Cultural Glue
by Miki SaxonThere’s a very smart software VP over at Dovetail Software (was First Choice Software) whose approach to building his department’s corporate culture has great balance.
Balance between what? Between the serious aspects of a productive environment and the fun that is the glue that holds it all together, “I work at this – building a special kind of culture in my team at Dovetail. Some of it is big stuff – learning how to communicate more effectively, mutual respect, and so on – and some of it is little stuff – giving everyone putty to play with. Silly? Perhaps. But there’s something magic that happens in a group that plays this way.”
Anything about people is about relationships and the interactions are incredibly complex. Take three people and you have at least 12 sets of dynamics circulating,
- A (alone)
- A & B
- A & C
- A & B/C
etc. for each person, and this model grows exponentially as the group gets larger.And because people grow, change and have moods those dynamics are fluid, changing, and not particularly stable—so you need glue.
It doesn’t matter if it’s silly putty, limerick contests, nerf balls or what, the goal is laughter with each other, not laughter at another’s expense, and it’s easy to tell the difference. It’s as if the explanation, “…but I was laughing with you” is never uttered.
Yes, you may find that the big building blocks of great culture, such as clear and constant communications, a well-crafted, well-shared vision and multifaceted respect at all levels, internally and externally take most of your energy, but if you forget to make it interesting and fun you lose the glue, which may not matter in good times, but that’s what holds the edifice together when an earthquake hits.
