Presentation: Cargo "Cult"ure: Imitation can be Suicide

Location:

Duration

Duration: 
1:40pm - 2:30pm

Day of week:

Key Takeaways

  • Understand achieving a culture that other people want to emulate is almost a by-product of other things that a company does right. Simply copying the by-product won’t get you the results you’re after. 
  • Hear patterns and anti-patterns from an industry practioner who has has faced the challenges of building a culture that other people admire.
  • Learn that while building a strong culture requires hard work and involvement of the entire organisation, even individuals can influence its success.

Abstract

Glen is here to warn you: Changing culture is not just adding beanbags, a games room, a snack cupboard and hack days! Everyone wants to build a great company culture, its the latest industry 'thing', its considered the biggest drawcard to attract and maintain talent, but have you really thought about what changing culture will really be like, in the real world?

In this talk Glen warns how Cargo Cults (imitation without understanding) are not only a danger in many facets of our industry but can also be incredibly destructive when applied to changing how your own company culture works.

Drawing on his 20 years on the tech and management side of the industry in just about every culture (ranging from public service through corporate, research and various successful and unsuccessful start-ups), he will use real life stories, observations and lessons learned (the hard way) to highlight the dangers and pitfalls of attempting to imitate others and give you food for thought on building your own.

Interview

Question: 
Your title is "Cargo 'Cult'ure: Imitation can be Suicide," can you explain why you chose that name?
Answer: 
I feel that Cargo Culting (that is blind imitation) of “Culture” is a real problem in our industry and that ultimately it kills or at least badly damages the organisations that do it. I’ve tried to capture that in a soundbite for the title.
Question: 
What’s the motivation for your talk?
Answer: 
The talk is born out of frustration, as I see it the industry approaching culture with a lazy attitude looking for cheap and easy ways to capitalise on what they see as the benefits without any of the vital ground work. Culture can be your organisations greatest asset, but duplication of surface appearance don’t make for a strong culture.
Question: 
What’s the right way to discover your culture?
Answer: 
I don’t think there is any single ‘right’ way to discover culture. However my talk covers the idea that a culture is in the most part a reflection of values, rather than trying to tinker with culture you should work on discovering your values first.

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Conference for Professional Software Developers