Anecdote: Open letter to CXO's

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14/05/06 |

Open letter to CXO's

By Shawn. Filed in Culture.

Pam Slim writes a refreshing and forthright post slamming common management practice. I particularly like her take on culture:

Corporate culture is a natural thing that cannot be manufactured. No amount of posters, incentive programs, PowerPoint presentations or slogans on websites will affect the hearts and minds of your employees. If you want to see things change immediately, stop acting like an asshole. If you see one of your senior managers acting like an asshole, ask him to stop. If he doesn't stop, fire him. You will be amazed at how fast the culture shifts.

This sentiment was also conveyed in Robert Sutton’s essay in Harvard Business Review where he advocated businesses implement a no asshole rule. Don’t hire assholes regardless of their earning potential and if someone has developed into one, help them see the light or get rid of them.

While I haven’t seen an intervention described in these forthright terms before it certainly meets our criteria of a small thing that can make a difference. Put another way; using simple rules. And frankly, life’s too short to deal with arseholes (Australian spelling).

Here are the 10 points Pam makes. For each point she provides a paragraph.

Don't spend millions of dollars to try and change your culture.
Stop running your company like the mafia
Spend a moment walking around the halls of your company and look at your employees
Teach people how to get rich like you
Don't ask for your employees' input if you are not going to listen to it
Don't train people until you know what problem you are solving
Ditch the PowerPoint when you have town hall meetings
Focus on the work people do, not how or when they do it
Watch the burnout
Forbid people to work while they are on vacation