4 Types of Working Environments at Startups

Debate is critical to a startup.

Debates help us arrive at the truth.

But it’s not the only thing that matters for arriving at the truth.

This week I break down the 4 types of working environments that result from being debate-friendly or not, and another vector:

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The 4 Types of Working Environments

There are two main vectors that determine company culture:

Debate vs. politics
High vs. low trust

High Trust Debating

This is the optimal working environment.

Founders need to be comfortable with conflict, because conflict is required to solve problems quickly.

You are not going to agree with those around you on everything, far from it.

A team that openly debates issues and decisions frequently

Granted, there’s a goldilocks zone, too much debate will actually slow you down, but a lack of debate will lead to poor decisions.

That’s why you also need high levels of trust among each other.

The most famous example of a high trust debating culture is Amazon’s “disagree and commit” value. They are willing to initiate debate and see it through without compromise.

The full value, from Amazon’s Leadership Principles, is:

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit

Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.

Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion.

Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

They are able to do this because Amazon’s leaders don’t take disagreements personally. They trust that the other person is searching for the truth.

Low Trust Debating

This is where you start to get into trouble.

If you encourage debate on a team that does not trust each other, the quality of the debates will drop (to put it nicely).

This is when people begin to take things personally, get aggressive with one another, and/or end up leaving the company.

Having trust is a prerequisite for a debate-friendly culture.

If you’re in this quadrant, the only way to solve it is by firmly encouraging open conversations among the team.

It will be painful and you will likely lose people. You may need to fire some.

But this type of culture runs the risk of becoming toxic and sucking the joy of building from everyone.

Work becomes a chore when you question each other’s intentions and have to confront them frequently.

High Trust Political

On the other hand, a culture that does not prioritize debate but is filled with people who trust each other is like the Titanic.

Everything seems fine but at some point you’re going to run into an iceberg.

The more political a team is, it usually means one of four (solvable) things:

You’ve missed some big insight about your market → Attempt to accelerate growth. You’ll uncover what you’re missing.
The ways of working are too restrictive → Learn how and make changes
The people on the team don’t care enough → Learn why. If possible, make changes. If not, fire.
The people on the team are afraid of debate → Learn if it can change. If not, consider firing (there may be other reasons to keep someone).

If your team trusts each other, these issues normally seem very minor or (worse) are not acknowledged or noticed until, one day, they suddenly matter a lot.

Why would a company become political if it has high trust though?

Usually it’s either #2 (restrictive processes) or #4 (personality traits) from the list above.

Low Trust Political

This is the danger zone.

Most startups become more likely to continue succeeding the longer they stay alive for, but if you’re in this quadrant then the opposite is actually true.

You may be surviving, but your boiler is getting more highly pressurized all the time.

Your team doesn’t trust you or each other, you may not trust your co-founder(s), and in order to get things done you have to play the political game rather than discussing things openly… yuck.

It’s critical to take care of this as early as possible. Political processes and ways of working become deeply entrenched as your company grows.

It will be much harder to do this later.

Remember, as your headcount grows linearly, the amount of relationships grows exponentially.