Operations Anti-Patterns, DevOps Solutions

11 Culture by decree

This chapter covers

• Understanding the components of any culture
• Exploring how culture influences behaviors
• Creating new cultural behaviors to drive change
• Hiring talent that matches your culture
• Structuring interviews

The culture by decree antipattern happens when an organization’s culture is defined by a verbose statement or plaque that hangs in the main lobby but doesn’t exist, in any tangible sort of way, within the organization itself. A culture must be fostered, grown, and be demonstrable in action, not just in rhetoric.

There’s a single question that gets asked in almost every interview: “What’s the company culture like?” The prominence of this question hints at the importance and the weight that company culture ...