We Are Family

The traditional way of running a company has been documented by people from Harvard Business School and many other reputable institutions. If you do it differently you are considered to be in uncharted territory. I've started to notice that the new approaches companies like GitHub are taking to running a business are influenced a lot from the way families and family businesses are run.

Becoming close with your coworkers and treating them like family helps foster innovation and creates an amazing culture where a variety of people can feel comfortable and enjoy themselves. Family members are honest with each other. Sometimes when someone critics you it can hurt, but when you know that it is backed with great respect and love you use it to help you become better.

Having a great idea, creating useful products, and writing stellar code can be done by smart people. The difficult part is figuring out how to get tons of smart people to work well together. The social aspect is hard, but when you build a culture based off of values that are important to a family you'll see the amazing things that can be done.

Transcript

1. we are family
4. Intel labs walmart labs wells fargo labs microsoft research
5. ?
7. Warburtons
8. Beretta
9. "He taught me not just technical things, but he also explained to me that if a family takes care of its workers, the workers will take care of the family." --franco Beretta
11. People core values enjoy what you work on
12. @danishkhan
15. people
26. problems
27. Find your way
28. mentoring
29. feedback
30. core values
31. "Culture is emotional. It is based on trust and even (platonic) love between people. It is hard to describe culture rationally or in the same easily measurable terms the business world operates on…” -Scott Berkun
32. desire
33. Cabals
34. location
35. time
36. ask for forgiveness
37. first principles
38. Work on what you enjoy and what matters
39. steam
40. Hubot
41. boxen
42. pages
43. render
44. People core values enjoy what you work on
45. The End