Companies Create “Culture” By Throwing Random Adjectives At The Wall

It doesn’t (and shouldn’t) need to be this way.

Got this concept from a Stowe Boyd newsletter, and it goes a little something like this:

• Dynamic culture!
• Modern culture!
• Recognition culture!
• 21st-century culture!
• Transparent culture!
• Innovative culture!
• Etc, etc.

We’ve all heard this bullshit, and we’ve all worked in places where this bullshit is peddled to the masses as if the word before the word “culture” is supposed to actually mean something, when it almost never does. An “innovative culture” typically means they hit on one product about 17 years ago, it still sells well, and they keep hiring engineers from good schools hoping for a second roll in the hay. A “transparent culture” typically means someone periodically holds all-hands meetings, but if you even tangentially criticize a senior leader, you’ll be on a PIP in a New York cocaine heartbeat.

Cultures are often designed and described in these ways, but … it usually is full of absolute nothingness. Culture then becomes a suitcase word (carries a lot of definitions), and suitcase words are loved by leaders…