What makes a company culture positive?

I've now experienced working for a variety of companies, ranging from small startups introducing new concepts to an industry, to very large global financial organizations creating sophisticated yet reliable software.

I've been a part of teams that succeeded under high stakes and stress while maintaining very high morale and, dare I say, had fun throughout the process. They truly embraced a team-first attitude and felt very welcoming. Conversely, I've also been part of a team where managers stormed out of meetings due to disagreements with product managers, publicly shamed developers for mistakes, and generally felt like a negative work environment.

Obviously, one of these cultures is better than the other. A positive company culture provides room for growth, makes each day a more enjoyable experience, allows for employees to care and take pride, and improves team performance and employee retention.

First, it's important to note that it is easy to have a positive company culture when everything is going smoothly. The challenge, therefore, lies in navigating difficult situations of facing errors, issues, bugs, missed deadlines, and disagreements.

There is one defining trait that I have found common to companies that created a positive company culture and it is:

A blameless culture. I gained this insight during my time as a contract developer with a premier asset management firm in South East Pennsylvania where I was part of a team that I believe had the best possible approach to handling mistakes and failures. The process was simple: don't blame individuals for mistakes, but rather take a deeper look into the process to determine how this type of issue was allowed to happen.

This company took a mature approach to look at the failure as an opportunity to improve. After all, what benefit was there to place blame on an individual? In taking the mature approach, the company grew, the processes became better, and the employee remained engaged. The alternative approach causes the employee to feel alienated and look to move on while the company to gained nothing.

It's not that this company did not take mistakes seriously, in fact, the opposite was true. If an error were to reach production, the company held a 'Build Court, where those involved would explain why the failure occurred and how similar issues would be prevented in the future. The goal wasn't to call out individuals for mistakes, but rather to recognize that there was an issue and to move forward in a way that prevented similar issues from reoccurring.

In finding too many bugs in production, perhaps the testing process is not robust enough. This could be due missing requirements, an entirely manual testing process, or perhaps not enough time has been allocated to writing tests.

In hiring the wrong candidate, perhaps a new challenge needs to be added in the interview process. Imagine hiring an employee only to find out, after they start, that they are not able to do what you require of them. Is it the fault of the new hire or did the interview process fail to weed out those who are not a good fit? Yes, you might say 'they lied about their skill set', but an interview process should determine if they do in fact possess the capability that they claim to possess.

In missing feature requirements on delivery, perhaps requirement definition does not adequately define all requirements. Requirement definition can be difficult especially when working for a startup that perhaps does not have all of the required roles to create those definitions. Rather than blame the developer, a company with a positive culture might look to an approach such as Behavior Driven Development.

You may find yourself in a scenario of the negative type. It is a difficult area to be in, especially if the job market leaves you with limited options. The best approach therefore, is to remain professional and always choose the high road. Be sure to always behave in a mature manner. But, if you're sure that the culture is indeed toxic, work on finding a new opportunity. It may take time but it is worth taking action to find a positive culture.

Some of us have a personality type that wants to fix a negative culture but, unless you're in a manager position of some kind, you're likely not going to have an impact.

If you found this insightful and would like to discuss, feel free to reach out me on LinkedIn.