Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Alana Brajdic

Uber’s Culture has been in the spotlight lately, but what exactly is culture? And what makes it good or toxic?

Culture. It’s a word you’ll hear used a lot in the workplace and media, especially in recent days after the Uber culture scandals. It’s clearly important, but what does it actually mean? And why is it so important to understand? Lets break it down.

What is ‘team culture’?

By the most basic definition, a team culture is made up of the values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours shared by a team. It’s how people work together towards a common goal and how they treat each other. These attributes could be positive or negative.

Culture is a difficult concept to grasp because it’s generally unspoken and unwritten. It’s about dynamics between humans. Different teams within a company can manifest their own culture. But they’re generally influenced by the company culture as a whole.

So what’s a ‘good’ culture and why is it important?

A lot of companies will use the word ‘culture’ as a buzzword to attract talent. The following has been said to me far too many times:

“We’ve got a great culture here. We have a ping pong table AND bean bags.”

Culture is created by people, not the objects placed around them. This is something I stress to people all the time. Putting a ping pong table on the floor of a corporate office made up of people with individualist or sexist attitudes will not automatically create a good culture. Culture takes time to build. It’s not tangible.

Ping Pong Table ≠ Culture

A good culture is one in which team members collaborate, share knowledge, communicate and most importantly support one another. When people feel supported and know that someone has their back they’re able to do great things. It’s like having a safety net that allows you to ask questions, have confidence, speak up and take on a challenges. Not only does this benefit the company, but it benefits your own personal growth.

In organisations (or even in a society) where culture is weak, you need an abundance of heavy, precise rules and processes. It leads to a permission seeking based culture. When a culture is strong, trust exists and people will do the right thing. Thus creating an autonomous environment.

Strong culture = Trust = Autonomy + Efficiency.

If you break a good culture, you break the well oiled machine that creates your products. This broken culture can be reflected in the product being built. Disjointed, broken and miss guided.

Toxic Cultures

The culture of a company begins from the values, behaviours and decisions of an organisation’s leader. If leaders are acting inappropriately and let unacceptable actions slide without discipline, this begins to normalise such behaviours as management levels trickle down.

If leaders are acting inappropriately themselves…this begins to normalise such behaviours as management levels trickle down.

This is why Uber’s company culture has been questioned. Recently, allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination have emerged. Many of the allegations directly involving leaders in top management positions. The CEO has since stepped down.

I guarantee you, not all people in the company would condone this behaviour or act in this way. But none the less its an underlying current that runs through the company and makes an impact on culture. The perception of support and safety has been compromised for its employees.

Lets say you were experiencing discrimination or sexual harassment at work. If the highest person in the company is behaving in the same such manner would you feel safe to speak up? Would your call for help be valued and heard? Probably not. This creates a culture of fear.

Alternatively, in a good culture, if someone feels uncomfortable they’re able to speak up because they know their company and peers will support them. A message preached by and actioned by the highest voice in the company.

What does cultural fit mean and why’s it important?

Cultural fit is the ability for an employee to comfortably work in an environment that is in line with their own beliefs, values, and needs.

When you’re a cultural fit you’re more likely to enjoy your workplace. Be happier, commit long term, be more productive and more engaged. This benefits you and the company. Its a two way street.

Cultural fit = (Happiness + Productivity + Commitment + Engagement)

People are different. Age, race, gender, perspectives, weaknesses. We need this diversity in teams as each experience will strengthen and add value to the team.

Cultural Fit ≠ Hiring people with the same personality as you.

When hiring for a good cultural fit it’s important to be aware of your own cognitive biases. It’s human nature to gravitate towards like minded people with the same personality or beliefs as your own.

In a situation where the culture is toxic, hiring in this way may further proliferate those undesirable traits. Especially if its coming from the top of the organisation, downwards.

Toxic culture + Hiring based on same biases = Further manifestation of same toxic culture.

So how do you build a strong team culture?

It is possible to grow and evolve a team’s culture over time. It all starts with honestly identifying where you are now and where you want to be. The only way to make change is take ownership and action it as a united team. This is a lot easier when you have a good leader.

For my design team, we were starting from a good place but we could identify areas we wanted to improve on. Since introducing a team day on Fridays, we were able to combat some of the struggles we were facing. From my experience, here are things you can do to strengthen your team.

Things You Can Do to Strengthen Your Design Team.

Thanks for reading.

I really enjoyed writing this piece because I got to dive into an interesting topic and share my learnings and thoughts. If this helped you or you think it would be useful to others, give it a cheeky recommendation!

Follow me on Medium for more design articles coming soon. In the meantime, why not check out…

10 Reasons Why All Designers Should Start Writing More

What the Hell Is ‘Team Culture’ and Why Is It so Important? was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What the Hell Is ‘Team Culture’ and Why Is It so Important?

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