An accidental question that highlighted team culture

I was able to get feedback on the team culture through a question someone else asked.

Every Monday morning we have a meeting for all the tech team. During that meeting we ask a “question of the day”. A designated victim person chooses a question that each team member gets to answer. A recent question that was asked (not by me) was:

What do you like about our company that is different from other places you have worked?

The answers were varied but they all highlighted different aspects of the culture and team we have worked to build. The answers included:

• Culture - the culture here is very different and I enjoy working here
• Team - I have not worked with a team like this before, in a good way
• Trust - we trust each other. We know things will be done right
• Challenges - I love the challenges as I can learn and improve
• Loose hierarchy - the hierarchy is not rigid and there is a “soft respect”
• Voice gets heard - what we say is heard at all levels
• Legacy - the way we work has been passed on by others and we build on that
• Kindness - people are kind and looking out for each other
• Good code base - the code that we have is really good
• No jerks - this creates less stress and leads to being “healthily challenged” (a challenge is positive)
• Use case has a purpose - what we are building has a purpose and can have an impact
• “Bad ass” team and code base - we believe we can solve anything with enough time and resources
• Grown ups - I don’t need to shout at people to tell them to act like adults

This was not written to gloat or to say we have everything right (they were only asked what is different), however it was great to hear that at least we are doing a little bit right.