes defined by indifference

Disagree and commit

As a manager, the worst thing you can do is undermine decisions made above you – creates cultural chaos, makes your team feel marginalized and powerless, and the result is apathy and attrition. The way you get to the place of being able to articulate a decision you might not agree with is by asking why. It’s your job to understand the reasoning behind a decision, otherwise, you have failed your team. Telling the truth isn’t natural. It requires courage. The easy thing to do is to tell someone what they want to hear. You might not convince everyone you’re right. But everyone must feel heard and that you’ve acknowledged their concerns. This is the path towards disagreeing and committing.

• Culture checklist
  • Culture design: align with your personality and strategy
  • orientation: make sure people are introduced to it
  • Shocking rules
  • Incorporate outside leadership if needed
  • Object lessons: have vivid stories
  • Makes ethics explicit
  • Give tenets deep meaning, make them stand out
  • Walk the talk
  • Make decisions that demonstrate priorities