A Culture of Yes
What if we started saying yes more often? That was the thought I had today as I was reviewing project concepts. Often I find it very easy to say no. To look and find the holes in an idea. To evaluate all the potential problems, rather than focus on the core idea.
Coming into an established project is tough. You inherited a culture, rather that being able to establish it. And that's exactly what I've been working on for the past four months, helping change a culture.
I've always been at the start of a project, which allows you to establish your own culture. At Glean, I was the founder, so I could focus our attention on the culture. Before that, I had a great manager who empowered our team to shape the team's internal culture. But now, I have inherited a culture. Which an entirely unique experience and something that can be challenging to navigate.
How do you change a culture? I believe it starts small. It starts by being open, honest, and showing that you're willing to take a risk. I often talk to people about being ok with failure. People need to get to a place where they are conformable with failure. But, it's easy to forget to take that mindset into your own office. To treat your team members as people who can and should take risks.
Not getting out of the way is one thing that holds managers back. Often, we want to be the filter for a lot of things, we want people to report up to us, for us to be in the loop. But all that does is create a bottleneck in the process. I want team members who are willing to take a risk. And I don't want to be the reason they aren't taking that risk.
This doesn't mean that we can absolve ourselves of any responsibility for what happens. Everything still needs to fall on us as leaders. We need to be willing to fail with our team. But I am aiming to take those risks head on and while we will fail at some things, our successes will be that much greater.
What type of culture in your office are you cultivating?