Values, Culture, and Hass Avocados

Correction: This post has nothing to do with Hass avocados (though I ate one while writing this).

I’m rebooting my blog. I know - the world was better off without it. But there are few things I hold precious and Earth isn’t one of them (e.g. Everyday I drive my gas guzzler one block to pick up my coffee brewed with rainforest water, served in a Styrofoam cup, with a plastic lid, and 80 plastic straws - one for each sip). Boost my ego. Read my post. Let’s do it.

I’ve worked at Meta for 13 years, and have been running the US Financial Services advertising team for 8 of those years. While the team existed prior to me taking over, after 8 years, it feels like I’ve built this ~50 person team from the ground up. We’ve had successes and failures, and despite my bad judgement (according to my wife), the successes have managed to outnumber the failures. There’s a lot that goes into delivering good outcomes, but building a good culture is foundational. Culture is made up of values, and good values builds good, durable culture.

Looking back over the years, below are some of the values that the team has embodied to create a culture that has bred success while also having fun along the way.

• Work is Serious: Of course we want to have fun. Enjoying work and having fun comes from knowing you’re working with 1) high-caliber people, 2) on worthwhile problems, and 3) selling solutions that work. The common refrain when things get too intense is “we’re not saving lives”. Sure. But our ad solutions are helping to build the next generation economy. We give our clients tools and distribution channels to create products and services that can appeal to niche audiences. It’s important work, and we take that seriously.

• Details Matter: Details aren’t above anyone on the team (except when I play fantasy football - I’ve won 8 years in a row; just trust me, it’s true). Understanding the details is a way of building empathy for those that use our products, dashboards, and solutions.

• We Build: It may seem strange to call upon sales people to build. While strategy is important, execution is what leads to a win. When we don’t have an answer, we build. Whether it’s new solutions, go-to-market materials or thought leadership, building is how you generate value. It’s what keeps the work we do plus sum and not zero sum.

• Client Goals are our Goals: We take our clients’ goals seriously. Progress is never made unless our clients succeed. We are at the service of our clients and the industry, which sometimes means shelving short term wins to drive long term value. We build close, trusted relationships, and this is part of our competitive moat.

• Big is Not Big Enough: When we work with clients or solve industry problems, we go deep. The types of relationships we build and problems we solve take time and require rigor. That means we need to work on opportunities that yield exceptional leverage on our time and efforts. We only work on massive, ginormous opportunities. As an aside, I just discovered ginormous is an actual word.

• Stay Small: The larger the team the more organizational overhead is introduced. While sitting in dozens of alignment meetings is obvi a lot of fun, I’ve found a few exceptional and passionate people against a problem will always beat out a larger group that has those same exceptional people in it.

• Focus on Value: Everything we do drives bottom line value. This can take the shape of revenue or a second order metric tied directly to revenue. This means it’s not enough to build the “best practices” deck. It needs to explicitly drive results.

• Dispassionate to the Truth: We obsess over understanding and delivering reality. This means approaching our environment with curiosity and not fear. It means dispassionately reviewing data to better understand how we operate. It means transparent leadership, because we can handle the facts and take nuance. It means taking feedback as an opportunity to improve. My team does this every day when they tell me I’m not funny. Though, admittedly, I haven’t found a way to improve it.

• Your Win is My Win: We play plus sum games, not zero sum. A teammate’s success is one we all celebrate and share. We root for our colleagues because when they accomplish something, it’s a win for all of us. Similarly, when someone accomplishes something, they did not do it on their own. As Newton said, each of our successes “stand on the shoulder of giants”. In other words, don’t be a jerk - share the love.

I revisit these values often and anticipate revising them as times change and I learn more. If you’ve gotten this far, I’ll take some comfort knowing the planet is in just a little worse shape than it was 5 minutes ago.