"Video Lecture _ Lecture 10 Culture”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWgVWGEuGE&feature=youtu.be

 

 

  In this post, I'm going to present principal ideas of 10th lecture 'Culture' by Alfred Lin and Brian Chesky. Some information about the lecturers: Alfred Chin is an American venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital. Lin was the COO, CFO, and Chairman of 'Zappos.com' until 2010. Brian Chesky is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded the hospitality exchange service Airbnb. Chesky is the CEO of the company. Furthermore, in this talk, Alfred Lin discusses the importance of preserving and supporting a culture within a company. Moreover, Brian Chesky remarks how maintaining culture made 'Airbnb' the success and achievement it is today.

  Alfred Lin brought a quotation by Gandhi which shows how belief may influence on further actions and results "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your value becomes your destiny." According to this, we firstly should understand what culture is.  Is it the beliefs, customs, arts or anything else that belongs to a particular society, group, place or time? As Alfred Lin told it is a way of thinking, reasoning, and behaving that endures within a place or an organization. Why is it important to maintain a culture within a company? The function of culture within a company or business operates the same way as for individuals. If each member of a team is in chase of one goal or essence value that the company is striving for and the team works and believes what they are doing than this company will have a success such as 'Airbnb' company. Consequently, it is necessary to have focused values and appropriate actions put into place that employees and team members are working through the mission. The main reasons why people are focused on this are the principles, alignment and stability, and trust.  Therefore, principles assist to obtain decisions when falling back on original ideas or making new plans. Alignment and stability support to follow the core values the company was built upon while providing stability for any backsets or downfalls. Trust creates an environment of trust one another can rely and depend on and this way company’s culture and core values engage more employees. So, all the benefits come from a culture in a company which includes core values that a team follows. How do companies choose core values?  Thus, there are some questions which help to come up with it:

1. As the leader, what personal values are the most important to you? What do you look for in an employee as well as vice versa? Make sure to note what qualities and characteristics bad employees had previously.

2.    What are the most imp values for business success?

Do your employees believe in your mission?

3.    What values will you look for in your employees?

4.    What could never be tolerated?

What characteristics will not work well in your company?

5.    Remember to incorporate your mission into your core values. Are your core values credible and uniquely tied to your mission?

  Next, a tool which will be beneficial and helpful while creating core values is the meaning of them. What values do your current employees recognize with? For example, teamwork, this has various meanings to different people. After such work, you will understand what company determines by requiring these values. Company’s core values will attract qualities you will want your future employees to have. Therefore, you'll construct high-performance teams. Then, everyone will be held accountable for their responsibilities. While interviewing your candidates you will already know who will fit the best. Do they have a good culture fit? Do they believe in the mission and want to follow it? In this case, if you hire the smartest engineer in the world but she/he hasn't the core values of your company it will mean that they will not put their heart and soul into your company. Therefore, one must evaluate performances on a daily basis. What people fail to do is work hard every day. Maximum effort and performance should be a daily habit. There exist also several points which no one will tell you about culture: They never tell you anything, it is hard to measure, and it doesn't pay off in a short period. So, creating a culture makes a company hire and build more slowly. However, it may also help a company to last longer and have further success. Consequently, a culture within a company has a big role and impact in its development.