SXSW: Building a Great Company Culture
11:39 – Just settled in here at the Hilton.
11:39 – Don’t just take money but do a thorough reference check on VCs.
11:39 – Likens employees to kids; same carrot / stick analogy. Analogizing employer / employee relationship to a family.
11:40 – Read “Good to Great.” (YES!) Best business book to read. (YES!)
11:42 – Talks about maintaining a company culture.
11:43 – Questioner: key challenge is alignment. How do you keep everyone aligned? Top-down or bottom-up?
11:44 – Quotes Tony Hsieh saying “Hire slowly. Fire quickly.”
11:45 – “Know the endgame” (Yes). “You’ve got to overcommunicate. Bring your team in. Show them where they fit in. Be 100% candid.”
11:46 – “What is the journey? What is the crusade? How do they fit in? No one wants a paycheck. That sucks. Figure out what the intangibles are that these guys can be inspired by.”
11:46 – Event detail page.
11:49 – “Are they here for a paycheck? Or are they inspired?” (That’s the $64,000 question.) “Anybody who loses their passion is screwed. Because it sucks.”
11:52 – @MindyFinn: “Lead by example.” So important but also why managers have awesome responsibility. Like parents. And teachers. #sxsw
11:53 – A department of Boundless wasn’t firing on all cylinders. They imposed discipline. 8am conference calls. Now they’re firing.
11:57 – Audience member: All employees must have a sense that they contributed to the purpose of the company. “That has carried us.”
12:07 – Dropped off to do some e-mail.
12:08 – Mindy is asking a question about employees who are your age or older seeing you as the “parent.” Answer: displace the personality. Make it about the business metrics.
12:13 – Observation from the crowd: Company culture takes on the personality of the founder. This is terrifying for some.
12:14 – Book suggestion: “The Starfish and the Spider.”
12:20 – This is actually the most enlightening panel so far. Mostly soaking it in not writing though :(
12:20 – When you feel like you have to copy a lot of people, or invite a lot of people to meetings, there is not clear accountability and ownership. This is so true. The largest meetings are the least productive.
12:27 – Twitter in corporate culture. How do you connect your personal twitter to your corporate one? What if someone badmouths their work on their personal social media accounts?
Mindy’s Twitter Stream:
