We’re working right now on a values and culture setting exercise where we are figuring out intentionally what we like about our culture and what we want to specifically keep. I appreciate Dominika’s comment but I want to add a bit more of what is coming out of this (though it isn’t finished yet).
Four things I think are important about our culture that I like and try to intentionally cultivate:
Work-life balance and sustainability in our work. Lots of our problems are important and very pressing and it is easy to burn yourself out working hard on it. We have deliberately tried to design our culture for sustainability. Sure, you might get some more hours of work this year if you work harder but it isn’t worth burning out just a few years later. We want our researchers here for the long haul. We’re invested in their long-term productivity.
Rigor and calibration. It’s very easy to do research poorly and unfortunately easy to do bad research that misleads people because it is hard to see how the research is bad. Thus a lot of work must be done by our researchers to ensure that our work is accurate and useful.
Ownership. In a lot of organizations, managers want their employees to do exactly what they are told and follow processes to the letter. At Rethink Priorities, we think the ideal employee instead seeks to understand the motivation behind the assignment and how it fits into our goals and notices if there is a better way to achieve the same goals or even if the project shouldn’t be done.
Working on the right things. There are a lot of problems that we need to solve, so we must prioritize them. Selecting the right research question can often be more impactful than answering it.
We’ll have something more finished at a later date!
Your work-life balance and ownership points remind me of the culture at Valve!
Here are some notes I took on their culture if you’d be interested in ideas to implement. The points highlighted in orange are the actionables to implement :-)
We’re working right now on a values and culture setting exercise where we are figuring out intentionally what we like about our culture and what we want to specifically keep. I appreciate Dominika’s comment but I want to add a bit more of what is coming out of this (though it isn’t finished yet).
Four things I think are important about our culture that I like and try to intentionally cultivate:
Work-life balance and sustainability in our work. Lots of our problems are important and very pressing and it is easy to burn yourself out working hard on it. We have deliberately tried to design our culture for sustainability. Sure, you might get some more hours of work this year if you work harder but it isn’t worth burning out just a few years later. We want our researchers here for the long haul. We’re invested in their long-term productivity.
Rigor and calibration. It’s very easy to do research poorly and unfortunately easy to do bad research that misleads people because it is hard to see how the research is bad. Thus a lot of work must be done by our researchers to ensure that our work is accurate and useful.
Ownership. In a lot of organizations, managers want their employees to do exactly what they are told and follow processes to the letter. At Rethink Priorities, we think the ideal employee instead seeks to understand the motivation behind the assignment and how it fits into our goals and notices if there is a better way to achieve the same goals or even if the project shouldn’t be done.
Working on the right things. There are a lot of problems that we need to solve, so we must prioritize them. Selecting the right research question can often be more impactful than answering it.
We’ll have something more finished at a later date!
Your work-life balance and ownership points remind me of the culture at Valve!
Here are some notes I took on their culture if you’d be interested in ideas to implement. The points highlighted in orange are the actionables to implement :-)