the unexpected inclusive power of an exclusive culture
generated with Midjourney. prompt: crispy fried eggs with frizzled shallots, shallow depth of field, food photography, blink and you miss it detail, sony ah7
Fry your culture until it has crispy edges.
Clarity about
a) what we’re here to do,
b) what constitutes excellence in pursuit of that, and
c) what is unacceptable
— that is a gift to your people. It’s also a gift to those who are not your people - it saves those ones and you a bunch of time and heartache.
Narrow and clear definition of the contents of those narrow categories is an exclusive move. It will screen some folks out. However, this is not a pre-emptive, discriminatory screening. It’s an open invitation to a specific kind of party. Some folks won’t want to attend this kind of party; this is not their idea of a good time. So they opt out. They decline the invitation.
Critically, the narrow and clear definition of that small number of things, the short list of what one must embrace to be here, leaves open all other dimensions of identity. In this approach, “what excellence looks like around here” doesn’t have a set skin tone, sexual orientation, gender identity, or country of origin. It might not have a degree requirement.
This openness to all the other dimensions of identity is the inclusive part.
The crispy cultural definition shouldn’t screen out whole classes of people a priori. It should screen out the particular people who don’t want to embrace the particular kind of challenge this particular kind of party requires and celebrates, regardless of their other identity markers.
There are earnest efforts made in the name of equity to skip or prohibit this upfront crispiness. In these places, our organizational culture is supposed to be an admirable food - a melting pot or salad bowl or buffet of all that is out beyond our doors, held together with the loose bonding agent of good intentions.
The wholesome intent here can lead to big problems.
When you fail to define and convey what it is your team is up to and what membership requires, your fritters fall apart when they hit the fry oil. You have a mess instead of a meal. Folks can reasonably assume or worry that choices you say are made for the good of the team and mission are actually made on some other basis - almost everyone has been bullied or silenced or ignored in some way at some point; imposter syndrome is rampant; the history (and present) of identity-based wrongdoing is thick. Second-guessers ain’t crazy.
Maintaining the contents of those few categories takes diligence. It takes updating and emotional intelligence and honesty (and data). You can’t simply set it and forget it.
When it goes well, I’ve found the social and practical layers of your culture get joyfully weirder over time. The team grows. People bring their goofy, idiosyncratic, beautiful identities to bear on the small shared body of Stuff We’ve All Opted Into Because We Believe It Lets Us Achieve Something That Matters. This happens in ways you can’t predict or design.
I’m not sure if it’s a paradox or just the way things work. But crisp and clear - exclusive - mission and values, announced ahead of any employment with a judgment-free opportunity to opt out, open your invitation to so many more people than the alternative. The ones who sign on can not just tolerate the party and go home when it’s over - you’ve opened the possibility that they can have the time of their lives.
A coda on a bigger reason for writing any of this stuff at all
The preaching here comes from a belief that the work happening among Diverse Groups of People Doing Things That Matter is precious. It is treasure - all too rare, exceptionally valuable, beautiful to behold.
That kind of work is a vote for human possibility today - not in some invisible utopian future. We the people - us, the rookies, works in progress, and ne’erdowells right here - we can do remarkable human stuff: cooperate, delay gratification, solve really really hard problems (even ones we created in the first place), learn across historic lines of difference, meet the needs of people we’ll never see or know. Feed ourselves with work that matters to us, with work that is contributory and compounding, not extractive.
All the precious stuff described above doesn’t just happen.
Our surrounding culture is not built for Diverse Groups of People to Do Something That Matters. X/Twitter discourse is not built for that; nor are Insta stories.
Mobilizing a Diverse Group of People to Do Something That Matters takes a different set of tools than those the big institutions and The National Conversation offer up. It requires behavior that is awkward and even stressful. Folks in the Diverse Group have to commit to developing useful habits together and practicing forms of honesty that we skirt in most other situations. None of that is “natural” in the sense that it will just happen if you get the people employed by the same legal entity.
Leaders have to design cultures that yield it, then enroll wonderful people of all stripes to tend to and enhance those cultures.
-Eric
