A written culture is an investment worth making

I often ask myself how our current structure, systems and culture affects our ability to handle the loss of existing or the integration of new team members.

One key which I’ve talked about recently is a written culture. I’ve been influenced and inspired by people like Patrick McKensie (@patio11) from Stripe and Jason Fried (@jasonfried) from Basecamp. If you’re on Twitter they are worth a follow.

Patrick says that a written culture obviously helps remote and globally distributed teams, but it also makes sure that people execute on decisions made even if they were not yet hired when the decision was made. In his own words:

“I feel like we should start any meeting of importance with ‘Look around the room. Think of what the room is going to look like in twelve months. Half of those faces are not yet here with us. The notes *are for them*; let's make sure they are good.’”

Of course, Jason replied on Twitter with his own gem:

“And btw ‘chat’ isn’t writing. Asking someone to read back over years of transcripts is madness. Long form, clearly titled, obviously organized writing is ‘writing.’”

It may take months or even years to pay off. But I’m working on this in my own teams because a written culture is a strategic advantage that is scarce, valuable, and hard to imitate.