Why Positive Company Culture Matters
Swimming with sharks
Early in my college career, one of my professors told me that I was not a graphic designer. I never asked her what she meant. I should have. Was I not talented in that medium? I did want to be a photographer, so she wasn’t wrong. However, graphic design was the only artistic profession my father would support. And, at that time, I didn’t argue with him.
When I landed my first big corporate job, I was stoked to be there. I also felt like I was swimming with sharks, super unsafe, and freaked out all the time. The juxtaposition made my head spin. The woman I worked under, one of the sweetest humans I knew, was in a special form of hell. Her boss was determined to get her fired. Every day brought some terrifying scenario she had to navigate to justify her place, and it was slowly driving her crazy. She was able to get me into another department before her boss succeeded.
I remembered my professor's sentiment, and it registered. Maybe I wasn’t a graphic designer. I didn’t like witnessing creative directors making insanely talented designers sob for no good reason. I didn’t like hearing people boast about how late they worked the night before, how early they started their day, and how they never took lunch. I remember people talking to me in horribly abusive ways, and when I said, “you're hurting my feelings,” I was dismissed, never spoken to again.
My favorite horror story happened walking into an empty meeting room, a few minutes early, with my project manager and senior design lead, a woman I modeled myself after–her every move, how she spoke, how she thought, how she conducted herself in and out of meetings. As she crossed the threshold she took a stack of papers and books that she was carrying and threw them with every ounce of strength she had, screaming at the top of her lungs. Paper drifted down slowly. Books thudded and slammed. I was stunned. Was she okay? She was fine. She was thriving. I didn’t want to thrive this way, to hone these skills. I had to get the fuck out.
Unlearning bad behavior
I didn’t know that unlearning this cultural behavior would take so long and be so challenging. I didn’t know that I would start a design agency. I didn’t know that I’d have to work through all my challenges as a human being before I had what I wanted to offer a team. All I knew was that there HAD to be a better way.
I used to describe myself as a bulldog–when I was afraid or had to do something difficult–my fear would cause me to bristle and get scary. I scared myself. It’s what I knew to do–it’s what I was taught, and I wanted it to change. I found people who handled conflict with grace. I learned to ask for better words and read them so I could feel that shift in my mind and body. I learned to let other people take the lead when I didn’t have it to give.
I worked towards it every day. And after two years of “doing HUB,” I realized this was a business. And it was when one of my favorite client mottos, “be on the offense always,” fully integrated into my person that I learned to sniff out and lean into challenging situations. I made a million mistakes. I know I hurt people. When I was hurting, I learned to read my smoke signals, slow down and take a look at myself. I asked for help. A LOT OF HELP. I worked on all fronts to do it differently and do it better.
When your world falls apart- everything changes
Then my entire world fell apart with my divorce, and I had no bulldog fight left. I was stopped in my tracks, split wide open. I had to stop. I didn’t know what to do. I was in a strange place, alone, surrounded by people. I didn’t have answers. I had no ground. When challenges presented themselves in this strange void, a new tool presented itself: curiosity. Where were the challenges coming from? Where did we go from here? What was the best course of action? I didn’t have the answers, and I didn’t need to pretend I did. Before my divorce, it would have been too scary not to have all the answers. With curiosity, I softened. I was able to stay connected and reconnect faster. I could read the energy better because my fear wasn’t clouding my vision. When fear showed up, I stopped, identified it, named my part, processed it with my support, and did my best to be the person I wanted to be.
Building a positive company culture that supports the whole human starts with vulnerability and honesty. This has been my focus in my life and by proxy at HUB, and it takes constant effort. Naming the hard things, having the uncomfortable conversations, listening to difficult feedback, admitting when I don’t know, following a gut instinct, challenging the status quo–it’s worth every ounce of effort.
I am always hesitant to listen to someone pontificate about the culture “they” created. I think that it’s bullshit that “I” created anything. The culture created at HUB is done by all of us. Our newest team member really wants this information to get out into the world. And to be honest, my mind is a little blown that there are those on the team who care to share their take on this subject. All that is to say stay tuned for upcoming posts about their reflection on our culture and what drew them to HUB.
