The Importance of Corporate Culture
From "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense" by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, Page 78
Employee loyalty, engagement, and commitment are important benefits, but not the whole story. In a typical organization, people charged with building and maintaining relationships with others -- such as customers or employees -- work in a place where many kinds of relationships are discouraged (or there is a don't ask, don't tell policy) and the only thing that matters is business. The analogy we make is this: just as it is difficult to have total quality management practices and high quality in one part of a factory and not in another, it is difficult to encourage some close and effective relationships, for instance with customers, while simultaneously discouraging, denying, or ignoring other relationships. The authentic emphasis on supporting employees' inside and outside relatiosnips at Southwest [Airlines] and at places like CostCo, Genentech, Smuckers, Starbucks, and Wegmans means that employees have the desire and emotional energy and keep developing the interpersonal skills to build relationships that are in the company's best interest. These enduring relationships result in higher profits.
When considering agile teams, I have to be aware that there is a special and very intimate relationship between the members of successful agile teams. It goes beyond work, because during the course of the day - especially if the day includes pairing - the members of the team will talk about just about everything. This goes back to the concept of openness.
In exploring the most effective organizations, Pfeffer and Sutton address how important it is for organizations to foster a sense of family and community within the work place that is not completely separate and isolated from the rest of the employees' lives.
One of the hard things for many managers, especially those who have come up through the technical ranks, is to learn how to create this kind of open, connected culture.
In an agile environment, I believe it's even more crucial. And when you consider that "customer" is a key role on the team, and the concept of the relationships between the various members of the team and the team and their organization and customers, then it's foundational.
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. Try it.
