Ben Horowitz’s new book, What You do is Who You Are, is the kind of book I would have written: a book about management with lessons from history. Each chapter starts with a history lesson (he discusses the Mongols, the Haiti revolution or the Samurai Bushido code), then he extracts some high-level principles from the story & then puts them in perspective by sharing some recent business stories where those principles came in handy. A solid recipe.
I enjoyed his book immensely even though I was familiar with most of his history lessons and his management advice is not really new material, having blogged about it and sharing it in lectures anyone can watch online. But still extracted some new ideas I wrote down.
Virtues>Values
We like to talk a lot about values. Individuals advertise them on social media and companies think that a list of abstract concepts will make their employees play well together. But in most cases, values are just intellectual aspirations. Values are what you think about yourself.
The focus should be on virtues. Virtues are what we do: values in motion. As Ben points out, a company is more defined by the actions of its managers and employees than a list of aspirational tag-lines nobody really identifies with.
Company Culture = “how we do things around here”
A company’s culture is not made of the perks it offers. Free food, yoga classes or dogs in the office is not culture. Mission statements are also meaningless in defining company culture.
The culture is the collective behavior of a company’s employees. How people behave when nobody’s watching is what the company is all about. To that extent, there is nothing more meaningful in setting the right company culture than early management decision making.
The 4 Steps for Changing a Culture
Drawing inspiration from the only successful slave revolution - the 1791 Haitian revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, there are 4 steps to change an existing culture:
Keep what works: L’Ouverture used the voodoo songs (that he disapproved of as Christian) as a way of communicating orders. He also used a core of experienced ex-militaries to create the core of his armies. A manager should build on existing success not start from scratch.
Come up with Shocking Rules. Shocks are important because people have to question why the rule exists in the first place. In the Haiti revolution that shocking rule was not to cheat on your wife. For a slave, who lived in a society in which you can die at any time and you don't trust anyone, this was very puzzling.
Incorporate Outside Leadership: Inspired from Caesar, Toussaint L’Ouverture, recruited the commanders he fought against. He wanted to use their culture to transform his. The opposite of what the US did after invading Iraq. Building a great culture means adopting it to circumstances. And that often means bringing in outside leadership from the culture you need to penetrate or conquer.
Demonstrate Priorities by Walking the Talk: Toussaint L’Ouverture also spared all the slave owners to demonstrate his values. You can not start a new peaceful government with genocide.
How to Create Shocking Rules
Great companies have shocking rules. Google started with “Don’t be evil”. Facebook’s “Move fast & break things” is also quite famous. And ben thinks there is a recipe to craft a shocking rule:
It must be memorable. If people forget the rule, they forget the culture.
It must raise the question "why?" Your role should be so bizarre and shocking that everybody who hears it is compelled to ask "Are you serious?"
Its cultural impact must be straightforward. The answer to the way? It must clearly explain the cultural concept.
People must encounter the role almost daily. If your incredibly memorable rule applies only to the situation people face once a year … it's irrelevant.
Communication & Trust
In any human interaction, the required amount of communication is inversely proportional to the level of trust.
If I trust you completely, then I require no explanation or communication of your actions at all, because I know that whatever you are doing is in my best interest. On the other hand, if I don't trust you in the sliders, then no amount of talking, explaining, or reasoning will have any effect on me because I will never believe you are telling me the truth.
Integrity, honesty, and decency are not short terms of cultural investments. They may actually make the product later, loose deals or slow growth. But as a long term investment, it increases the level of trust required for a top-performing organization.
The Cultural Checklist
Ben’s departing conclusion is a list of all the items a manager should consider when designing the culture of his organization:
Cultural Design: The culture you build should align with your personality because you will not be able to fake it & the overall purpose of the enterprise. Make it unambiguous and think about ways in which the rules can be abused.
Cultural Orientation: You have one chance to let new employees know what behaviors are gonna make them successful. Make the first-day count.
Shocking Rules: Have rules that reinforce key cultural elements.
Incorporate Outside Leadership: If you struggle to move the team in a new direction look for new blood.
Object Lessons: Dramatic lessons works best in communicating cultural elements. Yelling at slackers, firing an entire team or ceremonial promotions have this effect if they are strategic.
Make Ethics Explicit: And the best way to do it is to choose ethics over objectives. Always. Never cheat a customer or tell a lie to meet your quarterly quota.
Demonstrate priorities through actions & Walk the Talk: People do what you do, not what you say.
Some time ago I wrote a series of history-infused management articles in a Medium publication called Battleroom. You should read them if you liked the topic of Ben’s book.