Culture Fit or Culture Add?
Great company culture is all about championing everyone’s perspectives – no matter how varied their experiences are. Founder of Riposte, Danielle Pender started her magazine to celebrate the unseen perspectives of women and to challenge the flat and stereotypical depictions of them that would show up on newsstands. It’s now branched out into more than just a magazine and online platform, with exhibitions, talks and debates and a thriving community of women who are here to speak candidly about their lives and stand up against power structures. We spoke to Danielle about the power of sharing stories, her new book Watching Women and Girls and the writers that shaped her voice.
We love a brand that gets its brand values down on paper. Because when we can clearly see what a brand's values are, it makes it easier for us to see how we might fit in and what we can add to the brand culture (whether that's as a team member or as a consumer). Cue: Good Pair Days. It’s a personalised wine subscription brand that doesn’t just state its values but shows them through its tone of voice and actions. Like how its recipe and food pairings cards that are slipped in with the wine bottles reflect its brand value of adventure and exploration. And how the fact that it uses accessible and playful language to talk about its wines rather than using dry jargon shows its value of being joyfully inclusive.
Write a list of hiring criteria for culture fit based on your company values. Then reassess the criteria and think about what could be some great qualities to look out for as a culture add.
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Read
Rebel Ideas: The Power of Thinking Differently – Matthew Syed
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups – Daniel Coyle
… or browse the Sonder & Tell team’s favourite books on Bookshop.org
Scroll
“Cultural Fit” Hasn't Been Working. What About “Culture-Add?” – Forbes
Culture fit is outdated. It’s time to think about culture add. – The Washington Post
Why 'Culture Fit' Is A Failed Idea In American Hiring – Huffington Post
Why is Cognitive Diversity important? How to promote it? – Scrum
Listen
Pursuing Cognitive Diversity with Matthew Syed – RSA
Why you Should be Hiring for Culture Add Instead of Culture Fit – Hire Potential with Indeed
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