What does culture really mean?

And why work culture is an important ingredient of success and failure

Last year, we had to have a difficult conversation with a young intern. Brilliant, had energy and charm, and not averse to hard work at all. But it just wasn’t working out. I was a bit torn about this: Internships are two-way streets, the organisation has to give the young person as much support and guidance as possible. After all, it may be their first time in an office environment.

As I’ve always said, learning how to work will easily take up the first two years of your working life.

But also, we had to let them go. It wasn’t working. We were wasting each other’s time. This is not something anyone likes to do, including me. Moreover, the company where I learned how to work, Freshworks, had also taught me that you have to give people as many chances as you can. At least until it went public, Freshworks rarely fired people, it just moved them around until they found their sweet spot and started performing.

The culture is the decision

As I was mulling over this, I had a conversation with a few members of my team, and they could see I was disturbed. Until one of them spoke up: Our culture does not allow this. We can’t dither. We have to let this person go. And they were right. That was the why of the decision. This culture we were part of did not encourage indecision or slowness. And so I took the call.

This conversation has stayed with me because it illustrates clearly what culture means: A set of codes, rules, and beliefs that organically become an unspoken system that guides decision-making and everyday attitudes.

Wikipedia calls it a set of shared norms, values, and behaviours. Exactly.

It was a clear understanding of our culture that told us that we had to take a certain decision: In this case, we had to cut an internship short.

Does that mean this person wasn’t a good employee, or would not be successful? No, of course not. They were just not a fit for this culture, at this particular time.

The culture-fit problem

This is a bit personal, but I’ll tell the story anyway.

In 2020, I joined India’s most celebrated VC firm, Accel. Great firm, great set of people, a culture that put founders first, and actions that backed up this outlook.

I was super excited to join, and was looking forward to making an impact.

I did some good work. We launched the pre-seed program Accel Atoms, we wrote and distributed some brilliant stories, remade the new media arm of Seed to Scale, and so on.

But, and this is the kicker: I was not able to think strategically, and build compounding for the brand. There were a lot of gaps and opportunities, and I didn’t see or act on them. I decided to leave after a little less than 2 years.

Why did I not ace the role?

I have thought about this a lot.

One, because of a lack of specific experience. VC firms are remarkably different from startups, and I did not adapt. And two, the working culture was very very far from what I was used to.

I did not see this second reason myself, however. A friend, a senior HR executive, told me this. I don’t remember her exact words, but the gist was this: There’s a reason people who thrive in certain cultures simply do not perform in others. Work culture is as important a factor in success as your hard work is.

(This is not to give myself a clean chit. That I should have also done better is a given.)

When she told me this, I was surprised. I had never seen it that way. But since then, I have observed this culture-fit problem to be true.

Find the perfect culture for you

Culture tells you how to behave, how to decide, how to work. And when your own values/working style are far away from the expectation, you will struggle.

This doesn’t mean that the culture is wrong, or that you are not good enough. It actually means the opposite: It means that you haven’t found the correct place for you yet. This culture may just be for a different kind of executive.

And that’s fine, is what I’m trying to say.

This is the reason some people who are stars in particular organisations switch and can’t seem to find their feet quickly. This is why organisations also take seriously the culture-fit interview. And this is also why you shouldn’t beat yourself up when you are not able to hit the ground running in a new place. You need to understand the culture, and adhere to it. If you aren’t able to, that’s fine. The organisation will find a better fit. You concentrate on finding the culture that works for you.

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Couple of changes to the newsletter I wanted to point out again.

1. A reminder that the comments are now open. Please write, discuss, anything.

2. We are going to reopen the job board. Please do send me your open positions with a link to the JD at sairamkrishnan@outlook.com.

And if you are looking for a role, or your friend is, ask them to send their LinkedIn profiles, and what job roles they are looking for, to sairamkrishnan@outlook.com with clear subject lines. I’ll feature them as well.

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