Today, we're going to cover a subject that is difficult to figure out exactly how to cover because it's complex. And there are a ton of podcasts and books about this subject. There's a lot of sayings about this subject. And I want to cover this from the lens of an engineering organization, but also from a personal career lens. Today, I want to talk about culture. And more specifically, I want to give you a backdrop. To think about culture and the difference between culture and something like values. This podcast exists to help you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in your career. And one of the parts of purpose is likely connected to your values. Everybody has a slightly different way of thinking about developing a clear sense of purpose for themselves. But most people connect purpose to their values. And your work will be most sustainable, most fulfilling, if you can find some way to connect your work to your values as well. That doesn't mean necessarily that you're trying to save the world or that you're trying to make every single action you take a fulfillment of your values. That's a very hard thing to optimize. The extension of this is the idea of culture. It's not an extension on values, but rather values are kind of a carving out of culture. And I'll tell you what I mean by that. So if we think about values, essentially the meaningful values that we have, there are some values that are shared. Human beings tend to value oxygen. It's not a particularly useful value. To point out in any context that matters for this show. But what is another value that is not necessarily universally held? I value, for example, time with my children. Now, again, this is not incredibly unique, but it is a value that I have that the next person may not necessarily have. It is not a universal value. Another value or a value statement. At least might be I value public speaking. And usually if I have a report or if I'm coaching somebody through a discussion about their values and they say that they value public speaking, I might ask them to identify the underlying kind of common ground value that that represents. So public speaking may mean that you value your public image or the way that people perceive you. You value having authority. That would be a unique and defining value that not everyone necessarily shares with you. Some people value a sense of homeostasis more than they value a sense of progress. In other words, they would rather have, let's say, a job that feels stable and secure and doesn't have a lot of variation over a job that has a lot. More variation or a lot more risk even. But that risk is accompanied by a sense of progress. So this is kind of how values take shape. They are potentially unique aspects of things that we care about that we would act on that we actually can prove. Hey, you know what? I actually took action to show that I value this thing. It's not just an aspirational value, which might be more reflective of a value. That you care about what people think about you. But rather, it's something that you truly value. Value in the sense that you're willing to invest time, energy, resources, whatever, into that value or into realizing that value in your life. So what do I mean by carving out of culture? That values kind of carve out your culture. That's what we're going to talk about right after we talk about today's sponsor, Unblocked. Unblocked. You need help writing the code. But that's usually not the case. The biggest drag for most developers isn't writing code. It's having enough context to know what code to write. And in a perfect world, your engineering team wouldn't waste time. Days on end, even. Searching for the context to understand your application. But on average, most developers spend more than two hours a week trying to find information about how a code base works. That's why there's Unblocked. To give your engineering team the answers they need to get their jobs done at the speed they and you both want. Your code base is a compilation of thousands of past decisions and discussions that live across tools like GitHub, Slack, Jira, Confluence, and more. Unblocked surfaces this history next to your code. So everyone on your team has the context they need. And when someone has a question, Unblocked answers with the accuracy of your most experienced engineers. Get started today. At getunblocked.com. That's G-E-T unblocked dot com. I want you to imagine a patch of dirt. A patch of soil, hopefully. This patch of soil is maybe the future home of... Your next garden. And the soil is 20 or 30 feet by 30 feet. And you can walk around the whole thing. You can kind of see every part of it. And so you start to plan it out. And you identify what plants you care about planting. These, in a way, are your values. You are actively choosing... To... To... Make space for these. And they create parts of the culture of the garden. They are cultivated explicitly. But this is not the whole of the garden's culture. Cultivation happens before you ever plant your plants. Before you ever put flowers in the ground. Before you till up... The soil. Cultivation happens... Long before you arrived. And it will continue to happen after you leave. And so... Your impact on culture... Is dependent heavily... On how your values play out. And how you invest in those values. But... The most important thing to understand about culture... At least in this metaphor... Is that culture... Is what you... Allow. Imagine... You walk up to somebody else's garden. You recognize that... They have a handful of plants that they've planted... In sporadic locations. But many of them are dying... Being choked out by weeds. You might believe... By just looking at this... That those people don't value those plants at all. In fact, you might believe that they... They... They... They... They... They... They... Value... Weeds. That doesn't seem quite right. The truth is... Those people probably did value those plants. But they allowed... For the weeds. The culture of the garden... Became such that... The things they valued were choked out... By the things they allowed. This is the insight I want you to grab a hold of... And never let it go. Especially if you're in a position of... Leadership. The things you value... May be threatened... By your culture. The things you value... May be threatened by your culture. Like weeds that you allow... Into the garden. The plants... That you care about. Those values... That you've spent a lot of time cultivating... Perhaps. Those values... Begin to die out. So in this... Specific way... Values carve out culture. Because culture... Is not just what you do see... But also... What you don't see. The culture of... The garden... Is not just the plants... That you've planted... But all of the time that you've spent... Ensuring that nothing else... Can impede on those... Plants. An engineering team that says... That they value collaboration. They encourage... Everyone in the company... To comment on everyone else's PRs. They get together for... Annual off-sites. And they have quarterly meet-ups. But... That value of collaboration... Becomes challenged by... A culture... Of blame... And harsh criticism. Rather than... Say... Openness and learning. By allowing... Blame... And harsh criticism. We've allowed... Our value of... Collaboration... To be choked out. In your personal career... You may say that you value... Balance. And... You have a clear definition... Of what that balance means. But then... The next career opportunity comes along. And... It requires... You to give up a little bit of that balance. At what point... Does that begin to choke out... Your value? You're creating a... Mini-culture... For yourself. The things that you allow... To grow... Are your culture. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer Tea. I hope this is... At least prodding some good thought for you. I... Maybe you've encountered this... This... Sense of... Your culture being impeded on. Or your values being impeded on by... An out of control or unintentional culture. The things that you're allowing... Are... Are overpowering the things that you... Are investing in. If you enjoyed this or if you think... Someone on your team maybe... Maybe your manager... Could use to listen to this. I'd encourage you to listen... Send it to them. That is one way you can help... Developer Tea continue to reach more... Engineers and managers... And other senior leaders. And hopefully help... Move things in a positive direction. That was kind of the goal of this show. You know... When we began and hopefully... That is happening actively as this show spreads. So feel free to share this. If you are listening in a podcast provider... Please consider subscribing. This is another way you can help... Developer Tea continue growing because... You're much more likely to continue listening... If you subscribe. Finally... The most important thing that we can have... Is more reviews and ratings. Primarily in iTunes. Hopefully you know that this is incredibly helpful. If you haven't left a review... If you are getting some value out of this show... Then that is the only ask... That I really have for you. Is to leave a review and let others know... So they can find the show as well. Thanks so much for listening. Thank you again to today's... Sponsor Unblocked. This is our final episode with Unblocked. If you haven't checked it out... Now is the time to go check it out. Getunblocked.com Your developers already know how to write code. You are a developer. You know how to write code. Tell your boss that what you're actually missing... Is the context to know what code to write. Unblocked will give you that context. It gives engineering teams the answers they need... To get their jobs done... Without having to wait on or interrupt... Your other teammates. Get started for free at getunblocked.com That's G-E-T-U-N-B-L-O-C-K-T-D-O-T-C-O-M Thanks so much for listening. And until next time... Enjoy your tea. Unblocked.com