30 \ December 2018 \ http://www.phparch.comThe Dev Lead Trenches
Creating a Culture
Chris Tankersley
I have spent much time talking about creating and managing a working team, but there is one
important piece I’ve left out of the puzzle until now—creating and crafting a culture that makes
people want to work on your team and stay on your team. If you have a company culture which
does not attract people, employees will be hard to find.One of the most significant factors
for many developers when deciding to
get or keep a new job is the culture of
a company. Tech rags love to talk about
what the culture of big companies are
and the various ways the organizations
influence those cultures. Culture is one
of the few long-standing aspects of a
company that drives employees and
pulls in new people.
For Netflix, their culture is “People
over Process.” While they do offer perks
like unlimited holidays, their core
tenants are meant to make employ-
ees the most effective, best versions of
themselves. In a company the size of
Netflix, this comes directly from the
top. You can find a copy of their orig-
inal “Culture” slides on Slideshare.com^1.
It is not my intention to recount this
awesome slide deck, but I want to high-
light one of the most important slides
out of the one hundred and twenty-five
slides:“The actual company values, as
opposed to the nice sounding values,
are shown by who gets rewarded,
promoted, or let go.”I want to highlight the most import-
ant things which should go into a
company’s culture and the things a
lead developer can do on their team.
Company culture starts at the top, and
even if you work in a company without
a great corporate culture, you can make
your team better and set an example.What Culture Is Not
I have somewhat alluded to it already
with the quotes from Netflix, but the1 Slideshare.com:
https://phpa.me/slideshare-netflix-culture
culture of a company is not the material
benefits that come along with employ-
ment. Culture is not defined by the
number of vacations days you get, how
cheap the insurance is, or how many
foosball tables are in the rec room.
There is a big difference between
something like having unlimited vaca-
tion days and having a company which
actually encourages employees to take
a vacation. The perk belies the actual
culture aspect of what “unlimited vaca-
tion” implies—something that is meant
to help keep you healthy is often just
used as a carrot dangled in front of you.
A company purchasing high-end
hardware for its employees is a good
thing, but that is not a culture thing.
Any company should do whatever it can
to make sure employees have the tools,
be it hardware or software, they need
to do their job effectively. I’ve worked
for companies who promise “no budget”
when it comes to things like that, but
the culture behind that statement does
not exist. I have had equipment denied
due to all sorts of excuses, or I have
had to forgo getting a tutorial ticket to
a conference and get a regular ticket.
Behind the scenes, someone is counting
dollars, and no department wants to be
seen as wasteful.
There is a term for when companies
start to adopt external practices with-
out understanding their need: “Cargo
Cults.” This is a term that came from
World War II where indigenous peoples
would build airstrips and mock-ups of
airplanes, which they equated with
god-like creatures, in an attempt to get
airplanes to land.
These peoples had no idea what an
airplane was, but they saw these giant
metal birds taking off and landing
on these cleared strips of land. Thesegiant metal birds and their accompa-
nying soldiers brought with them many
goods the natives had never dreamed
of. It was not a far stretch to think that
enticing the airplanes to land would
continue this.
Many companies follow a similar
pattern. Let’s give everyone unlimited
vacation! Put in a restaurant! Build a
gym! Buy everyone three monitors!
They ignore entirely why companies
put those policies in place. Unlimited
vacations are meant as a way for people
to feel comfortable taking time off to
recharge, and not worry about having
enough personal time off to take a
mental health day or two. The restau-
rant’s purpose is not necessarily just a
status symbol; it is to make sure employ-
ees can have a good meal without going
off campus or in the case they have to
work late. The gym helps make it easier
for people to stay fit. Three monitors are
just dumb; it’s 2018, and we should have
dual widescreen monitors.
Beware companies, or turning into a
company, that list those specific perks
as part of their culture, and look for
them to highlight the underlying bene-
fits. Cargo cults are just as prevalent in
tech companies as they were in those
Pacific islands.The Hidden Culture Wrapped in
Gold
Many years ago I was lucky enough
to have a friend working at Google who
let me visit to check out the Mountain
View campus. I had a great time. One
thing that stood out to me, and him,
was how Google designed the entire
campus to make you want to stay there
and work. Need hardware? Just call
someone. Need laundry done? There
were places on campus to take care of it.