Your Company Culture is "Awesome" (But is company culture a lie?)

Slides presented at Ancient City Ruby 2015 http://www.ancientcityruby.com

*IMPORTANT* album of animated gifs found here http://imgur.com/a/NoYVE

Transcript

1. Your Company Culture
   is “Awesome”
   (But is company culture a lie?)
   Ancient City Ruby, 2015
   Pamela O. Vickers, @pwnela
   

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2. “Company Culture”
   

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3. “Company Culture”
   

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6. Acme Co. #1
   “useful, funny, cool”
   

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7. Acme Co. #2
   “unique”
   

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9. Acme Co. #3
   “best culture in town”
   

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10. Acme Co. #3 (cont.)
    “Call of Duty”
    

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11. The “best culture in town”
    sounds a lot like...
    

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12. Acme Co. #4
    “ping pong”
    

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13. Which reminds me...
    

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15. Acme Co. #5
    “wtf”
    

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17. Acme Co. #6
    “extended hours, as needed”
    

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18. Acme Co. #7
    “code quality, testing, peer reviews, collaboration"
    

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20. Acme Co. #8
    “happy developers”
    

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22. “great"
    

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23. “awesome"
    

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24. “best in town"
    

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25. “The Most Important
    Optimization: Happiness”
    by Ernie Miller
    

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26. PERMA
    Martin Seligman
    

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27. P
    positive emotion
    

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28. E
    engagement
    

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29. R
    relationships
    

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30. M
    meaning
    

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31. A
    achievement
    

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34. P
    positive emotion
    

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35. P
    positive emotion
    

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43. “How Perks Can
    Divide Us”
    by Melissa Santos & Rafe Colburn
    

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44. “How Perks Can
    Divide Us”
    by Melissa Santos & Rafe Colburn
    

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59. “You never change things by fighting
    the existing reality. To change
    something, build a new model that
    makes the existing model obsolete.”
    R. Buckminster Fuller
    

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60. P == ERMA
    

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64. E
    engagement
    

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65. M
    meaning
    

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66. A
    achievement
    

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67. E
    engagement
    

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74. M
    meaning
    

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75. M
    meaning
    

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76. M
    meaning
    

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78. A
    achievement
    

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79. A
    achievement
    

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81. “but”
    

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82. bad communication
    kills engagement
    

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83. bad/unavailable tools
    kills engagement
    

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84. impossible deadlines
    kills engagement, prevents achievement
    

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85. boring domain
    no meaning, kills engagement
    

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86. ambiguous ethical domain
    no (good) meaning,
    

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87. “no one is going to use this”
    no meaning, no engagement, no achievement
    

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90. “The life of a programmer
    is mostly a never-ending
    struggle.
    

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91. learning new things…
    

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92. …battling against our
    own ignorance.
    

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93. If you write code, you
    will struggle.
    

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94. …without getting (too)
    frustrated.”
    Aaron Hillegass
    

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95. …without getting (too)
    frustrated.”
    Aaron Hillegass
    

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104. Engagement Meaning Achievement
     challenging
     challenging
     interesting
     “Has a degree of
     complexity”
     “Is autonomous”
     inspirational
     innovative
     innovative
     practical
     community-building
     beneficial
     epic
     important
     finite
     finite
     short
     successful
     “clear relationship
     between work and
     reward”
     

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105. Engagement Meaning Achievement
     challenging
     challenging
     interesting
     “Has a degree of
     complexity”
     “Is autonomous”
     inspirational
     innovative
     innovative
     practical
     community-building
     beneficial
     epic
     important
     finite
     finite
     short
     successful
     “clear relationship
     between work and
     reward”
     

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106. E + M == A == (more)
     P
     

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107. (more letter math)
     

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108. A - (E + M)== ❌ ==
     

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109. (E + M) > ☕
     

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110. “but"
     

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114. Does the product owner respond
     to questions and/or requests in a
     reasonable time frame?
     

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115. Does the product owner
     respect the developing
     team members?
     

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116. Does the product owner
     appreciate and value the work
     done by the developing team?
     

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117. Does the product owner follow
     (within reason) the process
     outlined by the developing team?
     

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118. Is the product owner
     pleasant to work with in
     general?
     

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119. And do we, as the developers,
     have the resources needed to
     to move the project forward?
     

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120. And do we, as the developers,
     have the resources needed to
     to move the project forward?
     

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124. R
     relationships
     

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126. Things That Suck™
     

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127. Things That Suck™
     

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131. (via http://notquittingmydayjob.com)
     

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132. “fine”
     

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133. “but”
     

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134. “but”
     

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141. culture.pluralsight.com
     

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142. “…people are still going
     to hesitate to talk about
     the tough stuff.””
     Keith Sparkjoy
     

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143. The Five Whys
     

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144. The Five Whys
     

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146. “The car won’t start.”
     

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147. “The car won’t start.”
     “Why?”
     

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148. “The battery is dead.”
     

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149. “The battery is dead.”
     “Why?”
     

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150. “The alternator isn’t
     working.”
     

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151. “The alternator isn’t
     working.”
     “Why?”
     

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152. “The alternator belt
     wasn’t replaced.”
     

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153. “The alternator belt
     wasn’t replaced.”
     “Why?”
     

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154. “The car isn’t being
     maintained well.”
     

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155. “The car isn’t being
     maintained well.”
     “Oh.”
     

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156. culture.pluralsight.com
     

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157. culture.pluralsight.com
     

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159. “but”
     

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160. “but”
     

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162. Acme Co. #7
     “code quality, testing, peer reviews, collaboration"
     

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163. Acme Co. #7
     “We look for people who are really smart, really nice and
     who want to solve big problems…”
     

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164. Acme Co. #7
     “We look for people who are really smart, really nice and
     who want to solve big problems…”
     

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168. deliberate culture
     

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169. passive culture
     

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172. “awesome”
     

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173. Thank you,
     Ancient City Ruby!
     

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174. Pamela O. Vickers
     @pwnela
     

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