Sunday, January 24, 2010

A weird lesson

The New York Times ran an interview last week with Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com in which he talked about the importance of corporate culture. Zappos is one of the most admired businesses in the nation, and one of the reasons is the culture it has created.

Hsieh had previously founded another dot.com company, but he came to dread going in each morning because as it grew he started hiring his employees based on skills and experience, ignoring the importance of chemistry and culture. Eventually, the company evolved into the exact kind of place he didn’t want it to be. So he sold the company and started anew with the decision to learn from his mistake. Now, corporate culture is Zappos' top hiring policy. The compay actually interviews employees twice—once for skill sets and once for cultural fit.

What struck me as interesting is that they actually ask potential employees how weird they think they are on a scale of 1-10. “It’s not so much the number; it’s more seeing how candidates react to a question,” Hsieh said. “Because our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird somehow, so it’s really more just a fun way of saying that we really recognize and celebrate each person’s individuality, and we want their true personalities to shine in the workplace environment, whether it’s with co-workers or when talking with customers.”

I like that. And it made me wonder what my answer would be.

If you asked my kids, they’d probably rank me as an 11. I’m sure part of that is simply because I’m an adult, and all adults are weird to them. But also because I like to have a little fun with them. When they were little they once asked me what my favorite holiday was. I told them Flag Day. It was a joke, but now every June we have to break out the flag-covered tablecloth and stars-and-stripes paper plates and have a picnic to celebrate Flag Day.

They also asked me what my favorite color was, and I told them plaid. They believed me, and one year when they were shopping for my birthday, they came across the ugliest plaid shirt ever made and insisted they buy it because it was my favorite color. Beth tried to explain that she thought I was kidding when I said that, but to no avail. When they got home, I got a stern warning from my wife: “You better be excited when you open your present because it’s all of your own doing. And you have to wear it at least once.”

Fortunately, the store only had the ugliest plaid shirt you’ve ever seen in an extra large, so I had to take it back and exchange it for something a little more subdued. (Why they didn’t have any in other sizes still puzzles me to this day. Did people buy all of the other ones? Why? Or did they only make one because they knew it was so ugly no one would ever buy it?)

I’m not sure where I’d rank myself, but as Hsieh said, the number really doesn’t matter; it’s the reaction. And it’s the result. Hsieh is absolutely correct in his emphasis on culture. It seems to me that we all work too long and too hard to be stuck in a place that’s not fun. That's a good lesson, weird as it may sound.