#16 Culture Vulture š¦
Summary
š¦ Culture Vulture:Ā Ben Horowitzās āWhat you do is who you areā.
āļøĀ Trade-offs & Values: Functionality, Quality and Schedule - pick 2.
šµĀ Recent Deals in Spain: Volava, Koa Health and more!
š Thinking or Reading:Ā Real wipeouts and social media 3.0
š¦ Culture Vulture
Culture is an important thing people talk (a lot) about in startups.
Yet, it is amazing how often people talk about it, but donāt follow through.
There is hardly a better way to ruin the vibe in your workplace than not walking your talk, particularly for leaders. Like Jocko says:
āItās not what you preach, itās what you tolerateā
You may no think people notice, but those little details, that crumb-trail of little details a ābadā leader takes advantage of relative to what everyone on the team gets - everyone notices.
I always think back to Band of Brothers, the episode where the new Lieutenant Dike (a posh boy who wanted to be in politics and needed āfieldā experience) joins Easy Company during the invasion of Foy in the Ardennes.
Easy Company is stuck in Bastogne and it is very, very cold - they donāt have winter clothing, their boots are wet and freezing, and they sleep in holes in the ground.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Norman Dike is not as around as he should be (he goes back to HQ often to eat warm food), has slightly better clothes and runs a little slower when taking the town - everyone notices.
Lieutenant Dike is a Culture Vulture, because he feeds on other peopleās efforts instead of adding to them. Donāt be Lieutenant Dike.
In his book āWhat you do is who you areā, Ben Horowitz highlights a set of lessons on culture - using history as a reference point. Hereās the net net:
Culture = what happens when nobody (or the person in charge) is looking.
Tactic N. 1 = utilising shocking guidelines to keep people thinking. Toussain Louverture (the guy who eradicated slavery from Haiti) used this to his advantage. An example: He used shocking guidelines (prohibiting married officers from having concubines) to instil trust among the population (ok, not shocking today but it was back then).
Tactic N. 2 = remember death at all times. Just like the samurai, it will help you focus - and acknowledge the worst possible result. The author also suggests internalizing other samurai virtues like honor, politeness, and sincerity: which translate very well to business.
Tactic N. 3 = view things from the perspective of a newcomer. This lesson is pulled from an imprisoned gang leader who ruled his prison.
Tactic N. 4= enable a sense of inclusion. Genghis Khan was a master of inclusion, which in turn made him the greatest effective leader in military history. He understood that Mongol tribes lacked a common goal - which he turned into a military campaign in which he imposed a clear meritocracy.
Tactic N. 5 = do what you have to, to instil the 2 capital virtues in business - trust & loyalty.
āļø Functionality, Quality, Schedule (Pick 2)
My friend Stelio - who works in product at a tech company with a blue logo - shared an interesting article, highlighting the importance of Quality in software engineering.
āThey don't understand the most fundamental truism of software: functionality, quality, and scheduleāyou get to pick only two. By the way, if you're going to pick functionality and schedule, I'm out of here, and so is every other high-quality engineer, because I don't want to deliver shit.' says Bryan Cantrill (CTO, Joyent).
Should you compromise quality in order to stick to your launch date? Or does limiting the functionality make more sense? Or push out the launch date? What would your team do?
We are constantly hit with tradeoffs like this one. But identifying and expressing our team values can help clarify the mission of a team - allowing us to make better tradeoff decisions.
#1 - Start by understanding your individual values. These can be anything from accountability, achievement or balance to competence, excellence etc. Then narrow down from hundreds of values, to 10, to 2. Hereās an exapmle:
#2 - Share the values with your team - form a sentence for each value and concisely communicate it to your team. Example:
Revisit over time, and see how you & your teamās values change.
Check out Colin Breckās exercise āUnderstanding Our Core Values: An Exercise for Individuals and Teamsā
šµĀ Recent Deals In Spain
You love startups and want to enjoy a Spanish lifestyle? Come join the Spanish startup ecosystem. Hereās a list of recently funded startups:
Volava (home fitness) raisedĀ ā¬2m
Koa Health (healtech)Ā raised ā¬30m.
MedLumics (biotech) raisedĀ ā¬18m.
BusUp (mobility) raisedĀ $6m
Lang.ai raisedĀ $2m
Kubbo raisedĀ ā¬1m
Inbiot MonitoringĀ (air quality monitoring) raised 204K.
šĀ Thinking or Reading
A Real Wipeout
Donāt try this at home.
Evolution of Social Media
Interesting read and framework by Digital Native.
Quote Iām Pondering
Seek to recover and exploit failure, since this is far more common than success - John Danaher.
If you find this interesting, please considerĀ sharing with your friends. Iād also love to get your thoughts and feedback onĀ Twitter. Until the next one!Ā š
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