Why Every Leader Needs to Worry About Toxic Culture
Toxic culture was the single best predictor of attrition during the first six months of the Great Resignation — 10 times more powerful than how employees viewed their compensation in predicting employee turnover.
1. The link between toxicity and attrition is not new: by one estimate, employee turnover triggered by a toxic culture cost U.S. employers nearly $50 billion per year before the Great Resignation began.
2. While most everyone agrees that toxic workplaces are bad news, there is much less consensus on what makes a culture toxic as opposed to merely annoying. Scholars have proposed multiple, sometimes conflicting definitions of toxic culture, and a quick review of blog posts and managerial articles surfaces dozens of warning signals of toxic culture with little overlap across them.
3. In Glassdoor reviews, employees criticize their corporate cultures for hundreds of flaws — including risk aversion, excess bureaucracy or an impersonal feel, to mention just a few.
👉Read here this entire study, co-authored by Donald Sull, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founder of CultureX.
Speak up 📣 They Pulled A Fast One On Us, Again
The big news in Tech last week was the unraveling of Fast, the Stripe-backed checkout company whose headcount and valuation had been growing like gangbusters for the past couple of years.
This is obviously not the outcome we wish on any company or teams - but it’s not all bad either. Let’s look into the facts, and then the silver lining. On Monday, April 5th, the company announced its shutdown. It is letting go of its 500+ employees.
Fast checked all the boxes for the VC hype train:
.a company cofounded by a charismatic, repeat entrepreneur, with a former Uber executive, both with relevant experience in the payments space, and a broad network in the investment community
.a big and growing opportunity space with aggressive competitors also raising big rounds, and the opportunity to build a global company from scratch
.the capacity to attract people from blue-chip companies and scale up hiring at lightning speed.
Fast raised $120 million over a two-year period and was attempting to raise another round of about $100 million when it ran out of cash. This story is not unlike those of fast commerce, social exchange and other burgeoning startups that frequently pop up and disappear. Yet there is good news in this story.
OK, so what's positive about this, I hear you ask? Have a look at Florent's post from Teampact Ventures on Medium. You can also watch this great thread by Brian Rumao who draws a lot of lessons like angel 😇.
DATA 📊 After Work, Do You … Get Back To Work?
The well-being of office workers is increasingly becoming a priority for responsible companies. Microsoft observed employee behavior to improve its Teams collaborative program. The study involved monitoring keyboard activity. For most employees, peaks of activity occurred between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., and then between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. But the study revealed a third peak quite late in the evening, around 10:30 p.m. (see graph below) and this affects 30% of those observed.
It raises the question, “Is this about flexiblity, or is it about work encroaching on someone’s personal hours?” askes Shamsi Iqbal, Microsoft Research.
In our current era of hybrid work, there is no one size fits all. Some people stick to traditional office hours; others don’t. In where, how, and when they work, people are looking for flexibility. Working late certainly isn’t new. What’s different now is the commingling of home and office responsibilities across nearly every sector of the workforce. Different workers have different needs and challenges, many of which go unseen. Empathy and communication will become more essential than ever. Find the full study here 👈
News 🗞️ Musk Lands At Twitter, For Better Or For Worse?
On April 4, Elon Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder, with nearly 10% of the capital. The next day, it was announced that he had joined the company's board of directors. A lot of people thought that was really cool. Internally, the mood was much more mixed. So much so that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal immediately proposed a very unusual internal "ask me anything" session, in an effort to appease concerned workers who in recent days have expressed fears that the fiery Musk is damaging the company's culture.
Town hall meetings where employees can ask direct, pointed questions of executives are a long-standing tradition in Silicon Valley, but it's rare for a board member to attend. (Find the Washington Post article ⬅️)
Let's remember how this story started: Musk asked his 80 million followers (on Twitter) if they wanted to see an edit button. The company later confirmed that the button was already in the works. But once again, the methods and style of the Tesla founder have their limits. The billionaire has suggested changes such as removing the "w" from the company's name to make it more vulgar and opening the San Francisco headquarters to accommodate the homeless. Musk has long shown a significant lack of respect for corporate governance rules, but here he took it to a new level by offending thousands of Twitter employees.
This week, in a surprising turn of events, it was learned that Musk would not be joining Twitter's board of directors after all... wise move, right?
Trend 🌊 Why is Gen Z Embracing Slow Dating?
Getting to know younger people is an obsession for some, especially in fields as different as marketing or human resources. In a recent interview with Fortune, Tinder's new CEO, Renate Nyborg, explained how this younger generation, which accounts for more than 50% of users, uses the app.
The "millennial journey" on Tinder was typically match, chat online, then go for a date within a week or two. But Gen Z is approaching things at a very different pace: “You match with someone, you chat, you go on an Animal Crossing date, you chat some more, you exchange Spotify playlists, and then two months later, you might go on a date”.
The Nugget 🍪 Remember When You Blacked Out During That Scary Presentation @ Work
Recently spotted thanks to Sarah from Teampact Ventures this article , by IMD Lausanne Alyson Meister and Maude Lavanchy curate research-backed tips from high-level sports to deal with “choking” moments. Here are a few examples:
➡️ Visualize the action beforehand
Athletes will often use this technique when training with mental preparation coaches. Actually, research shows that visualising an action activates the same brain areas as completing it!
➡️Develop a stress mindset
Reframing stress as a challenge in your mind changes your bodily reaction to it.
➡️ Be present in the moment
Mindfulness and meditation is known to improve performance when faced with stress, and is part and parcel of Novak Djokovic’s routine. Distracting yourself from the situation minutes before it occurs can also help you be more present and resist ‘paralysis by analysis’ once you have to perform.
To remind you
"ppl first" is committed and benevolent for employees, managers, and founders!
What is ppl first? It's a company that puts the employee at the heart of the strategy, considering that a fulfilled worker will make a healthy and sustainable business.
Why ppl first? Everything is accelerating and for years customer is too often the top priority, the employee is sometimes an adjustment variable. Less considered, he/she's also less committed.
How ppl first? There are many ways to achieve this (or to stay this way) but there is a common base. When a staff member would not recommend to his friends to work with him/her, when the management does not have clear values to defend etc. Staff is at risk and the company with it. To have or maintain a people first culture you need to care about your employees as individuals.