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F R O M T H E F O U N D E R
Hiring people who fit in and don’t cause problems is hardly the way to be innovative and really push your business forward. Cultural fit isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
E veryone talks about how “cultural fit” should be your goal when it comes to hiring anyone for your AEC firm. That sounds good on the surface and seems reasonable, right? We all want people who fit in and don’t cause problems. But maybe that’s a recipe for creating a firm full of conformists who don’t rock the boat. That’s hardly the way to be innovative and really push the business forward.
Mark Zweig
Here’s more of what I mean: As a business founder or owner, we need people who will challenge the status quo, don’t we? Cultural compatibility means everyone is aligned and buys in to how you do things. That doesn’t imply any urgency or desire for changing anything the business does that isn’t “broken,” or at least want the predominant thinking to be about what is working and what isn’t. But “good enough” is rarely the way to exceed client expectations. Constant change and evolution is the most likely path to long-term success versus being static. We need people who challenge the status quo – at least in some jobs in our companies, if not all. Cultural compatibility could be interpreted as the opposite of diversity. It is becoming a widely
accepted idea in business today that greater diversity leads to more creativity. People from different backgrounds and perspectives see things differently. But if you are trying for cultural compatibility, that implies homogeneity, doesn’t it? Find people who are all similar with similar backgrounds and ways of thinking? Is that best for your business? If you look at boards of directors for AEC firms, a lack of diversity is often apparent. My experience is more diversity – i.e., less cultural compatibility – is often needed, not more compatibility. As someone who teaches entrepreneurship – new venture development, specifically – I used to let
See MARK ZWEIG, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 27, 2021, ISSUE 1410
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