what-you-do-is-who-you-are | Danny Zuckerman

Key Insights

Virtues vs. values — the central distinction. “A value is merely a belief, but a virtue is a belief that you actively pursue or embody… Culturally, what you believe means nearly nothing. What you do is who you are.” This is the book’s thesis: most corporate values exercises fail because they produce stated beliefs, not practiced behaviors. Culture is built from repeated actions, not documents.
Culture is how decisions get made when you’re not in the room. “Culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there. It’s the set of assumptions your employees use to resolve the problems they face every day.” The test of culture is not what happens when the leader is watching — it is what happens at the margins, in ambiguous situations, with no one observing.
Shocking rules as cultural encoding. “Any rule so surprising it makes people ask ‘Why do we have this rule?’ will reinforce key cultural elements.” Rules that seem arbitrary prompt people to ask for the story behind them — and the story, repeated to every new employee, becomes the culture. The counterintuitive rule is more memorable than the obvious one.
If you see below-standard and do nothing, you’ve set a new standard. “If you see something below standard and do nothing, then you’ve set a new standard.” This applies to ethics, quality, and conduct. The leader’s tolerance of the exception becomes the new norm faster than any stated policy.
Culture’s first day problem. “An employee’s first day at work may not be as indelible as Shaka Senghor’s first day out of quarantine, but it always makes a lasting impression. People learn more about what it takes to succeed in your organization on that day than on any other.” New hires are maximally attentive to cultural signals; this makes onboarding the highest-leverage cultural intervention available.
Trust reduces the required communication. “In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.” High-trust cultures move faster because people don’t need to over-communicate context, verify intent, or manage relationships explicitly on every interaction.
The first twenty hires define the culture. “Most of what ultimately defined us happened in the hiring of the first twenty people. So the question of what do you want the culture to be and who do you want to hire are in some sense the same question.” Culture is transmitted socially; the early hires transmit it to everyone who follows.

— Drafted from external sources; review and edit to make your own.

Kindle Highlights: What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture

Highlights

the most robust, sustainable cultures are those based on action, not words; an alignment of personality and strategy; an honest awareness and assessment of the norms imbibed on the first day of work by new—not veteran—employees grasping at what it will take to make it; an openness to including outside talent and perspectives; a commitment to explicit ethics and principled virtues that stand out and have meaning; and, not least, a willingness to come up with “shocking rules” within an organization that indelibly and inescapably prompt others to ask, “Why?” — location: 47 ^ref-48219

culture is how your company makes decisions when you’re not there. It’s the set of assumptions your employees use to resolve the problems they face every day. — location: 93 ^ref-390

if you see something below standard and do nothing, then you’ve set a new standard. — location: 113 ^ref-2306

The samurai called their principles “virtues” rather than “values”; virtues are what you do, while values are merely what you believe. As we’ll see, doing is what matters. (In what follows I will use “virtues” to refer to the ideal, and “values” to refer to what most companies now espouse.) How exactly did the samurai focus their culture on actions? — location: 208 ^ref-38263

Slavery chokes the development of culture by dehumanizing its subjects, and broken cultures don’t win wars. — location: 284 ^ref-63515

In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust. — location: 421 ^ref-44822

When everyone wants to know “Why?” in an organization, the answer programs the culture, because it’s an answer everyone will remember. The explanation will be repeated to every new recruit and will embed itself into the cultural fabric. New officers would ask, “Tell me again why I can’t have a concubine?” And be told: “Because in this army, nothing is more important than your word. If we can’t trust you to keep your word to your wife, we definitely can’t trust you to keep your word to us.” — location: 430 ^ref-4910

The more counterintuitive the leader’s decision, the stronger the impact on the culture. — location: 464 ^ref-48081

For a culture to stick, it must reflect the leader’s actual values, not just those he thinks sound inspiring. Because a leader creates culture chiefly by his actions—by example. — location: 494 ^ref-47532

It’s because integrity is often at odds with other goals that it must be clearly and specifically inserted into the culture. — location: 517 ^ref-36316

Spelling out what your organization must never do is the best way to inoculate yourself against bugs that cause ethical breaches. — location: 1065 ^ref-21909

A value is merely a belief, but a virtue is a belief that you actively pursue or embody. The reason so many efforts to establish “corporate values” are basically worthless is that they emphasize beliefs instead of actions. Culturally, what you believe means nearly nothing. What you do is who you are. — location: 1111 ^ref-64559

Culture is weird like that. Because it’s a consequence of actions rather than beliefs, it almost never ends up exactly as you intend — location: 1478 ^ref-61268

Who is Shaka Senghor? Is he a ruthless criminal and prison gang leader, or a best-selling author, leader in prison reform, and contributor to a better society? Clearly he’s capable of being both. That’s the power of culture. If you want to change who you are, you have to change the culture you’re in. Fortunately for the world he did. What he did is who he is. — location: 1536 ^ref-52192

This is why new-employee orientation is better thought of as new-employee cultural orientation. — location: 1577 ^ref-38206

Office culture is highly infectious. If the CEO has an affair with an employee, there will be many affairs throughout the company. If profanity is rampant, most employees will take that home, too. — location: 1583 ^ref-61143

To change a culture, you can’t just give lip service to what you want. Your people must feel the urgency of it. — location: 1677 ^ref-6139

Step one in designing a successful culture is to be yourself. That’s not so easy. — location: 2148 ^ref-22384

But Know Which Parts of You Need Work There are parts of any CEO’s personality that he doesn’t actually want in the company. — location: 2183 ^ref-3867

If a customer asks, “Do you have feature X?” a good engineer will answer yes or no. A good salesperson will almost never answer that way. She will ask herself, “Why are they asking about that feature? Which competitor has that feature? Hmm, then they must be in the account trying to take my deal. I need more information.” So she’ll reply with something like, “Why do you think feature X is important?” Having their questions answered with questions drives engineers — location: 2240 ^ref-56819

most of what ultimately defined us happened in the hiring of the first twenty people. So the question of what do you want the culture to be and who do you want to hire are in some sense the same question. — location: 2265 ^ref-59762

A well-designed cultural interview need not be long. Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) is a computer-aided-design software company with a legendary sales culture. My head of sales at Opsware, culture-changer Mark Cranney, came from PTC and was always bragging about how good they were at selling. I got annoyed and asked why they were so great. He said, “Well, it started with the interview. I walked into the interview with the senior vice president of sales, John McMahon. He said nothing for what seemed like five minutes, then asked me, ‘What would you do if I punched you in the face right now?’” At this point in Mark’s story, I cried, “What!? He wanted to know what you would do if he punched you in the face? That’s crazy. What did you say?” Mark said, “I asked him, ‘Are you testing my intelligence or my courage?’ And McMahon said, ‘Both.’ So I said, ‘Well, you’d better knock me out.’ He said, ‘You’re hired.’ Right then I knew that I’d found a home.” How did McMahon make a hiring decision so quickly? That brief exchange enabled him to suss out whether Mark was a fit with his key cultural elements: the ability to keep your poise under fire, the ability to listen carefully, the courage to discover why a question is being asked—and, most of all, competitiveness. — location: 2300 ^ref-37955

Is your virtue actionable? According to bushido, a culture is not a set of beliefs, but a set of actions. What actions do your cultural virtues translate — location: 2343 ^ref-10067

If I knew then what I know now, I would have made an all-out effort to reprogram my culture immediately. In addition to firing Thorston, I would have introduced a shocking rule or created an unforgettable piece of lore. — location: 2507 ^ref-52999

Even if you generally favor speed, it is often important culturally to favor accuracy in certain situations. If “great design” or “great taste” is a key part of your value proposition and your culture, then it might be useful to spend dozens of hours debating the exact shade of black of your product’s packaging. Taking such pains might not materially improve your sales, but it will absolutely reinforce the cultural message that you don’t take shortcuts about design. — location: 2689 ^ref-20397

How do you build a culture that airs its problems without diluting the virtues of ownership and empowerment—and without making everyone feel defeated, or encouraging a culture of whining? — location: 2843 ^ref-50475

if they are unhappy in any way.” Ultimately, loyalty is about the quality of your relationships. People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. — location: 2886 ^ref-39912

Here’s a checklist of points to keep in mind: Cultural design. Make sure your culture aligns with both your personality and your strategy. Anticipate how it might be weaponized and define it in a way that’s unambiguous. Cultural orientation. An employee’s first day at work may not be as indelible as Shaka Senghor’s first day out of quarantine, but it always makes a lasting impression. People learn more about what it takes to succeed in your organization on that day than on any other. Don’t let that first impression be wrong or accidental. Shocking rules. Any rule so surprising it makes people ask “Why do we have this rule?” will reinforce key cultural elements. Think about how you can shock your organization into cultural compliance. Incorporate outside leadership. Sometimes the culture you need is so far away from the culture you have that you need to get outside help. Rather than trying to move your company to a culture that you don’t know well, bring in an old pro from the culture you aspire to have. Object lessons. What you say means far less than what you do. If you really want to cement a lesson, use an object lesson. It need not be a Sun Tzu–style beheading, but it must be dramatic. Make ethics explicit. One of the most common and devastating mistakes leaders make is to assume people will “Do the right thing” even when it conflicts with other objectives. Don’t leave ethical principles unsaid. Give cultural tenets deep meaning. Make them stand out from the norm, from the expected. If the ancient samurai had defined politeness the way we define it today, it would have had zero impact on the culture. Because they defined it as the best way to express love and respect, it still shapes Japanese culture today. What do your virtues really mean? Walk the talk. “Do as I say, not as I do” never works. So refrain from choosing cultural virtues that you don’t practice yourself. Make decisions that demonstrate priorities. It was not enough for Louverture to say his culture was not about revenge. He had to demonstrate it by forgiving the slave owners. — location: 2896 ^ref-32536

If you want people to treat every corporate nickel like it’s their own, then having them stay at the Red Roof Inn sends a better cultural signal than having them stay at the Four Seasons—but if you want them to have the confidence to ask for a $5 million order, the opposite might be true. If you don’t know what you want, there is no chance that you will get — location: 2913 ^ref-53538