Jason co-founded Basecamp back in 1999. He also co-authored REWORK, the New York Times bestselling book on running a "right-sized" business. Co-founded, co-authored... Can he do anything on his own?
From time to time during conference Q&A sessions I’m asked “How did you create the culture at 37signals?” or “What do you recommend we do to set up an open, sharing company culture like yours?”
My answer: You don’t create a culture. Culture happens. It’s the by-product of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, and you give them the freedom to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust then trust will be built into your culture.
Artificial
Artificial cultures are instant. They’re big bangs made of mission statements, declarations, and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic. Artificial culture is paint.
Real
Real cultures are built over time. They’re the result of action, reaction, and truth. They are nuanced, beautiful, and authentic. Real culture is patina.
Don’t think about how to create a culture, just do the right things for you, your customers, and your team and it’ll happen.
I’m curious what your policy is for public communication among
employees of your company, particularly posting on the SvN blog. Can
anyone come up with an idea and post it? Are there written guidelines?
Spoken guidelines? An approval process?
This interests me because I’ve seen several broken processes for
public communication and have better ideas in mind, but would be
interested in something that is already implemented and working.
Our policy: Speak up! We want our people to post on SvN, use Twitter, post on the Product Blog, and generally be visible and vocal.
We don’t have an institutionalized approval process. If someone feels like a post may be of questionable content, they can run it past me first, but I don’t require people to run posts past me before they are posted. It’s up to each person to decide if something requires a second look before posting.
When you trust people to make a reasonable decision, they’ll usually make one. When you require everything someone writes to go through an approval process they’ll probably write less and be less interesting. We don’t want people to be afraid to write or afraid to think.
Got a question?
Got a question for us about business, design, programming, marketing, or general entrepreneurship? Drop us an email at svn at 37signals dot com. Include [Ask 37signals] in the subject. Thanks!
The Park Inn Hotel (and attached City National Bank building) in Mason City Iowa is the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel in the world. It’s in desperate need of financial support to save the building.
On March 12, Wright on the Park (WOTP) received a Vision Iowa grant of $7,500,000 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development for the continuation of the rehabilitation of both building segments. Along with the Vision Iowa grant, the sale of Historic Preservation Tax Credits is expected to yield another 67% of the total funding. For the first time, Mason City residents watching the Park Inn’s gradual deterioration since a modern, 250-room hotel was built here in 1922, can believe the project is do-able.
The Vision Iowa grant is double-edged: while providing a great financial boost, it carries a 180-day deadline. Counting from the day after the grant announcement (March 12), a match of $4,300,000 must be raised for this grant. This will be a daunting task for a town of 28,000, without outside help. For $2,000,000 of this match, WOTP must seek help from the wider Frank Lloyd Wright Community. Contributions can be made to Wright on the Park, Inc. by credit card through the WOTP web site: www.wrightonthepark.org, or by mail to P.O. Box 792, Mason City, Iowa 50402-0792.
If you’re a lover of architecture, and you want to see the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel in the world survive to see another day, pitch in what you can. You can read more about the project on the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy site.
Starting right now The Deck, our advertising network targeting web, design and creative professionals, is bigger, smarter and better looking with the addition of Chip Kidd’s Good Is Dead, Dean Allen’s Textism, the various projects of Mr. Ze Frank and the new suite of rich internet applications geared for artists, Aviary.
I love reading about little changes that make a big difference. The airline industry seems to be a great example.
This article talks about how American Airlines made some small changes to save a lot of fuel:
For instance, pilots were instructed to taxi around the airport with only one engine turned on, a measure that would save about $4 million a year…
And today I saw an article about how airlines are starting to fly slower to save fuel. JetBlue has been flying slower for two years (JetBlue adds an average of just under two minutes to each flight, and saves about $13.6 million a year in jet fuel). Southwest and Northwest are experimenting with it now:
Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes… On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.
It’s a good reminder that while big changes can have a big impact (like American Airlines grounding some of their Super 80 gas guzzlers), sometimes little tweaks (like flying slower) can have a big impact too. Always keep an eye out for the little things. There’s usually a lot of low hanging fruit.
Startups can bring new ideas to market. They can give people a chance to change the world on their own terms. They can create something where nothing existed before. There is no doubt that they are exciting things to be a part of.
But, as much as the tech world tries to treat them as special, we don’t believe startups are special. They aren’t born out of big bang moments where the laws that govern other businesses don’t apply.
From the moment they go live, startups are as real as any other business. They are governed by the same set of market forces and economic precepts that wrap around every other company, new or old.
At the atomic level, all businesses need to generate revenue to pay their bills, grow their business, and stay in business. The sooner they find themselves in the black, the better chance they’ll have to survive. Call it a business survival instinct — businesses have to feed themselves or they’ll die.
Suggesting startups — specifically tech startups — don’t need to look for revenue opportunities now is akin to spoiling a child and shielding them from the outside world: They’re far less prepared when they eventually have to leave the house for the first time.
A poorly run startup is a poorly run business. A wonderfully run startup is a wonderfully run business. I don’t believe there are many great startups that are bad businesses. Maybe less than 1%. If the business is bad the startup is bad. A great idea, maybe, but a great business, no.
So if you start something up, start a business, don’t start a startup.
Just a few weeks ago Chicago was still locked in the throes of one of the most brutal winters I can remember. It felt like it was a year long. Frigid temps, piles of snow, eternal grey skies. Dead lawns, dead trees, crispy bushes, no color in sight.
Then out of nowhere, spring bursts on the scene. Rapidly, brown turns to green. Life is everywhere now. Up high on the old oaks, down low on the solid ground; there’s color. Everything just wakes up.
