Recently, Jeff Bezos released his annual letter to shareholders, and he had some interesting comments about corporate cultures:
“For better or for worse, they are enduring, stable, hard to change. You can write down your corporate culture, but when you do so, you’re discovering it, uncovering it – not creating it. It is created slowly over time by the people and by events – by the stories of past success and failure that become a deep part of the company lore. If it’s a distinctive culture, it will fit certain people like a custom-made glove. The reason cultures are so stable in time is because people self-select. Someone energized by competitive zeal may select and be happy in one culture, while someone who loves to pioneer and invent may choose another.”
What do you think? Have you experienced the same slow creation, stability, and self-selection in your own organization?
Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash
