Tag: change

Culture

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I made a list of the happiest periods in my life, and I realized that none of them involved money.

We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them.

The ultimate definition of success is, you could lose everything you have and truly be OK with it.

People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said but they always remember how you made them feel, that’s what matters the most.

Our philosophy has been that most of the money we might ordinarily have spent on advertising should be invested in customer service, so that our customers will do the marketing for us through word of mouth.

Our belief is that a company’s culture and a company’s brand are just two sides of the same coin. The brand is just a lagging indicator of the culture.

Tony Hsieh

Lapse

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What do you do when you miss an appointment, forget about something, fail to do what you promised you would?

You can hide, delay the difficult conversation until it gets too late to actually have it, never talk about that again, and miss the opportunity to own your lapse and grow.

Or you can say “I am sorry”.

Choose with intention.

Third kind

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Some companies decide to keep things loose. They have little hierarchy, initiatives can come from a variety of places as a response to a variety of inputs (customers, markets, intuition, experience, data, trials, mistakes, etc.), and the flexibility of the company makes it so it can adapt to changes and decisions fairly quickly without a lot of guidance.

Other companies decide to put structure around things. They build a clear hierarchy, initiatives often come from the top as a response to a limited amount of inputs (often gut feeling and previous experience), and the rigor of the company makes it so it will adapt to changes as quick as an heavy amount of guidance is deployed through its rank.

There is no right or wrong, you just have to figure out what works best for you and for the people that work with you and around you.

There is also a third kind of company. It is the company that puts structure while still wanting to keeping it loose. The company where decisions come from the top with the expectation that people will accept them just because. The company that pays lip service to the importance of its people while at the same time keeping them limited to tasks and urgencies. The company that struggles more than the others to adapt and change, just because nobody has a clear idea of what the hell is going on.

There are more company of the third kind than there are of the first and second combined.

You do not want your company to be of the third kind.

Next level

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If after a run your muscle don’t hurt and you are not short on breath, it probably means you have not exercised hard enough. You are ready for the next level.

Similarly, if you do not feel like you are a fraud and you are letting everyone down with what you do daily, it probably means you are way within your comfort level. You are ready for the next level.

We grow with challenges. And we should seek them regularly to continue our development.

Agree and disagree

Fabrizio3 Comments

Always make an effort to start with what you agree on.

We are wired to focus on the negative feedback, on the opposite opinions, on the rejections, on the new ideas. And so, we need intention to spot agreement.

Next time you get a difficult email, a new plan, a lengthy piece of feedback, a written comment, the notes from a difficult conversation, the minutes of a heated meeting. Print it out, take two markers of different color, highlight what you agree on with one and what you disagree on with the other.

Be honest and impartial. You will have set yourself on a learning path.